World Cricket: Broad on Broad

 

29/10

Chris Broad interview: Stuart threatened legal action when I fined him for swearing

England’s Ashes hero of ’86-87 discusses punishing own son, getting caught up in a terrorist attack and his wife’s assisted suicide

Nick Hoult

Chris Broad pauses, puts down his spoon and laughs. He pushes back his plate of white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake, shakes his head and reminisces about the time when he had to fine his own son, Stuart, for swearing at a batsman.

It was the Covid summer of 2020. England were playing Pakistan at a deserted Old Trafford and because of the pandemic there were no neutral officials available, so Chris was drafted in as match referee, a role he has only recently relinquished with some reluctance after 20 years on the circuit. More about that later.

Amid the global pandemic shutdown, the International Cricket Council was in the middle of a crackdown on bad language. Broad, Stuart that is – and it is worth clarifying given Chris’s run-ins with authority when he was a player – was caught on the stump mic cursing at Pakistan tail-ender Yasir Shah, giving him a send-off when he dismissed him on the final morning of the first Test.

Chris convened a hearing after play for what he thought would be a regulation, open-and-shut case, but if he thought Stuart would play the dutiful son, he was in for a surprise.

“We played him the recording,” recalls Chris. “He was hook, line and sinker. No question. But Stuart was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m gonna get my lawyers involved. This is ridiculous’. I said, ‘Come on, stop it. Just sign the slip, it’s just 15 per cent of your match fee’. ‘No, no, I’m not gonna do it. No, no’. He felt because it was me I could change it because I was his father, rather than his referee. But no. Eventually he accepted it but bless him, he still goes on about it. He will get over it … eventually.”

We have met, ostensibly, to discuss the 1986-87 Ashes tour, England’s triumphant 2-1 series win and the role Broad snr played, scoring three hundreds in a row, a feat only matched in Australia by Sir Jack Hobbs and Wally Hammond. He also made a century two years later in the Bicentennial Test in Sydney and his average in Australia of 78.25, with four hundreds in 10 innings, is higher than any other England batsman in history.

But Broad’s life in cricket, as well as off the field, has encompassed more than just one glorious series. There is his relationship with Stuart which threads through most of this interview, his opinion that match referees have been emasculated by an ICC beholden to India, and the lingering mental effects of being shot at by terrorists. Even the assisted dying debate comes up, Broad supporting the bill currently going through Parliament, his view shaped by his second wife’s suicide in 2010 after her motor neurone disease diagnosis. It prompted him to set up the Broad Appeal, which has raised more than £1m for MND research.

“Why would you go through your whole life making decisions that suit you and your family and then when it comes to a critical time in your life, where you no longer will be able to make those decisions in the future, why would you not want to make that [assisted dying] decision?” Chris asks. “I’ve seen some very courageous people in my life doing sport, but without doubt, the most courageous person I know, I used to know, was my wife [Michelle, known as Miche], who made the decision to take her own life.

“Pretty much from the beginning, she didn’t want to be ‘a blob’, as she called it, and she found a chemist who was prepared to help her, give her some medication. A lot of people say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’d be exactly the same’. But actually, following through on that is the most difficult thing. And she followed through on it. I mean, how do you know that tomorrow there is not going to be a cure? You don’t. But as it is, tomorrow never came for her. To have carried that out, as I say, I’m just in awe, really.”

We fall silent for a moment, the waitress interrupts to check on the food. Broad, now aged 68, looks at least 10 years younger. Posing for the photographer in the conservatory of the Tap and Run in Melton Mowbray, part-owned by Stuart, and illuminated by an autumnal sun streaming through the full-length windows, he stands as upright as he did at the crease for his 487 runs in the 1986-87 series.

He rates his first hundred at the Waca as his best of the series. He compiled his highest Test score, 162, the cornerstone of the last time England avoided defeat in Perth. An innings of 116 followed in Adelaide and 112 in Melbourne as England secured the Ashes.

“At the end of the tour, I recall the feeling of almost conquering Australia if you like, because the abuse and the chat tailed off,” he says. “It was just, ‘well, their team’s a really good team and they beat us fair and square and we should appreciate the cricket that they’ve played’.”

