Published: 24/07/2009 15:38:32 | Modified: 24/07/2009 15:48:44
Author: Paul Bolton | All Contributors
Cox departure is sad indictment
Warwickshire like to regard themselves as the Manchester United of cricket but all too often they look more like Macclesfield Town.
At a time when county officials are talking up developing more home-grown talent, Warwickshire have decided to dispense with the services of Richard Cox, their academy director.
Cox will be made redundant at the end of the month after 20 years of service to the county, apparently a victim of cost-cutting measures being introduced at Edgbaston after Warwickshire incurred additional costs in the lengthy planning process required to get approval for their ambitious ground plans and below-expected income from both the one-day international against the West Indies and the Twenty20 Cup.
Cox started off as Warwickshire’s first cricket development officer in 1989 and helped to transform a youth development system which had little organisation or structure.
During his long service at Edgbaston, the last three as academy director, Cox has seen Ian Bell progress through the youth system at Edgbaston to the full England side, Chris Woakes into the England Lions ranks and the likes of Naqaash Tahir and Ateeq Javid onto the current county staff.
Some, such as Mark Wagh, Moeen Ali, Kadeer Ali and Kabir Ali have come through the Warwickshire youth system but opted to pursue their county careers elsewhere and there are others - Nick Warren, Jamie Spires, Luke Parker and Nick James among them - who had a brief flirtation with first-class cricket without quite making the grade.
Of course the system is not perfect and Cox has had his critics. Warwickshire probably have not produced as many homegrown first team players as they should have done. But the problems appear to have arisen once youngsters have joined the professional staff rather than in them producing talented youngsters in sufficient quantity.
Quite how making Cox redundant is likely to improve Warwickshire’s youth development system has yet to be adequately explained by the power-brokers at Edgbaston.
Though Warwickshire staff were informed of Cox’s redundancy in an internal e-mail some time ago, the county has yet to make a public announcement and they may well decide not to do so.
That is hardly the way to treat one of the county’s longest-serving members of staff and represents another potential public relations gaffe by the county.
Warwickshire have already squandered a significant sum of money on two failed PR initiatives this year: a ludicrous Wild West themed promotions campaign for the Twenty20 Cup which was rewarded with a decrease in attendances, and an attempt to get the local media and residents onside for their pavilion project, which resulted in the club being branded as “arrogant” by both.
Members and supporters have a right to be given an explanation of the reasons behind the decision about why Warwickshire’s have made redundant Cox’s dual roles as academy director and director of the Warwickshire Cricket Board.
In the meantime, Warwickshire have made Dougie Brown, their Second XI coach, responsible for academy coaching duties and handed Cox's administrative duties for the academy and Warwickshire Cricket Board to Nick Archer, the indoor centre manager at Edgbaston.
Archer is also the secretary of Staffordshire and it will be interesting to see whether the England and Wales Cricket Board have anything to say about a possible conflict of interests.
Instead of growing home-grown talent, don't be surprised if the latest cost-cutting measure by cricket's Macclesfield Town makes them more dependent on England-qualified South Africans or expensive cast-offs from other counties for their future team-building.