What lessons, if any, do the recent Olympic success of Great Britain hold for the development of cricket in Ireland. On the one hand it provides a striking example of a relatively small country [in global terms] being very successful in terms of the number of medals won. With 67 medals UK came second in the overall medals table [determined by the number of golds]. Accepted that on a per capita basis the UK only came 19th [behind New Zealand, Australia, Denmark and a few of the smaller Eastern European countries], but it was still a notable achievement*.
The UK success owes a lot to the ‘marginal gains’ theory of Dave Brailsford, who was the former performance director of British Cycling. The theory has at its heart the idea that improvement is best achieved incrementally with a close attention to detail based on the application of scientific analysis. He explained it as “the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything you do.”
The second key factor in the success of the UK was the allocation of funding [from the National Lottery] to elite sports and thereafter to persons and sports with a realistic prospect of medal success. Again there is a parallel with cricket in Ireland, which has been reasonably effective [given the available resources] in preparing our best players to compete on a world stage.
For a small cricketing nation like Ireland, without the numbers or general support that ensures that elite players emerge naturally from the population at large, this might seem to be the way forward. Attention to detail to bring about continuous improvements in performance and a clear focus on achievement in allocating funding.
But as always there is another side to the story. For the UK each medal in Rio cost an average of £5.5 million in investment in facilities, coaches, administration and support packages for the elite competitors. At the same time sport and leisure budgets in the UK are down around 25% since 2010. Despite the success of the London Olympics there is no evidence of a link to greater overall participation in sport and the public health issues surrounding obesity and a general lack of fitness in the population at large are if anything becoming even more worrying.
So how should we approach the development of cricket in Ireland? Something to think about as we consider the strategy document from Cricket Ireland prior to the discussions at the Cricket Leinster Club Day on 1st October in the Green Isle hotel.
*Ireland came 38th on a per capita basis.
Author was a Director of Cricket Ireland [2013 - 2016]
Reference material from New Statesman [19th August].