Broad earned the respect. “I don’t recall there being as much animosity towards me as there was towards Stuart throughout his career and I remember as the tour went on, and I was able to score a few runs, there were suddenly lots of British people who were very supportive. Don’t forget we also had Beefy [Ian Botham], who might bop someone if they had a go at you.

“I remember once Greg Ritchie came in from mid-on after Merv Hughes bowled me a bouncer and sat me on my a---. Ritchie came in with some verbals and I was told after the match that Allan Border gave Ritchie a b-----king for winding me up because I got another 100. He said clearly this does not work on me so forget it. I have no idea whether that’s true or not, but it’s a nice little story.”

Because it would take until 2010-11 for England to repeat that win in Australia, stories of Broad’s tour became taller and taller. Famously written off before the series started when the team partied hard and a foggy-headed Botham walked out to bat in a State game without his bat, England dominated once the Test series began.

The team became cool guys to hang out with. Elton John, Phil Collins and George Michael latched on to the party. But Broad was a junior player on his first tour and not in the same circle as the bon vivants, Botham, Allan Lamb and David Gower.

“I was a very simple cricketer, really,” he suggests. “I just loved playing. I didn’t think I was a special cricketer. I was OK at the job that I was supposed to do: seeing off a new ball. It was a simple job that I was given: stay out in the middle for as long as possible and do your job. That’s how I viewed it. So when I got off the field I wasn’t someone who enjoyed a massive drink, and I was playing for England for goodness sake, this was the pinnacle of my career.

“You have to be as good as you can possibly be, each and every day, when you play for England. So I knew that alcohol would have an adverse effect on the way that I played, so I never really got very p----d prior to a day’s cricket because I knew I wouldn’t be able to perform.”

This is where Stuart makes his first appearance, even as a babe in arms. On Christmas Day 1986, Noel Edmonds presented his breakfast television show from the top of the BT Tower in London, connecting families with relatives across the world, a small miracle in the days before instant messaging shrank the distance between us. The BBC landed on the publicity stunt of hooking up the England team with their families, the night before the Boxing Day Test.

“That was a strange one,” Chris says. “I think it was midnight or close to midnight in Melbourne and they were in London and had been in the studio for some considerable time, waiting to be featured. Carole [Stuart’s mother] was there with baby Stuart in her arms, and she’s been desperate to keep him awake for as long as possible, but it just dragged on and on and on and so when I eventually came on camera he was asleep.”

So Ashes cricket was in Stuart’s blood. “He’ll tell you that I forced him to watch the videos of that tour every night, every day, but I didn’t. But he grew up around Trent Bridge, coming to the games where he’d be playing around the boundary’s edge during the day and then come up for a shower in the changing rooms at the end of the day. Never did I have a thought of his safety or security, because the stewards would be around, they’d look after him and he knew his way around as well and he would just wander into the members’ area or just come straight up the stairs to the change rooms. It was brilliant.”

Stuart passed largely unnoticed to the Aussies on the 2010-11 tour because an abdominal injury ruled him out after two Tests, but in 2013-14 he was in the sights of the country’s media after refusing to walk a few months earlier at Trent Bridge when he edged to slip. The Brisbane Courier Mail refused to mention his name in print, calling him the 27-year-old medium pacer instead. It never really relented, right to the end of his last Ashes tour four years ago.

“I loved it,” says Chris. “I knew he would rise to the occasion. It was just up his street. You either shy away or you stand up and be counted. And he was definitely someone who was always going to stand up and be counted.”

This leads Broad into another story about his son. Yes, he could take Australian barbs but a wind-up from his dad? That was another matter. “He didn’t appreciate my gesture after he was hit for six sixes by Yuvraj Singh. I got Yuvraj to sign an Indian shirt and gave it to him for Christmas. Apparently, he opened the present, saw it, and threw it in the bin. I think he had a bit of a sense of humour failure over that.”

Chris was not a full-on father, pushing his views about cricket on his son. It probably helped that Stuart was a bowler, not a batsman, although he did have talent with his highest Test score, 169, better than his father’s.

