We recently asked cricket clubs on Twitter to share their selection policies and processes with us as part of some research we are doing for a Commercial Project. Thanks to all that responded, it has really helped and given a good overview of the various approaches that are used.
The majority of selection meetings were held on a Monday or Tuesday with Tuesday being the date most felt was appropriate as it gave players a chance to assess how they felt post weekend games, and players and families time to make weekend plans. This of course assumed that players were notified straight after selection as the vast majority were, although in one instance selection was on a Monday but teams weren’t officially announced until the Friday because the club didn’t want players to know they had only been selected as replacements.
Of those clubs selecting Wednesday onwards the majority confirmed this did cause a significant level of frustration amongst players and families who wanted (or needed) to plan their weekends.
By far the most popular means of communicating team selection was WhatsApp (which is understandable but is a personal hobby horse of Chris who thinks it is a very poor tool for this).
An encouraging number of cubs were using specific club management apps, many for the first time this year with the most regularly named ones being:
Deeper investigation showed a very broad use of these apps with some only using them to obtain availability, the majority having set up Team Squads and using them to notify, and very few actually using the club management and social media options (when available).
Most clubs used some form of social media to share the teams, with a primary reason being that it was a way of promoting sponsors across their social media platforms, but a few remained ‘old school’ and didn’t want their opponents knowing who was playing.