Has county cricket been hit over the boundary at Hastings?

It is well known that East Sussex County Council considers that East Sussex terminates at Pevensey Marshes and that anything east of there is off the edge of the county.

Apparently Sussex County Cricket Club [SCCC] shares this view. The Observer reports its CEO Rob Andrew stating how keen the club is to play in ’the east of the county’. Sadly the ensuing quotes reveal that this ‘east’ ends at Eastbourne! Therefore his aim of ’taking county cricket to a wider audience’ excludes Hastings (once the home of an internationally famous cricket ground) and the (considerable) rest of East Sussex. No wonder cricket is a declining sport when our county club cannot even recognise that part of their area even exists.

Until live top-class cricket can be experienced without the major part of a day spent travelling to watch it, how can SCCC expect youngsters and families to want to become involved?

And without that involvement there will be ever fewer future players forthcoming, nor that all important ingredient: family and community support and backing for would-be players.

The county ground at Hove has an excellent museum. I suggest the CEO and board visit it and see for themselves the glorious history of, and support for, cricket in the ‘east of the county’, especially Hastings, and revise their itineraries accordingly. Otherwise the death of support for cricket, in East Sussex at least, will be a certainty, not a possibility.

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton: In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.