“Once he asked me, out of the blue, early season to go into the nets at Trent Bridge and throw him some balls and we had an hour working together and he went out and scored a few runs for England,” Chris recalls. “In the press he said, ‘Yeah, it’s been great and I’d like to thank Paul Farbrace for helping me with my batting’. Hello? What about your good old dad? And I did mention it to him and he said, ‘But politically, I’ve got to say the right thing’. I’m sorry, no, you don’t. So that was a bit disappointing. But I did try, I did say to him, ‘I can help you with your batting’. But he would go, ‘No, I’m not interested Dad, I’m a bowler. I’m not a batsman’. I get that. But he could have been so much better.”

Chris has been a regular presence in cricket, not just by being Stuart’s father, but largely through his role as a match referee. When he joined the list in 2003 it was a surprise given his own run-ins with authority, which included refusing to walk in Lahore and knocking his stumps down when dismissed in the Bicentennial Test.

But the ICC noted an individual who could empathise with the pressures players face in the heat of battle and he oversaw 123 Tests, his last in Colombo in February 2024. He wanted to continue but his contract was not renewed earlier this year.

“I was very happy to carry on,” Broad insists. “But for 20 years, I dodged a lot of bullets, both politically and physically. I look back and I think, ‘you know, 20 years is quite a long time to be doing that job’. I’m pleased not to be travelling to certain parts of the world. And I was always someone who believed in right and wrong and in certain parts of the world it’s a bit like the River Ganges – right and wrong are so far apart and there’s a lot of dirty water in between them that you have to deal with, so I think as someone who comes from a right and wrong perspective, to last 20 years in that politically active environment is a pretty good effort.

“I think back to Darrell Hair, who was another one who was a right-and-wrong-type individual, and he was ousted because of his beliefs and that was a big learning thing for me. You try to be as honest to yourself as you can be, knowing that politically behind the scenes there are things going on.

“I think we were supported by Vince van der Bijl (ICC umpires manager) while he was in position because he came from a cricketing background but, once he left, the management became a lot weaker. India got all the money and have now taken over the ICC so in many ways. I’m pleased I’m not around because it’s a much more political position now than it ever has been.”

Was he ever leant on to protect India? “Yes that happened, actually. India were three, four overs down at the end of a game so it constituted a fine. I got a phone call saying, ‘be lenient, find some time because it’s India’. And it’s like, right, OK. So we had to find some time, brought it down below the threshold. The very next game, exactly the same thing happened. He [Sourav Ganguly] didn’t listen to any of the hurry-ups and so I phoned and said, ‘what do you want me to do now?’ and I was told ‘just do him’. So there were politics involved, right from the start. A lot of the guys now are either politically more savvy or just keeping the head below the parapet. I don’t know.”

Broad says he has lingering after-effects of the terror attack he was caught up in when the Sri Lankan team were shot at in Lahore. He ducked under bullets and was hailed a hero for throwing himself over wounded colleague Ahsan Raza, now a full-time international umpire. “Still to this day, if an unexpected loud bang happens it makes me jump,” Broad admits. “And after it I was much more conscious of making sure that security was at the highest level. Undoubtedly the terrorist incident changed my perception of what the role should be.”

Life is quieter now. After this interview he is off to buy dried fruit to bake a Christmas cake at the weekend. He is due to play golf with Rory Underwood this week and will be back out on the course with Stuart and Kumar Sangakkara at Royal Wimbledon. “Stuart sold us in an auction.” I ask if Stuart is as competitive on the golf course as he was on the cricket pitch? “It’s got a lot better. Before, if he wasn’t playing well and was with me he would just walk off after nine. He’s matured a bit now, he will play all 18.”

I suggest perhaps Chris himself was a batsman with a fast bowler’s temperament. He thinks for a moment. “Yeah, probably. I’m sure Stuart got it from somewhere. I keep blaming it on his mother, but I’m sure it comes from me.”

Time to pay the bill and soak that dried fruit in brandy.

23/0

SLC postpones 2025 edition of LPL

SLC said that the decision was taken "after careful consideration of the broader requirement of preparing well in advance" for next year's T20 World Cup

ESPN

The 2025 edition of the Lanka Premier League (LPL) will not take place this year as was originally planned, SLC has announced. In a press release, SLC said that the decision was taken "after careful consideration of the broader requirement of preparing well in advance" for next year's T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.

The 2025 LPL was originally slated to be held between November 27 and December 23 across three venues - Colombo, Kandy and Dambulla. SLC, however, has now decided to move the tournament to another window, in order to allow "full focus on ensuring comprehensive venue readiness ahead of the World Cup."

