Thursday, August 20, 2015

A protest was held ahead of the start of the fifth Ashes cricket test today, seeking a higher standard of cricket administration.

Around 100 protesters, which included writer Gideon Haigh, Wisden editor Lawrence Booth, and Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, gathered outside the Oval cricket ground to observe three minutes of silence, a minute for each of the “Big Three” nations — India, England, and Australia. Organisers claim these nations of controlling cricket’s governance to benefit themselves.

Sam Collins and Jarrod Kimber, a pair of journalists and film-makers, organised the protest.

“Now the Ashes have been decided, we feel the time is right to protest at the powerlessness of all other countries in the cricket world,” Collins told The Telegraph. “Nobody has any power except for Narayan Srinivasan, of India, Giles Clarke, of England, and Wally Edwards, of Australia.”

Collins and Kimber recently released the film Death of a Gentleman. The documentary was created by the pair to examine what the future holds for test match cricket whilst examining claims of corrupt administrators. The film-makers have launched changecricket.com, calling on cricket fans to advocate for better governance of the sport. “We ask fans of all nations to stand with us and show their dissatisfaction about the way their game is being run,” said Collins.