Cricket lessons

It was interesting reading about the lessons to be learnt from Twenty20 cricket in what was a bad week for the sport. Had Paul Millman been Chief Executive of Durham, rather than Kent, hosting one of the worst-attended UK Test matches on record, I wonder if he would have been so positive? West Indies skipper Chris Gayle said he would not mourn the death of Test cricket, supposedly the highest form of the game, and Aussie fast bowler Sean Tait concurred. It’s also becoming abundantly apparent there is much to be learnt from Twenty20’s rapid expansion and wider impact. As early as April, the cricketing almanac Wisden urged that “balance should be the objective... the best not the biggest, the most watchable not the most lucrative, the optimum amount of cricket not the maximum”.
There are two other areas where we have something to learn from cricket. The successful nurturing of women’s cricket provides lessons for the development of minority interests, and the way cricket has embraced the digital age is worth further investigation. A central England Cricket Board website allows you to find your local club quickly and easily, many county clubs now have Internet TV stations (Sussex and Surrey for example), nearly all have developed successful partnerships with their local BBC radio stations providing online commentary which reaches a global audience, message boards are selectively participated in by marketing staff and chief executives, webcams provide 24-hour glimpses of grounds and activity. Ad hoc developments or a clear strategy, I wonder?