As per ICC guidelines, all venues for the upcoming 20-team World Cup are meant to be in perfect condition to meet the demands of hosting a major international tournament. Accordingly, SLC said they needed the time to upgrade and enhance the infrastructure in and around the grounds.

The R Premadasa International Stadium in Colombo, which is one of three venues in Sri Lanka, had temporarily paused its renovation work to host 11 matches in the ongoing Women's World Cup. SLC confirmed that the ground will resume development work immediately upon the completion of its scheduled games.

The last two seasons of the LPL took place during July and August, however this year, with the 2026 T20 World Cup set to begin in February, SLC had initially felt the later window better suited their needs.

ESPNcricinfo had also learnt that talks are underway to incorporate a sixth team into the LPL. The first five editions saw five teams representing Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Dambulla and Jaffna compete. Earlier this year, Jaffna Kings - formerly the longest-standing franchise, having joined in the tournament's second edition - and Colombo Strikers were terminated by SLC for "failure to uphold contractual obligations." As a result, the LPL currently has no franchise owners with a history stretching back beyond 2024. New owners for both the Jaffna and Colombo teams are yet to be announced.

16/10

Meanwhile in Pravda's week's round-up yee-haw, they carry on with their familiar theme of perpetuating  the cult of Moores

13/10

Two weeks of the closed season gone, yet it's still a long time until we can start counting down to the new season. Some might have engaged with another Women's World Cup on a subscription channel near you - I not sure which as I've not searched for it, still basking in that Championship winning glow, perhaps.

The Guardian last week was already searching for topics of a cricket nature to refresh; one which is familiar but not touched upon by Nottsview before.

Cricket in Corfu causes confusion but also unexpected delight for a few

Seeing a match on the Greek island may be unusual but it gave one American boy a touching link to his dead father

Ben Bloom

The boy had been loitering for about 15 minutes, edging steadily closer to the waiting batters seated around the nonexistent boundary edge, when he eventually plucked up the courage to ask who was winning.
It was the type of uninformed query that ordinarily prompts eye-rolls in cricket’s complex spheres. But the match situation – 60 for one, chasing a victory target of only 86 – made the response quite simple on this occasion. Besides, he was just a kid; an American one, at that. How was he to know that cricket’s ebbs and flows rarely render it condensable into such binary terms?

Buoyed up by the engagement, the child began asking further questions, thrilled by every minor detail he was able to obtain: the ball, the bat, the scoring process. His name, he told us, was Jake. He lived in New York and he was 10 years old. Cricket had been his English father’s favourite sport until dying in a car crash three years ago. Since then, Jake sometimes watches cricket clips on YouTube to try to understand what it is all about.
Now, in the unlikeliest of locations, while on holiday with his mother in Corfu, he had stumbled across real-life cricket in the flesh for the first time. His father’s passion played out in front of him. Jake was entranced.

