England on crest of wave

MacLaurin: England's results hold key to prosperity

The chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board has praised the national team for
over-achieving in the past 12 months.

Addressing the ECB's annual general meeting at Edgbaston, Lord MacLaurin said the introduction of central contracts a year ago had helped develop a "shared sense of colleative purpose" among the players.

But he had no inkling of the excellent results that would follow, when he spoke at last year's AGM.

"Asking for instant improvements was asking a lot - but a year on, and with four successive Test Match series wins under our belt - that's what happened.

"I'm not saying central contracts are a universal panacea, but they have already made a huge difference to the England team and, hopefully, will have a consequential positive impact for the whole of the game," Lord MacLaurin said.

His words of praise came just three days before Nasser Hussain's side begin a two-Test series against Pakistain, with a five-match Ashes series to follow.

Victory over Sri Lanka in Colombo

But he stressed that continued success by the team was vital to the future well-being of the English game as a whole.

"As we all know, the public's perception of, and interest in, cricket is largely determined by how well the England team is doing.

"Unlike soccer, cricket isn't so tribal and local loyalties areen't alwasy so pronounced - the general public craves a winning national team.

"In fact, everything that we seek stems from this: more youngstrers are encouraged to play cricket if they see England winning; spectators are more likely to attend matches; and sponsors and broadcasters want to associate themselves with success."

The ECB suffered a £2m shortfall last summer because of Test matches against Zimbabwe and West Indies ending well short of the five days scheduled, but Lord MacLaurin believes the future outlook is positive.

A new National Academy will be set up with the help of grants of £2m per year from 2001 until 2004 from Sport England. It will. be based in Adelaide in the first year.

Lord MacLaurin said there is also a growing interest in the game among youngsters, with the number of girls taking up cricket having doubled in the last year.

"There is no doubt that the England team returning to winning ways in the past 12 months has helped re-ignite public interest in cricket - and the entire country is looking forward with excitement and expectation to the Ashes challenge this summer," he added.