THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING.

Date: 26th November 2015

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

John Williams applauds the Comp's achievements and looks to the future.

People join cricket clubs for many reasons: a few because they want to play the game professionally, many because they want to compete at the highest standard they can and many thousands of others because they simply enjoy cricket, even though they are not particularly expert at it and it is nothing like the most important thing in their lives.

Clubs have to cater for them all. So when people assert that “these are challenging times for recreational cricket”, it is tempting to enquire when in, say, the past 30 years have the times not been testing. The cost of maintaining facilities, player availability, the price of kit and the attraction of other “trendier” pursuits have all threatened clubs to some degree in that time.

Nevertheless, league officials have, over the past few years, given far more thought to varying the type of cricket they play in order to suit their customers’ diverse lifestyles and the mere fact that the current issue of All Out Cricket is devoted in large part to the club game is evidence of the national attention being given to league cricket. The responses of leagues have revealed a very welcome willingness to listen to their clubs. The changes taking place in the structure of league cricket in Lancashire and Yorkshire are the biggest seen in half a century or more.

So as John Williams approaches the end of his fourth year as Liverpool Competition Chairman and prepares for another two years in office, it seems a good time to find out what he makes of his time at the helm so far and what he foresees in the future.

The cricket-mad Chairman of Rainford CC first became involved with the Comp in 2008 when his club finished top of the Merseyside and Cricket Alliance, thereby winning promotion. He became a member of the Cricket Committee as Rainford’s representative and was elected to the Management Committee soon after. He took on the Chairmanship in January 2012.

“Rainford have had a few ups and downs since we joined,” he said, “but moving up a level has helped us greatly improve our facilities and we enjoy playing a higher level of cricket. “

Reflecting on the Liverpool Comp’s status as an ECB Premier League, Williams is full of praise for those running the league when this was obtained. “They were ahead of their time,” he said. “I well remember the meetings between Comp officials and those of us in the Alliance to set up a Pyramid system with a feeder league. Now we have a structure which is being followed elsewhere at a time when cricket Leagues in Lancashire are going through a period of great change.

“The key elements for me are promotion and relegation; linking performance to standards of facilities, particularly playing surfaces; and playing regulations which suit the highest quality of cricketers. At the same time with 43 clubs and 12 divisions, we do our best to cater for all levels of cricket.”

But Williams accepts that it is not all about Saturday cricket and it is certainly not all about the Premier League, albeit that the Comp’s top tier is highly respected and greatly valued.

Leagues have a vital responsibility to encourage young players, particularly at a time when other interests are demanding their attention. So John Williams has a right to be quietly pleased that under his Chairmanship the Player Development Programme started by his predecessor, Ted Williams, has been extended and developed. In addition, representative cricket at Senior and U18 has been reintroduced, it has been extended at U21 level and opportunities have been provided at U14 and U12. An indoor winter league has been established and both clubs and players have been mobilised to raise money for worthy causes such as Aigburth CC and Opening Up.

“It’s important that we are not solely concerned with league cricket,” he said. “The Comp is really all about the clubs and we have a duty to provide them, all with junior sections, with a range of options to help them survive and prosper. That’s why we will be championing the ECB’s U19 Club T20 in 2016 and doing our best to help our clubs.

“Not everyone sees things the same way, which I understand, but it’s no good living in the past. We are really fortunate to have a hardworking group of people on the Management Committee who give lots of their own time to enable all those who want to play and be involved in the game of cricket to do so.”

Williams and his colleagues remain keen to ensure that the Comp takes account of clubs’ and players’ views, using the outcomes from the recent ECB surveys, which were well supported by Comp individuals, as well as information from open meetings and its own survey in relation to fixtures.

“We need to respond to the different lifestyles and priorities of players today,” he said. “That’s why we are asking if players want to start games earlier with a proposal at the AGM. In response to calls from clubs we are also trying to simplify eligibility rules for playing in teams outside the first X1s. “

The work, we may conclude, goes on. Which, one suspects, is rather as John Williams likes it.