His were, in fact, just a few of all manner of inquiries asked by confused spectators over the course of the Sunday afternoon – from English families wondering why they had unexpectedly stumbled across a scene reminiscent of home, to baffled east Asians taking photos of a strange sporting spectacle, the likes of which they had never witnessed before.
We were rather difficult to avoid. The match between the tourists, Octopus Cricket Club, and our hosts, Anagennisi Cricket Club, occupied the most prominent of spots in Spianada Square, the green buffer separating the picturesque cobbled Old Town streets from the Old Fortress holding guard over the shimmering Straits of Corfu.
Anyone seeking an outdoor spot for some food in the autumnal sun unwittingly became cricket viewers from their vantage point of the dozens of restaurants and cafes that lined one side of the pitch. Spectators – if that is the correct word for an engagement span that ranged from brief glancers to entranced starers – numbered hundreds.
Over the past few years, Octopus have embarked on season-ending trips to a raft of unlikely European cricketing locations. From France to Croatia, and Malta to Montenegro, a common denominator tends to be the expat-heavy makeup of the opposition. By contrast, Corfu’s unique cricketing history ensures their teams are overwhelmingly homegrown.
The first fixture on the Spianada’s sward took place in 1823 between officers of a Royal Navy ship moored nearby and a team of British soldiers from the local garrison. By the end of the 19th century – with the island no longer a British protectorate – the sport had been taken up by natives and Corfu swiftly became the home of Greek cricket.
These days, the Hellenic Cricket Federation is based on the island, alongside eight of the country’s 11 clubs (the remainder are located in Athens). Enduring Anglo-Corfiot relations ensure a steady stream of English sides make the trip east to sample the local cricketing fare.
One of those was crucial in reinvigorating the sport when it was in danger of dying out on the island – a high-profile fixture between a Corfu XI and a Lord’s Taverners team consisting of celebrities (John Cleese and Nicholas Parsons among them) and former England cricketers (Ken Barrington the most distinguished) in 1978. The match was immortalised in the short film Mad Dogs and Cricketers, narrated by Eric Morecambe, showing the two sides, replete in full whites, arriving at the ground to extraordinary pageantry before taking the field behind a marching band.
Our entrance was rather less ceremonious, although pre-match discussions in 2025 differed little from that 47 years earlier, with the Octopus captain, Sam, informed – just as his slightly more illustrious counterpart Barrington had been – that, in lieu of any visible markers, the boundary would begin “where the grass ends”.
Given the close proximity of the onlooking horde, protective netting was hoisted along the thick line of bushy trees under which the diners sat, and the match was played using a yellow indoor cricket ball – a leather creation with familiar stitched seam, but of almost half the weight of a conventional outdoor ball and a propensity to swing an astronomical amount.
The tourists gratefully exploited it, easing to a nine-wicket win that made up for our earlier narrow defeat in the tour’s opening fixture at the island’s equally scenic Gouvia Marina ground.
As our unbeaten batters walked off the Spianada pitch, and hands were heartily shaken and pictures taken, Jake remained in our midst, absorbing all he could of his father’s treasured sport.
Seeking an opportunity to offload his distinctly worn pair of cheap batting gloves that had contributed to a career average of 8.91, our wicketkeeper Ben offered them to the eager young American, even pulling out a pen and adorning them with an autograph to further reduce their nonexistent value. Jake was elated; an otherwise routine holiday lunch had turned into an unforgettable occasion.
When we passed him on the way back to our hotel a while later, the old gloves with a new lease of life were still firmly strapped to his hands and he was proudly displaying them on a video call to a family member on the other side of the Atlantic, his wide smile showing no sign of fading. Cricket in Corfu. How unexpected.

04/10

The independent Cricket Discipline Panel (CDP) has issued its decision in relation to a Charlie Bennett, an Essex CCC player, after he was charged following allegations that he used a misogynistic and discriminatory term whilst playing in recreational cricket. Mr Bennett is subject to the Professional Conduct Regulations (‘PCRs’) by virtue of his contract with Essex CCC.

Mr Bennett admitted a charge of a breach of paragraph 3.2 of the Professional Conduct Regulations (‘PCRs’) for improper conduct in using misogynistic language with the effect of creating a hostile or offensive environment on the field of play towards another player.

Mr Bennett was issued with a reprimand for his admitted conduct, given a one match suspension that was suspended for a period of 12 months only to be enforced in the event of a further breach of Regulation 3.2 of the PCRs and ordered to undertake equality, diversity and inclusion and/or anti-discrimination training.

Managing Director of The Cricket Regulator Chris Haward said: “I would like to thank Essex CCC and the recreational league clubs for their open co-operation in this matter.

"Professional cricketers are role models within the game and have a duty to act appropriately and responsibly at all times. Where a professional cricketer uses any form of discriminatory and/or misogynistic language or carries out any actions of that nature, the Cricket Regulator will ensure they are held to account in line with their professional responsibilities as set out in the Professional Conduct Regulations.

"There is no place in the game for discriminatory or misogynistic behaviour and the Cricket Regulator will ensure that those displaying such behaviour are held accountable. Ensuring that cricket is a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment for all is a priority for the Cricket Regulator.”

Anyone who has experienced any type of discriminatory or misogynistic behaviours in cricket can contact the Cricket Regulator via  integrity@cricketregulator.co.uk or safeguarding@cricketregulator.co.uk.

The full judgement is available here.

Grade cricketer 314*

29/09

Sheffield Shield Trial for the first 5 rounds.

Good, bad, unworkable, open to abuse?

