{"id":5779,"date":"2026-01-13T11:30:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=5779"},"modified":"2026-01-13T11:30:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T11:30:52","slug":"ex-england-player-sad-to-cancel-suffolk-junior-cricket-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=5779","title":{"rendered":"Ex-England player &#8216;sad&#8217; to cancel Suffolk junior cricket festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Topley suggested the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) \u2014 the governing body for cricket across the two nations \u2014 was hampering grassroots cricket.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s not a reflection of demand, value, or impact; it is the result of external constraints,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There is a shortage of facilities and a shortage of quality coaches for this age group, and the ECB has changed its attitude towards pathway county cricket.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That is a great shame and the many people I come into contact with at the coalface agree.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He also said he believed the fallout from England&#8217;s recent Ashes loss could have &#8220;prolonged consequences&#8221; for the sport and amateur clubs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The fact we were brutally beaten up was a disaster,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;County cricket clubs will feel the disaster of The Ashes and it will hit them in their pockets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If they had come home as winners, the game of cricket would have been in a buoyant mood and we would have seen the benefits, but now we will see the negatives.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Topley suggested the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) \u2014 the governing body for cricket across the two nations \u2014 was hampering grassroots cricket. &#8220;It&#8217;s not a reflection of demand, value, or impact; it is the result of external constraints,&#8221; he added. &#8220;There is a shortage of facilities and a shortage of quality coaches for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}