8:50am Friday 18th July 2008
By Guy Haynes
ONCE again, the weather played a starring role in last weekend’s league programme; although only two matches were cancelled, they did involve Walshaw, who are in second place, and Edgworth, who are fourth.
Atherton beat Darcy Lever to overtake them in the table, otherwise the top teams that managed to play all won in a fairly routine fashion.
As my Edgworth team chased the league title last season, several of the club’s old sages warned me that weather always played a part in the title race – if you are lucky, you will play while your rivals sit and watch the rain fall; if not, they will play while you struggle to get the ground fit.
Last season, Edgworth probably got the good breaks with the weather; so far this year, it is first-placed Daisy Hill whose lucky numbers have come up, and second-placed Walshaw who have suffered more than most. While Walshaw have lost four games to the weather (only Astley and Tyldesley can match this), Daisy Hill have remarkably completed every match – the only club in the league to do so.
Had Walshaw won those four games, they would be a whopping 36 points better off; as it is they lie 12 points behind Daisy, despite only losing one game. It is Daisy Hill’s to lose at the moment, though there are still as many as six teams hot on their heels.
Last week’s monsoon-like weather up at Edgworth gave no realistic prospect for play, which gave me a rare opportunity to watch some Test cricket. England bowled remarkably well during Saturday afternoon to enforce the follow-on, and Lancashire’s James Anderson, pictured, bowling with superb discipline, pace and control, did much to answer the critics who suggest he is a liability in unhelpful bowling conditions.
Well, conditions do not come much more unhelpful than they were at Lord’s, where England and South Africa would have struggled to get a result in seven days, let alone five.
There have now been six consecutive draws at the home of cricket, and Test match cricket in England faces a problem. After the final two days, bereft of the tension and simmering drama that typifies Test cricket at its best, the match ended as a draw.
I would say the real winner was Twenty20 cricket.
From Lord’s at one end of the scale, the teams go to Headingley at the other – a ground where Test matches are more likely to last three days than five. Looking at the international rota for the next couple of years, we see a trend towards new grounds with superb corporate facilities such as the Rose Bowl, Sophia Gardens and the Riverside. It can take a long time for the pitches at these new grounds to mature into good cricket wickets, so get ready for more three-day tests where ball totally dominates bat.
While Twenty20 cricket attracts the money, the crowds, and the top players, Test cricket faces a real challenge – to be the ultimate test of cricketers’ ability, and to stay relevant in a time when sport is primarily about cheap thrills and instant gratification.
Test match cricket is all about a good contest between ball and bat, where the best batsmen and bowlers can succeed if they play to their best, but where the mediocre are found out. If ordinary batsmen can dominate quality bowlers – as happened at Lords – or if average bowlers can terrorise great batsmen – as happens year in, year out at Headingley - then Test cricket has no relevance, no appeal to the masses.
Yet the ECB will be delighted; the corporate types will have loved their prawn sandwiches in their pleasant surroundings, celebrities such as Stephen Fry and Ronnie Corbett – who probably don’t know their square cuts from their on drives – managed to get their faces on television, and the sheer tedium of the cricket will have driven most of the crowd to drink, so the bar takings look fabulous as well. But what about the millions of viewers on Sky, what about the poor folk who paid £75 to watch Hashim Amla and Neil Mackenzie spend a full day practising their forward defensives?
On a local level, what about the cricket fans in Lancashire? The county with more high quality league cricket than any other, the county whose leagues attracted the likes of Viv Richards, Allan Donald, Steve Waugh and Garry Sobers to their clubs. The county where a league fixture last Sunday between Rawtenstall and Haslingden attracted nearly a thousand spectators (a fixture, incidentally, where two former Elton players – Steve Dearden and John Pemberton – played starring roles). And most importantly, the county that possesses a ground with what is widely perceived to be one of the best three Test match pitches in the world, the ground that hosted the brilliant drawn Test in 2005 between England and Australia.
Well, Old Trafford will not host a Test match until 2012, and the people of Lancashire who turn out on a weekly basis to watch league cricket will have to travel to watch live Test cricket. The ECB has sold out to the highest bidder – the 2009 Ashes Test match is to be played at Sophia Gardens, a venue not even built when the decision was made. Shame on them.
Meanwhile, Lord’s – host to tedious draw after tedious draw – is guaranteed two Tests every summer.
With the huge amounts of money that Twenty20 cricket is attracting to the game, the ECB has a rare opportunity to address the issue of Test match cricket’s appeal and relevance without worrying about its finances. Old Trafford, despite the obvious shortcomings of its facilities, has the best Test pitch in the country and could host quality Test cricket for years to come. The multitude of knowledgeable Lancashire fans deserve to see the world’s best players in their own back yard.
English cricket has put short term financial greed ahead of the long term future of Test cricket. This must change before it’s too late.
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