20/09

Trimming the Championship and Blast is not the answer to England's exhaustion

HUW TURBERVILL: ECB chair Richard Thompson says "we have to look at the schedule", but cutting domestic competitions isn't confronting the problem head-on

Thank goodness we have the freedom to challenge authority.

ECB chair Richard Thompson gave an interview to BBC Sport recently. During it, he declared that cricket must "look at the schedule" of an "unrelenting" calendar, with some players "obviously exhausted" this season.

It prompted me to reply on X: "Gosh, I wonder what new tournament taking up the whole of August has added to this fixture congestion/player exhaustion. The counties were never going to give up T20. We should have stuck with what we had and revamped it."

Perhaps I must learn to love The Hundred, just as the Labour Party learnt to love Peter Mandelson during the Tony Blair years.

Prolific commenter Dan Kingdom outdid me. "It is misleading how Thompson segues from creaking bodies at the end of the India Tests into the shrinking of the Blast and possibly the County Championship… England Test players hardly play in the CC or Blast, and the ECB have the power to rest them from matches in those competitions anyway!"

The major problem is not exclusively that the County Championship and T20 Blast are too long. It's that England Men play six Tests a summer, six ODIs and six T20Is. The paying public want the stars in all of them… Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett and so on (mercifully, Ben Stokes is being wrapped in cotton wool).

It prompted me to research just how much cricket England's main men have played this season.

There have been 167 days from April 4, the date the County Championship started this year, through to the end of the penultimate round (September 18). The hardest workers have been Ollie Pope (62 days), Zak Crawley (56) and Smith (55).

Next are Brook and Tongue (51), Duckett (48), and Root (47).

As Kingdom pointed out, most England stars play little Championship or Blast cricket, so what benefit will cutting those competitions have, particularly a the ECB can tailior their schedule anyway?

hompson did make some pertinent points, however. 

"We're the only sport to have a World Cup every year, which I personally think is too much." He is right on that – one 50-over World Cup every four years, one T20 World Cup every four years is, of course, the logical way to go – but when did logic ever come into it when it comes to the ICC?

Next year's Men's T20 World Cup will be the fourth since 2021. Meanwhile, the women's tournament in England next summer will be the fourth since the turn of the decade.

On the England v India Test series, concertinaed into a ridiculously tight schedule of 46 days, he told the BBC: "I'm not surprised some of the players were obviously exhausted… I can't ever remember a five-Test series going five days in every Test."

While obviously the all-powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India had a big say in the schedule, Thompson and the ECB cannot completely absolve themselves of blame there.

He added: "We have to look at the schedule. We're reducing the number of T20 Blast games we're playing. We're looking to potentially reduce the amount of Championship cricket."

But not The Hundred, of course. And if you had to put money on it, you can only see that getting bigger in the years to come, now new overseas owners are on board.

Of course, I sympathise with Thompson and the players. Three formats are too many. But what do you do? The top players prefer Tests and T20. The 50-over game is great, but you can increasingly see that one making way in the long term.

"At this stage of my career across a 12-month calendar, it is no longer possible to commit to all formats at every level, both physically and mentally," the words of Jamie Overton were an insight into the dilemma players are facing. 

Meanwhile, punters want to watch the best players and resent talk of cutting schedules. It's a hell of a hard job trying to keep everyone happy.

Thompson called the scheduling "the hardest game of Jenga" when he took over, and I am certain that he hasn't changed his mind.

14/09

Changes to boundary catches law explained

12/09

Touch on by Mick Newell when defending Ben Duckett last night, the relentless schedule

05/09

Ross Taylor, Samoa

27/08

Revealed: Cricket is running out of BATS - here's why the IPL, climate change and expensive trees are all to blame... as we take you inside the race against time to save the sport from an existential crisis

Lawrence Booth

A recurrent grumble during the recent England–India series concerned the state of the Dukes ball, with fingers pointed in every direction – including at the Aberdeen Angus cows who supply the leather. But behind the scenes, another equipment-related headache has been raging. And they’re calling it the ‘cricket bat emergency’.

In a nutshell: there aren’t enough trees. Or at least there aren’t enough trees of the kind needed to make cricket bats.

