Cricket is not renowned for embracing change. The introduction of the middle stump, overarm bowling and Kevin Pietersen were all greeted with great suspicion. But now the biggest change of the lot is proposed. Forget the Hundred: the traditional cricket tea is under threat.
This summer, as a result of guidelines to tackle Covid-19, amateur cricketers were not able to use changing rooms, shine the ball with saliva or sweat, or enjoy the customary tea provided by the home club. Now the Sussex League is voting on whether to make
tea voluntary next season for its 140 clubs. They will decide whether the home team should provide the cakes and sandwiches that players and officials have come to expect in the interval between innings. The clubs have already voted once (against compulsory tea, 114 to 89) but another ballot is due. Perhaps detecting excessive Russian influence, the Sussex League chairman wrote ‘we cannot say with absolute certainty that the process was immune from the possibility of inaccuracies’.
Football has its half-time oranges and darts its pints of lager. But cricket’s tea interval remains a sporting oddity. Asterix in Britain captured this beautifully, as the Britons stopped fighting against the Romans at five o’clock each afternoon to go and drink hot water with a spot of milk. It makes no sense for cricketers to stop play and feast on the sort of food that would give a sports nutritionist nightmares. Cricket is a game of relative inactivity interspersed with moments of explosive action. A bellyful of Victoria sponge is exactly what you don’t need when opening the bowling after the break.
Players’ motivations vary, however. I captain a writers’ team of mixed ability and we usually play sides like us — actors, priests, publishers.
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