Southern Premier League chairman tells Boris: We need cricket for our wellbeing, and for the good of the country’

Steve Vear was speaking as behind-the-scenes discussions carry on about a return date for the recreational game.

Like many involved at grassroots level, Vear was optimistic a few weeks ago that cricket - a sport that lends itself to social distancing - would be given the green light to return.

But the prime minister shattered that prospect with his now infamous comment about a cricket ball being a ‘natural vector of disease.’

That, to Vear, was a ‘very strange announcement’.

The ECB earlier this week revealed that county cricket can return on August 1, while the first Test between England and the West Indies starts at Hampshire’s Ageas Bowl next Wednesday.

But there is still no news on when the recreational game can restart.

‘We need to be given the opportunity to prove, as we would, that cricket is a safe game to play,’ said Vear.

‘But most importantly, bearing in mind we are now in July, we all desperately, desperately, desperately need the game that we all love to return.

‘Slowly but surely we are seeing our season get smaller and smaller which, of course, is a great disappointment to everybody.’

In a video update, Vear drew on his own personal experiences to explain what cricket means to so many people.

Last year in my chairman’s report I wrote about the fact that cricket is just a game, and from a disciplinary perspective we should bear that in mind,’ he said.

‘Well the fact is, cricket isn’t just a game and we really need to think about the impact cricket has to all of us that are involved and everyone else that we see turn up - the spectators, or officials … it is huge.

‘It got me thinking. For those that don’t know my own cricket story, I first got involved with cricket all the way back in 1993. I was in Year 8 at secondary school and because of my disability (Vear was born with cerebral palsy) I don’t play sport.

‘My PE teacher decided that he would teach me how to score a game of cricket.

‘I didn’t really have an interest in cricket at that stage, but he wanted to show me how to do that so I scored for my school team. I then went on to score for my first club, Andover, and after several years I went on to score for OTs and Romsey, I spent some happy years there, it’s a great club.

‘I then went on, where I have been for 10 or 11 years, scoring for the first team at Alton. Since 2003, I have been a principal officer of the Southern Premier League, and then a few years ago it was my great pleasure to take on the chair of the league.

‘Cricket has, quite frankly, given me much of the elements of my life that I recognise today.

‘It’s because of cricket, it’s because of sport, that arguably I am who I am and I do some of the things that I do.

‘I am sure, like much of you, if you put all of my friends in a room and then took away the cricket ones I’m not actually sure how many would be left.

‘Cricket is a fantastic sport, and gives you that opportunity to learn about teamwork, to have belonging, to learn about competitiveness, to be part of something that’s much bigger than their own lives.

‘Sport does that in general, and I really think the government should think about the impact it has on not providing sport and not providing cricket, to give people like me and so many other thousands of people out there access to sport in the way that is really, really needed.

‘My message here is that we need cricket back, we need it for our wellbeing, we need it for the good of the country arguably, we certainly need it for our own clubs and our own leagues.

‘We desperately need to get back to see our team-mates, we desperately need to hear bat on ball once again and studs through gravel and studs through grass as players take to the field - the sounds that only cricket can provide you - and the excitement that cricket provides many of us.

‘That is really, really important. I know that the silence from the ECB and the government is increasing in frustration for people, and I certainly share that, let’s be absolutely clear about that.’

Many high-profile names have spoken out about the fact grassroots cricket remains under lockdown.

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has led the outcry, while England pair Ben Stokes and Mark Wood have both said in the last week it should return if businesses like pubs, restaurants and hairdressers can reopen.

Vear continued: ‘Mike Atherton wrote in The Times that cricket can be socially distanced, there is a way to bring cricket back.

‘It might not feel the way it has done traditionally, but it is possible to bring it back.

‘We need to be given the opportunity to prove, as we would, that cricket is a safe game to play. But most importantly, bearing in mind we are now in July, we all desperately, desperately, desperately need the game that we all love to return.

‘From a Southern Premier League perspective, we want to get 11-a-side cricket back, we were originally aiming to do this from the 18th of July, we want to do a competitive League Cup between the Premier Division and Division 1 and Division 2 and Division 3 - make it as competitive as possible.

‘We have asked clubs to opt into this, we are not going to force anybody to do something they don’t want to do.

‘We hope we can provide - this has always been our intention - some level of competitiveness.’

Vear summed up: ‘As I have reflected, cricket isn’t just a game, it brings so much more to our lives than just being able to get onto the pitch.

‘We need cricket back in our lives, but the only way we are going to do that is by the government allowing the recommendations from the ECB to go through, to be released.

‘We have not got much time left, and we desperately, desperately need their support to do it.’