Opinion: England cricket must end culture of the ‘closed shop’

It has been obvious for some time that the England selectors indulge their favourites and abuse those who are not granted union membership. Once you are a member of England’s closed shop, there is an assumption that you must remain irrespective of performance. Shoaib Bashir has been recruited and, though he takes his wickets at an average touching 40 and struggles against good players, union membership will protect him. Jacob Bethell is in and will stay in whether he scores runs or not.

The most celebrated closed shop veteran is, of course, Zak Crawley, 58 Tests and counting. He can get a pair at The Oval this week and it won’t matter. You can’t touch him, he’s part of the union. I have spent most of my time covering politics. In that trade, the persistence of an undeserved selection would lead directly and quickly to suspicions of corruption. If this were politics, there would be endless articles about Rob Key playing golf with Crawley’s dad. Key would be forced to deny that selection was done on the 19th hole. The opening batsman would be vilified as a nepo baby. But cricket writing is populated by gentler souls and they simply scratch their heads and wonder why.

The other aspect of a closed shop is that players who are not admitted to the club are discarded quickly. Liam Dawson gets a single Test, albeit not a good one, and England have suddenly decided that they can do without a spin bowler. One of the absurdities of selection which this England regime seemed to have abandoned was the idea that a player good enough to be picked could then be judged after one game. Well, apparently not. Sam Cook and Liam Dawson, and Matt Parkinson before them, got a single game and no union card. Dan Lawrence was told to open the batting for the first time in his life. He was invited to fail so as not to jeopardise the pre-ordained return of Crawley, shop steward for the undeserving.

A union closed shop used to generate strong solidarity among its members but also self-regarding behaviour. At the start of the summer Brendon McCullum talked about “the ability to show some humility and not feel out of touch with the general population is something that I'd like to see us improve on”. If this is the test he has set for his team, then it has to be said that they are failing. England have become a charmless and classless team.

England’s arrogance at the end of the Old Trafford Test match was an unedifying example. Shubman Gill was entitled not to declare the innings until Washington Sundar had scored his maiden Test hundred. The childish petulance of Ben Stokes, Harry Brook and Crawley in particular was sour and pathetic.

Like Jonny Bairstow’s cry-baby antics when he was justly stumped by Alex Carey, or Brook pretending to take guard outside off stump when the Sri Lankans unsportingly declined to bowl exactly where he wanted, there is something self-absorbed and unlikeable about this bunch of players. It’s the culture of the closed shop.

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