What its like working for the ECB with Rob Barnett
Rob Barnett is a Christian and a sports journalist who has worked on the team that runs the England & Wales Cricket Board’s website for almost a decade. For the last 18 months he has been its editor.
There is rarely a dull moment running the England & Wales Cricket Board’s website. Whether it is writing about the highs and lows of the England team, an exciting county match or a breaking news story, there always seems to be something to capture the imagination. |
In the last 10 days English cricket has featured heavily in sports news with Andrew Strauss being appointed the ECB’s director of cricket, Peter Moores losing his job as England head coach and the continued non-selection of Kevin Pietersen by England.
With such delicate matters as Moores and Pietersen, it is vital that the website strikes the right tone, being consistent with the official ECB releases that are distributed to the media and published on the website.
For example, it was important to report heavily on Pietersen’s spectacular 335 not out for Surrey in the County Championship, as we would have done had anyone else made such a high score, but not link it with a possible England recall like most media outlets were doing.
It is worth noting at this point that the ECB website is jointly run by the ECB and the Press Association, whose sports department is in Howden, East Yorkshire. This is where I work, rather than Lord’s, and I am a Press Association employee rather than an ECB one.
The Press Association aims for its reporting to be ‘fast, fair and accurate’ which, as a Christian, I consider to be worthy principles. In spite of this, not all Press Association cricket content is suitable for the ECB website.
Our correspondent’s report of Pietersen’s triple-century was excellently written, but done so in the context of a possible England recall. It therefore needed editing to reflect what a brilliant innings Pietersen had played, but not to speculate whether it would result in him playing for England again.
While our county reports come from correspondents at the matches, the website team produces a lot of its own other content such as England reports, news stories and features.
We are lucky enough to report from home England internationals while overseas fixtures are covered from the office (with some interesting-timed shifts to do the latter).
As well as reporting on the England men’s team, we also cover the highly-successful England women’s side and various other ECB-funded England teams like those with disabilities. I particularly enjoy writing about the teams that get less coverage elsewhere.
The ECB website remains a bastion for the county game. With this getting less coverage these days from most newspapers and broadcasters, the website is one of the few places where you can read reports on all matches as well as getting the latest news and match highlights.
While relatively few people (are able to) go to County Championship matches, I know a lot follow them online. I feel this is reflected in attendances for the T20 Blast, which is played at times that suit spectators better like Friday evenings.
With such delicate matters as Moores and Pietersen, it is vital that the website strikes the right tone, being consistent with the official ECB releases that are distributed to the media and published on the website.
For example, it was important to report heavily on Pietersen’s spectacular 335 not out for Surrey in the County Championship, as we would have done had anyone else made such a high score, but not link it with a possible England recall like most media outlets were doing.
It is worth noting at this point that the ECB website is jointly run by the ECB and the Press Association, whose sports department is in Howden, East Yorkshire. This is where I work, rather than Lord’s, and I am a Press Association employee rather than an ECB one.
The Press Association aims for its reporting to be ‘fast, fair and accurate’ which, as a Christian, I consider to be worthy principles. In spite of this, not all Press Association cricket content is suitable for the ECB website.
Our correspondent’s report of Pietersen’s triple-century was excellently written, but done so in the context of a possible England recall. It therefore needed editing to reflect what a brilliant innings Pietersen had played, but not to speculate whether it would result in him playing for England again.
While our county reports come from correspondents at the matches, the website team produces a lot of its own other content such as England reports, news stories and features.
We are lucky enough to report from home England internationals while overseas fixtures are covered from the office (with some interesting-timed shifts to do the latter).
As well as reporting on the England men’s team, we also cover the highly-successful England women’s side and various other ECB-funded England teams like those with disabilities. I particularly enjoy writing about the teams that get less coverage elsewhere.
The ECB website remains a bastion for the county game. With this getting less coverage these days from most newspapers and broadcasters, the website is one of the few places where you can read reports on all matches as well as getting the latest news and match highlights.
While relatively few people (are able to) go to County Championship matches, I know a lot follow them online. I feel this is reflected in attendances for the T20 Blast, which is played at times that suit spectators better like Friday evenings.
Naturally, social media plays a big part in what the website team does. We have to monitor Twitter, in particular, for breaking news. The website team jointly runs the ECB’s Twitter account with the governing body, tweeting our content to the ECB’s near half-a-million followers.
While there is plenty of hard work and long hours involved, we are blessed with some wonderful opportunities such as reporting at home England internationals and interviewing some high-profile cricketers.
I’m always interested to know about cricketers who are Christians. I know Derbyshire captain Wayne Madsen is. England fast bowler James Anderson wears a cross around his neck, although I don’t know if he is a practising Christian.
Sadly, in a way, I won’t be working for the ECB website team for much longer. Excitingly, I am getting married to the lovely Roz in July and later this year we are going to work for a Christian charity in Brazil for six months.
Roz and I have felt the urge to do something different after we get married and we have had the opportunity to work for ReVive International, an organisation that runs a safe house for school girls from troubled backgrounds like prostitution.
Whether I’ll work in sports journalism again, only God knows.
While there is plenty of hard work and long hours involved, we are blessed with some wonderful opportunities such as reporting at home England internationals and interviewing some high-profile cricketers.
I’m always interested to know about cricketers who are Christians. I know Derbyshire captain Wayne Madsen is. England fast bowler James Anderson wears a cross around his neck, although I don’t know if he is a practising Christian.
Sadly, in a way, I won’t be working for the ECB website team for much longer. Excitingly, I am getting married to the lovely Roz in July and later this year we are going to work for a Christian charity in Brazil for six months.
Roz and I have felt the urge to do something different after we get married and we have had the opportunity to work for ReVive International, an organisation that runs a safe house for school girls from troubled backgrounds like prostitution.
Whether I’ll work in sports journalism again, only God knows.