An Open Letter to Jacob Rees-Mogg
Dear Mr Rees-Mogg
I would like to begin by thanking you for making it easy to write this blog. Throughout the Cricket World Cup, I have been thinking about writing a piece on how the UK with its rich variety of nationalities, many of whom use cricket as a vehicle for cross-cultural communication, was the perfect place to hold the sport's showpiece tournament. Sometimes all it takes to really sharpen the mind and focus the purpose when writing is a bigoted and misinformed comment from a politician who is seeking to hijack sporting success for their own political grandstanding.
Cricket and the people who truly love to play and watch the game stand for everything that you do not.
The sport and its code may have been born in this country but it is undoubtedly cricket's spread across the world that has made it the game that it is today. Each and every nation that has taken to cricket has used its unique culture and outlook on the world to change the game and add to it providing the kind of wonderful variety that is the hallmark of a functioning community.
Through tournaments such as the World Cup as well as the many bilateral series that take place throughout the year and more recently the franchise competitions across the globe, players and fans of the game are brought together allowing for further cross-pollination of ideas on the sport we love. Whether it's the doosra or the knuckleball, the reverse-sweep or the switch hit, we as cricketers are always learning from our contemporaries around the world in a bid to be the best that we can and take the game of cricket to new heights.
Innovation has always been at the heart of the sport and that innovation is generally driven by variety. While any particular football or rugby ground is pretty much the same, cricket embraces a diversity of conditions that constantly ensures players must adapt their games in order to stay at the top. Your ideas for closing Britain off from the rest of the world would rob our industries, scientific communities and artists of the challenges that the free market brings leaving them unable to compete at a global level. As any cricket fan knows, it's all very well being successful at home where conditions can be tailored to your needs but how you play on the spinning tracks of the sub-continent or bouncier pitches of Australia is what really defines success.
You seem to think that cricket represents your outdated views of the world. Yes, it is a game steeped in tradition and cricket fans in this country are proud of that tradition but it is also one that is always looking to change with the times. In the last few decades, we've seen the emergence of ODI cricket, followed by T20 cricket and soon we will be watching "The 100". Cricket doesn't seek to subjugate the people, it looks to move with them ensuring that it is fit for purpose in the 21st Century. Your political party's desire to return this country to the 1950s shows that they are a failed political institution unwilling and unable to meet the demands of the present age - cricket I am sure will outlive the Conservative Party by many generations.
Country of birth for England cricketers - to date 25 nations outside England have provided us with international players and about 1 out of 8 cricketers to represent England has not been born in this country, although that figure is much higher when taking into account the past 20 years
Whatever anyone's viewpoint on the question of immigration is, I think it would be fair to say that the English cricket team has historically benefited from it more than any other country in the world. Our World Cup winners were captained by an Irishman, bowled to victory by Barbadian and hit to glory by a New Zealander. We've taken players from as far-flung regions of the world as Papa New Guinea, Peru and Zambia. Douglas Jardine, Colin Cowdrey, Nasser Hussain, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss are just a few of the greats who have been born outside these isles but gave so much back to them on the cricket field. I believe that you owe them and the hundreds of thousands of 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants who have supported our boys to their maiden World Cup win an apology.
My parting advice to you would be to climb down off your soapbox and go and watch a game of cricket being played at your local club. You'll find people of all ethnicities, young and old brought together for their love of the game and perhaps it could help better inform you of the realities of modern Britain before you further embarrass yourself on social media.
Regardless of Brexit and the fear-mongering of politicians such as yourself, long may cricket and this World Cup stand as an example of how people of all backgrounds can and do come together for the enjoyment of everyday life.
Regards
Tales
This letter is in response to Jacob Rees Mogg's comments following the World Cup Final victory on Sunday
I'm not much of a politically minded person but wasn't he referring to the fact that most players as you highlight are indeed not from Europe but the rest of the world?
I don't think he needed to be so opportunistic either way though, I get tired of people on both sides using the Brexit debate for other areas of life other than politics. They are all as bad as each other.
Either way the historical demographics don't surprise me given the spread of the commonwealth, good to see so many people interested in watching and playing the great sport of cricket.
I don't think he meant it that way and if he did then it's a further example of him not understanding the impact that players outside the EU have had on English cricket and why European Court of Justice rulings such as Kolpak have allowed international quality cricketers from nations like South Africa, New Zealand and Barbados to come and play in this country and benefit out system as a whole.
Yeah, it's political grandstanding. Imagine how bad it would have been if we'd won the football World Cup last year!