Children who grow up watching the Indian Premier League on television, and maybe the Hundred live, might be surprised to learn there is another way to play cricket. If they want to see how it used to be done, let them go to the Oxford Parks, where the best part of 1,000 first-class matches were played before the status of Oxbridge universities was abolished in 2020.
Not a floodlight in sight. Not a pom-pom girl, nor spider-cam, no stand for spectators, no charge for admission, no PA system, no music at all. Yet here and at Fenner’s, the first-class cricket season used to open every April. Amateurs would play against professionals – and Oxford beat every first-class county at some time or other except the latterday Durham – while many a future England captain cut his teeth.
Last week I sat on a bench in the Parks to watch the Oxford University team prepare for their 50-over game against Durham University. In their opening match Oxford had been defeated by Teddington CC comfortably by seven wickets. This is what happens if all subsidies, whether from MCC or the ECB, are withdrawn: Oxford and Cambridge cannot begin to compete with the 18 county academies, and as readers of Telegraph Sport were informed last year, the very future of Fenner’s is in jeopardy.
The old pavilion in the Parks has no indoor school – it has not changed in a hundred years. Inside on the walls hang wooden boards listing the Blues of every season back to 1827. Yes, 200 years ago some Oxford and Cambridge chaps were floating the idea of playing against each other at Lord’s, and so they did the following year. Oxford’s No 3 batsman was William Webb Ellis, who became renowned in another sport, rugby.