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12.59 pm
Mr. David Evans (Welwyn Hatfield): I welcome the opportunity to speak in this very important debate on sport. I believe that the mood of the country is reflected in our achievements on the sports field. Examples include the nation's pride when we won the world cup in 1966, which was a long time ago; in 1936, when Fred Perry--the last Brit to do so--won the Wimbledon tennis championship; and in 1976, when Virginia Wade won the ladies' title.
It seems a million years ago since our cricket team won a series against the West Indies or the Australians. Yes, we have won world titles--with Nigel Mansell and Linford Christie--and I think that we all wanted to believe that Frank Bruno was world boxing champion, although one wonders what sort of authority is running the professional boxing business. The public were asked to watch a series of fights pitting Bruno against joke boxers, only to allow him to embarrass himself in a real fight with Mike Tyson. Who was to blame? Bruno is not to blame; I suggest that it was greed.
The best golfer in the world is English, and I am proud to say that he is from my constituency. Who could ever forget our retaining the Ryder cup last year, or his winning his third green jacket as he overhauled Greg
Norman in the Masters a few weeks ago? Why is he the best? Not because he is the most gifted player, but because of his dedication, discipline and determination to win. Practice makes perfect, and he will not accept second best in any preparations before a tournament, or during it. He is an example of excellence, and we in Welwyn Hatfield are proud of him.
The Government have shown a great interest in sport in terms of providing money and new ideas. Sport in schools is paramount to our future, but sport and its progress is not entirely down to the Government or to schools. Other authorities have the real responsibility. I suppose that that brings me to ask what has gone wrong with three of our most popular sports: cricket, tennis and football. It is impossible to cover all the shortcomings in other sports in a short debate but, sooner or later, the problems will have to be faced.
There was a time when we produced great cricketers as if they were coming off an assembly line: Grace, Barnes, Larwood, Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Verity, Hammond, Hutton, Compton, Edrich, May, Trueman, Laker, Bedser, Tyson, Cowdrey, Botham and Gower. So what happened? Where are the great players today? There is none. Why? There are many reasons, but the first concerns the competition, which has not moved with the times. There should be three divisions, promotion and relegation.
It seems unreal that, in the past 70 years, only two counties--Glamorgan and Durham--have joined the current league championship. The authority--the Test and County Cricket Board, although it was the Marylebone Cricket Club until fairly recently--has a vested interest in keeping the competition in-house, because the bulk of county revenue comes from test matches and sponsorship. The so-called first-class counties keep 90 per cent. of their revenue for themselves, and only 10 per cent. goes to the minor counties and minor leagues. It is little wonder that there is little or no desire to encourage more counties into the first-class game. Indeed, the reverse is the case.
About 30 years ago, it was decided that too many county games were drawn, so the authority decided to prepare wickets to produce a result in three days, which was the maximum duration of a match. The result was a wicket on which a fast bowler did not have to bowl fast. The idea was that he should wait for the third day, bowl medium pace on a length and let the wicket do the rest. It was not necessary to learn how to swing a ball or get movement off the wicket. A badly produced wicket did it all for the bowler. The batsmen could not hit through the ball, the ball would not come on to the bat or through at a regular height, and shot-making became impossible. At the same time, other countries were learning on perfect, hard surfaces. Their batsmen and bowlers had to learn their trade--and they did.
The crowds disappeared from county grounds. People go to cricket to watch batsmen hitting the ball all over the ground--which they cannot do on bad wickets. A few years ago, the penny dropped, and there is now a desperate bid to produce good surfaces, but it is too late for an immediate improvement. It will take 20 years for us to rediscover our form on decent wickets.
Another unfortunate development involving our test team in the past few years is the lack of discipline. Players playing for their country are not prepared to play with clean pads or clean boots. They wear watches and sunglasses on the field of play, not to tell the time or keep
out of the sun, but to line their pockets with money from sponsors. Captains have press meetings in flip-flops; they appear unshaven and without a jacket.
The fiasco surrounding successive management regimes of the test team continues unabated. There should be a chairman of selection and six selectors to pick the team, and the captain should have full authority. A cricket team does not need a manager in a home series; touring sides should have a tour manager and an assistant to look after the administration and well-being of the team. Members of the administration are all ex-players or the gin-and-tonic brigade. They are all out of touch and flapping around not knowing how to arrest the decline in our cricket. I hope that my comments will give them something to think about.
What about tennis, where we are probably in the most ludicrous situation of all? We do not have one lady player in the top 100 in the world and we have only one man--Tim Henman--in the top 100 men. I do not include the Canadian player we bought to play for us because we have been relegated to a Davis cup-status of a non-event. The last time a British male player won Wimbledon was 60 years ago and, in the women's game, our last winner was 20 years ago. Why?
It all starts at club level. Only recently, a well-known club in Hertfordshire interviewed the parents before allowing a young player to join the club. Another club will not play any under-18-year-olds in the ladies' team, and yet another will not let an under-16 play at weekends. That is not uncommon.
Clubs and county associations are affiliated to the Lawn Tennis Association. The LTA has the game in its grip, and the game cannot escape. The LTA gets its money from the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in a nice cosy arrangement that has lasted for 100 years. "You play your tournament at our club," says the All England club "and, after expenses, we'll give you what is left over." That arrangement means that, however much money the All England club makes in the Wimbledon fortnight--approximately £20 million after expenses--it all goes to the sole benefactor, the LTA.
The LTA has been totally disastrous at producing facilities and opportunities for our budding youngsters, which is proved by our appalling record in the Davis cup and our complete lack of champions in the men's and ladies' game. How do we change that?
First, the All England club has to let private or public companies bid through presentations for its money on, say, a three-year contract to develop alternatives. Young players would then accept that, although a club was not signed up to the LTA, it would be possible for them to compete not only in all local competitions, but for their county and their country. At the moment, without LTA affiliation, that is not possible.
The LTA runs all competitions. Why? When a private organisation wins a contract from the All England club, the LTA must not be able to undermine it by being given all the best tickets, the royal box and the marquees during the Wimbledon fortnight. Sponsors must not be wooed away by the LTA, which has the perks at its disposal to do so, in liaison with the All England club.
The LTA should have to compete. It could not, because it is run and dominated by losers--people who have never won anything on or off the field, not just recently, but in living memory. The LTA terrifies parents and intimidates
players, both young and not so young, with its dreadful sub-standard coaches who, in many instances, have never competed at the top. The LTA is a curse on the game and will continue to be so unless the All England club is brave enough to say, "Enough is enough."
With Euro 96 approaching, football is in turmoil, even though attendances continue to increase, which is probably the only good thing we can say. Yes, we did win the World cup in 1966, but we have won nothing since. Yes, millions of pounds are being poured into the game from television, but that money is being spent irresponsibly on transfer fees and players' salaries while very little is spent on improving stadiums.
I hope that the premier league clubs will look at the rest of the league when they get the £8 million. I doubt that they will. Stevenage, which is not in my constituency, won the Vauxhall Conference league, but it is being barred from the football league because the Football Association, with its closed-shop attitude, is protecting Torquay United in a bid to keep the league a closed shop. That is scandalous.
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