Wales Is Treated As A Second Tier Nation In Law and Order......And In Cricket

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Haven't been blogging for a while. Am awaiting one thing before chatting about the mystery of a dead caravan. But for the moment let's chat about minor issues like law and order.

Wales is a nation. Let's mention that first. It's not a town snuggled up in the Midlands to remembered only in election times. And yet it is denied powers that are given to cities let alone nations. Policing and justice responsibilities have been under the control of the Scottish government since devolution but does Cardiff Bay have a sniff of them? A chance of getting them? Well of course not. And with political slimeball Alun Cairns at the helm at the Welsh Office that won't happen.

Manchester has powers over policing. London will have some powers over Justice. Yet Wales, a nation, is being told to be grateful with what you have and run away like a good little child..

I have said before, and will say again in my blog until I'm blue in the face, that all of this stems from the fact that the Welsh people (taken as a whole) are just far too nice. Liberties and rights are denied them because they are just too nice to argue. "Mustn't grumble" is a phrase I hear when someone moans about some aspect of Wales that's not right. Well perhaps the Welsh people should grumble, and shout, and like the Scots shout loudly.

And this placidity permeates into sport. The governing body of Cricket in Wales is the ECB. Now those not used to the acronym might think that the C in ECB stands for Cymru. No it stands for Cricket. So to be clear the English and Wales Cricket Board does not have Wales in it's acronym at all.

A minor thing you might say. But I'd argue that symbolism is everything. It should be the EWCB. But Wales is absent from the acronym. Subsumed into England.

As indeed is the team. When Test Matches are played it should be England and Wales vs [insert a test playing nation here]. But no when Welsh players play an important international game they play for England.

You know the arguments already against Wales having it's own test team. The biggest is that it will be a minnow against more powerful opponents (including England). But Cricketing independence is an allegory for political independence as well. For whilst a Welsh cricket test team would indeed be small initially, and will falter. It will also grow, establish itself and then thrive amongst other cricketing nations.

And perhaps subconsciously, that's why it's not yet happened.

Until the next time.