| The other, last Thursday, at the England and Wales Cricket Board’s performance centre at Loughborough University, was a lot less corporate and a little less ironed, as a group of academics gathered to discuss the future of cricket. This was the second meeting of the Cricket Research Network (chaired by the Guardian’s Raf Nicholson) and the various speakers covered an almost overwhelming number of topics, each with a strict 20-minute time limit. Some subjects were gentle. Rochana Jayasinghe discussed the changing language of cricket: how pursed-lip fielding restrictions have become the bombastic power play, how terminology has become de-sexed (from batsman to batter), the invention of new words to describe new shots – the scoop, the helicopter, the switch hit, and with an eye to the future, the increasing use of AI and algorithmic language. There was also a cracking talk on cricket’s use of animation over the years from Loughborough University’s Paul Wells, who traced its development from Arthur Melbourne Cooper’s 1899 film of matchstick men batting, to the ball tracking seen today. But there was meat on the bone too. Hina Shafi is a year into her PhD on the ethnic profile of the ECB’s girls talent pathway and women’s Super League (with some of her funding coming from the ECB, SACA, ACE and Take Her Lead.) Her data analysis has found, frustratingly, though perhaps to no one’s great surprise, that black girls and women are under-represented throughout the talent pathway – amounting to less than 1% of those playing. In the professional game, only two of 157 women and girls are black. The data revealed too that although South Asian women are over represented at youth level, they become under represented when they get older – with only five players from that background currently in the professional game. Shafi’s research also showed that women from state school backgrounds are better represented than in the men’s game – at 69.3% of all those in the talent pathway, but private schools are still significantly over-represented (28.7%). In her second year, she will be working to find out why these anomalies exist. A second hair-raising talk came from Steve Menary. He has long looked into the way betting firms have got their teeth into sport, particularly football. But here he was focusing on cricket – specifically the burgeoning world of the T10, a format that isn’t recognised by the ICC and seems to be a yahooing wild west, where players fly in and out with abandon, pay is often hit and miss, and where cricketers inexplicably underperform. Scandals have hit the Abu Dhabi T10, the Lanka T10, the Zim Afro T10 and, surely, another T10 league near you anytime soon. Menary recommended that the ICC consider legitimising the format and providing integrity units at each pop-up competition at the organiser’s cost. As Alex Marshall, the head of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit, said as he came to the end of his term: “I am also absolutely sure that corruptors are constantly looking for a route into the game, particularly in badly run lower-level franchise leagues. The threat to the game is corruptors won’t go away while there is always money to be made and they will look for weakness in the system to get in.” Plenty here then for the ECB and Professional Cricketers’ Association (who both had representatives at the conference) to get their teeth into – as news broke that nouveau riche London Spirit are considering whether to include some of the MCC’s signature egg and bacon colours on their strip. Plus ça change … Quote of the week To be able to play for Middlesex – a fine club with a rich heritage – is really exciting and something that I’m really looking forward to being a part of” – Kane Williamson, after signing for a chunk of the 2025 season, including five County Championship games towards the business end of the summer. Quite the coup for a club that has been through the mill. | 