"C. L. R. James thought of county cricketers as welfare staters. What he meant by that was an acknowledgement that they were paid, often a pittance, but were allowed to fade away gently in their own time, picking up a benefit along the way, before taking up a cushy job coaching the second XI in retirement.
For many years that was how it was. Not any more, as Matthew Hoggard found out this week when he was, to use his own term, effectively sacked by Yorkshire, to whom he said he had been exceptionally loyal.
It was newsworthy precisely because of its rarity value. Who was the previous England cricketer to be released by his county before he felt he had served out his time?
Player power has grown in recent years. The ability to move counties more easily, the increased role of agents, central contracts and more opportunities to exploit commercial realities mean that players have become acutely aware of their own worth. Hoggard knew that when he made demands about the length of a possible new contract and its value. Players representatives negotiate in a manner that was previously unimaginable.
Hoggards sacking was a statement from the counties that this more brutal, more cut-throat, some might say properly professional arrangement cuts both ways. A sportsmans bargaining power results only from his ability to perform and, unlike other professions, it wanes rather sooner and rather more quickly than you would like.
The welfare-state mentality no longer exists. Players are unwilling any more to be paid a pittance and, as Yorkshire showed this week, counties will become less willing to accommodate ageing, and costly, cricketers at the first sign of decline. James would hardly have recognised it."
I always look forward to what the diffident public school educated disgraced former captain of England's most unsuccessful national side has to say about the internal machinations of Yorkshire County Cricket Club...
A thoughtful piece. The more I read Mike Atherton's columns, the more I think he has a good perspective on cricket. I wonder if Mr. Regan and the committee will read this?