English willow has always been the sport’s wood of choice. Kashmir has a huge willow market, producing around two millions bat clefts a year, but the quality is variable; so does Serbia, believe it or not, though only 100,000 clefts a year, and again the quality is unreliable. Poplar, the next-best alternative, has been tried, and there have even been experiments with bamboo, but they did not go well.

To complicate matters, the willow has to be grown in the UK. When cuttings were sent to Australia, the wood grew too quickly, which made it brittle. When they were sent to New Zealand, the trees were damaged by the wind, which will come as no surprise to anyone who has covered a Test match in Wellington. All told, then, English willow – salix alba caerulea to its mates – is where it’s at.

Like money, however, willow doesn’t grow on trees: it is the tree. And those trees are struggling to keep pace with a demand for high-quality bats that has exploded, especially since the end of the pandemic, and especially on the subcontinent, where the sport’s economy continues to boom beyond the capitalists’ wildest dreams.

The repercussions have been inevitable: with supply chains unable to balance the equation, prices have shot up. A good bat might now set you back the best part of £1,000, which is a blow to cricket’s attempts to shake off old accusations about elitism. And that’s before you factor in the cost of pads, helmets, gloves and the rest.

The economics of willow growth sounds like one of the more obscure specialist subjects on Mastermind, but it helps explain why the sport – led by MCC – is now exploring other means of producing bats good enough to survive everything thrown at them.

JS Wright & Sons, who have led the industry ever since WG Grace approached Jessie Samuel Wright in 1894 to request a supply of willow, say their trees take between 12 and 20 years to reach maturity and be ready to become bats.

The trouble is no one accounted for the post-IPL boom in India, which meant the quantity of willow planted back then is insufficient to meet modern needs. As Rob Lynch, MCC’s director of cricket operations, put it during the recent World Cricket Connects conference at Lord’s: ‘The situation is becoming unsustainable.’

JS Wright, who claim to produce three-quarters of the world’s English willow bats, planted around 15,000 trees 20 years ago, and have now upped that figure to more than 40,000. One tree, well tended, can produce 40 bat clefts, and the company are assiduous about replacing every felled tree with three or four new ones. This year, they have produced 700,000 clefts.

But even sustainable planning in the here and now leaves an issue in the short- to medium-term. ‘Not enough competitors have planted enough trees,’ said Jeremy Ruggles, a director at JS Wright for over 30 years.

The problem starts at the top, with the best players now getting through bats at a rate once considered unthinkable – three a year has become more like 15 or 20. And with ever more Indian stars now signing bat sponsorship deals worth around $1m (£740,000), the companies have to claw their money back somewhere.

Players train more, too, and – thanks to the IPL and other T20 franchise tournaments, which seem to be growing rather faster than salix alba – hit the ball more ferociously. They also train more regularly against the harder new ball. All this adds to wear and tear. Tree prices, meanwhile, are said to have trebled since 2017.

Then there’s climate change, which has meant milder winters in the UK and accelerated tree growth. Things get a little technical here, but essentially fast growth leads to wider grains, and that in turn produces bats which require longer to knock in. Pros, inevitably, prefer the ready-to-go narrower-grain bats.

What to do, then, while the willow-growing industry catches up with demand, and attempts to keep at bay a crisis that could make cricket accessible only to those who can afford it?

One alternative is laminated bats, pieced together from two or three pieces of wood, with an English willow face backed by lower-grade wood. These bats are already allowed in junior cricket, but remain illegal in the professional game, where there are concerns over the small advantage they provide the batsman - a lighter pick-up with more power.

There is also the possibility that manufacturers might hide other performance-enhancing material between the bits of wood, such as high-density foam. Short of sawing bats in two to verify their authenticity, this would be hard to police.

Non-wooden material remains up for discussion, too, though the sport has never quite got over the controversy caused by the aluminium bat used by Dennis Lillee during a Test against England at Perth in 1979.

And while some kind of metal would ease the strain on the willow industry, and make the game more affordable, it might also take cricket down a path it is reluctant to explore: as bowlers keep telling us, bats are already powerful enough.

Whatever happens next, and assuming the likes of JS Wright & Sons overcome the crisis, may depend on how successfully the sport can unite its disparate strands and produce an over-arching solution.

MCC, whose excellent work in the background has a habit of being overlooked, want to host an industry-wide conference in the next few months to explore options.

The crisis can be averted. But it is far from over.