Paul Farbrace: Warwickshire boss defends County Championship after England failures
- Published
Paul Farbrace (left) left his job as England assistant coach in March 2019 to succeed Ashley Giles as Warwickshire sport director
Warwickshire boss Paul Farbrace has defended County Championship cricket in the wake of criticism following England's winter tour failures.
Prominent figures have suggested a major shake-up is needed as the current domestic system is not bringing through enough players of genuine Test quality.
But Farbrace told BBC Radio WM: "The County Championship is alive and well and producing high-quality players.
"It's really easy to kick it and say it's not producing players."
"That's rubbish," added the former England assistant coach. "It's a cop-out. I've been on the other side of that.
"I've been with England teams that have lost overseas and the finger always gets pointed at county cricket.
"Every time we lose in Australia we have some sort of review or report into English cricket."
Farbrace's comments came in response to midweek media speculation, external that there could be a new 12-team 'Premier League' created in county cricket.
The England and Wales Cricket Board issued a brief statement in response, saying: "The high performance review has not yet started so to suggest that any specific ideas about domestic structures are being proposed by the ECB is not true.
"Any speculation about the domestic structure beyond this season should be treated as such. We will share further details on the review process in due course."
Edgbaston pitch perfect
Warwickshire will start the new season as defending county champions and Farbrace believes one of the key aspects of last summer's success was their consistently excellent pitches.
It proved a factor in so many key Bears players finding their best form - most notably Dom Sibley, who after a serious winter of net practice to follow his fine late-season run in 2021, already looks a prime contender.
"We play on the best pitches in county cricket," Farbrace said.
"All our county championship matches except one went to after tea on the last day, so the likes of Rob Yates and Dom Sibley can stick their hands up and say they can play Test cricket. And Liam Norwell got over 50 wickets. That's why he got selected for the Lions and also as a replacement for the West Indies tour, getting wickets on good county pitches.
"Our groundsman Gary Barwell gets consistently high marks across the board whether it's white ball, red ball, a Test match, Central Sparks or Birmingham Phoenix.
"We ask him to prepare pitches on which edges carry to slip. It means everyone stays in the game. For the batters the ball is bouncing and you can play your shots. For the seamers the edges are carrying and the spinners are getting bounce even when there is no turn."
Champions Warwickshire will start as only third favourites, behind Lancashire and Essex, to retain their county title, as they did in 1995
Farbrace concedes that the constant mix of white and red-ball cricket in the modern game is hardly conducive to the sort of consistency, disciplined shot selection and mental application needed for Test cricket.
"White-ball cricket has become a problem for us coaches, " he said. "We have become a little lazy in our coaching. We have let players get away with lesser technique.
"But coaches have to be careful in what they say. The days are gone where you can tell someone their fortune without a right to reply. That's gone now.
"You can't coach like that any more. I started in coaching that way and I've had to change the way I operate.
"We've seen Justin Langer removed from his job with Australia as people perceived him to be too dictatorial, direct and grumpy.
"And yet we've also seen Chris Silverwood lose his role because people say he's not tough enough and too nice to the players.
"There's got to be some middle ground."
Paul Farbrace was talking to BBC Radio WM's Richard Wilford.