And wasnt he punished for his temerity! I’m not saying that’s the only issue, but there seems to be more equality of opportunity in places like Australia and India to progress in the game - although climate clearly has a hand in that.
Not strictly true. Alex Davis, Parkinson twins, Habeeb Hameed, Jordan Clark, Steve Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood are all good players that have come through the Lancs. Academy in recent years to name but a few (there are plenty of others that play for Lancs or moved on to other counties); not one of those is anything other than a working class lad - several of them are from deepest Cumbria.
Many of them benefitted from a private education though - because Lancs recognised their potential, invested in these working class lads, scooped them up and paid for them to go to the Bolton School.
I can't think of a single traditional private middle class boy at Lancs. since possibly Atherton. Perhaps I have missed one amongst the dozens of working class kids given their chance.
It may be the case that posh kids are getting better opportunities in the home counties (I haven't checked the socio/economic backgrounds, so maybe not either) but by that token you could argue they are being under represented in the Northern counties.
Also last time I checked all forms of the England teams had a very healthy smattering of Lancs., Yorks. and other non Home Counties players in their ranks.
Thinking about it, it's actually got bugger all to do with class, or inequality. Perhaps we should be more successful at producing players from minority backgrounds given the potential there, but even so Lancs are doing their bit and I know for a fact that Middlesex invest very heavily in programs for the under privileged and BME communities. Yorkshire may benefit from having a word with themselves in this area.
Overall though, it overwhelmingly has everything to do with cricket being in decline (hundreds of small clubs have gone) whereas cricket remains disproportionately more popular in some countries, whilst other countries, particularly India have significantly more participants than the UK.