This was another bad day for the endangered species that is Test cricket.
Spectators who had shelled out a minimum of £60 were condemned to watching
the rain fall sporadically for seven hours, though never in sufficient
quantity to put a miserable third day of this first npower Test match
swiftly out of its misery.
While they sipped beer or wine watered down by the rain, punters had time to
consider that they might next time prefer to spend their money on a Twenty20
match. At least if that was rained off, there would be less hanging around
and – were there to be any cricket – a more enterprising approach than we
have seen here.
Play was finally called off at 5.30pm, with only 53 balls and 21 runs scored
in the day, during which England progressed from 68 for no wicket to 89 for
none. The prospect of a full refund on their tickets, as less than 10 overs
had been bowled, was probably scant consolation for many in the near 30,000
capacity crowd. The public appear to be already voting with their feet, as
5,000 tickets remain unsold for today.
The outlook was slightly rosier for the England players, who had time to
reflect on further lucrative pay-days coming their way. In the next few
days, the England and Wales Cricket Board is to confirm that the deal with
Sir Allen Stanford is done, a key element of which will be that the $20m
Twenty20 challenge match in Antigua in November will not be
winner-takes-all.
Instead, the West Indies board will be guaranteed a substantial sum regardless
of the result - one of Stanford’s principal aims is to support Caribbean
cricket – while the losing players will each be guaranteed personal
appearance fees of around £55,000. That would leave the victors sharing a
cool £7m.
England are expected to send a squad of 15, mostly made up of centrally
contracted players. This, it is hoped, will discourage them from agitating
hard to be allowed to play in the Indian Premier League next year. Kevin
Pietersen, or his representatives, seem to be in full agitation mode
already, though they must know that the schedule will only permit him to
visit India briefly and earn a fraction of the multi-million-dollar deals
being talked of.
Any player – even Pietersen – wanting to play in the IPL must gain the consent
of Peter Moores, the England coach, who alone has the power to release them
from their central contracts. Moores says he will not be rushed into making
a decision, but appears sympathetic.
“I think we’ve got to give an opportunity to players if it feels like it is
right for them in their England careers,” Moores said. “We can’t just stop
them for the sake of it. But my job as head coach is to make sure they’re
fit to deliver for England. Certainly the prospect of England players
playing there [India] is one we should consider because it only seems fair
to everybody. But each player has to be treated as an individual case.”
England players may be concerned to hear that Paul Marsh, chief executive of
the Australian Cricketers’ Association, has confirmed that several
Australian players have yet to receive their IPL wages. One player reported
that he had been told three times that his pay was on the way.
Meanwhile, Steve Harmison’s chances of a quick recall to the England squad
improved with the news that Matthew Hoggard is out of the second Test in
Manchester, which starts on Friday, after an x-ray revealed he had sustained
a fracture to his right thumb while batting for Yorkshire against Durham.
Ironically, it was Harmison’s bowling that did the damage.
Harmison’s excellent Test record at Old Trafford would make him a natural
choice, provided the selectors felt he was bowling well enough. He claimed
six wickets in the victory over Yorkshire, though he was outbowled by Graham
Onions, himself a candidate for an England call-up. Harmison boasts 17
wickets from his last two Tests in Manchester, largely because a fast wicket
boosts his fragile confidence.
The day began quite brightly, with the start delayed by only 25 minutes.
Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss were pursuing their first century stand
together as openers and respite from the charge that they are both too
cautious to provide a positive lead.
Here, though, Cook has looked eager to latch onto anything loose against a New
Zealand attack lacking, if not ideas, a magic spark as they probed both
left-handers from round and over the wicket. Both men, however, have played
enough innings at Lord’s to know how to combat the vagaries of the famous
slope.
There was little chance of them misjudging the line as Daniel Vettori, the New
Zealand captain, had done when shouldering arms to be bowled by Ryan
Sidebottom. It did not help New Zealand’s cause that Tim Southee, so
exciting in the last meeting between the teams, does not look fully fit.
The theory that Cook and Strauss do not bat well together is in any case
something of a myth: they have shared two century stands for the second
wicket, most recently in Wellington in March, and overall have added more
runs in tandem than any other pairing among the present top six except
Pietersen and Paul Collingwood.
They worked together happily enough for 40 minutes before the rain returned.
After beginning watchfully against Chris Martin and Kyle Mills, they had
started to open up shortly before the rain arrived.
Strauss cut Martin over the slips for four, to take his run-tally in Lord’s
Tests past Denis Comp-ton and into sixth place on the all-time list. A few
moments later, Cook punched Mills through the covers off the back foot to
bring up his own half-cen-tury, his fifth in eight Test innings at Lord’s.
Cook, only 23, is young enough to end up scoring more Test runs at Lord’s
than anyone.
Should the weather improve, England have the platform to build a decisive
first-innings score, but their approach may need to be more positive than it
has been. Though there is nothing they can do about the weather, they could
have shown more enterprise on Friday by opting to bat on after being offered
the light at around 3.15pm.
The umpires, too, could have been more proactive. If this had been a Twenty20
match, more would surely have been done. Test cricket cannot afford to take
itself too seriously at a time when its popularity is threatened.
In PR terms, this match has been very unfortunate. Spectators were treated to
the equivalent of less than two sessions of play on both Thursday and Friday
and yesterday promised to be more frustrating still. As rain rather than
poor light was to blame, the spectators took their disappointment in largely
good part, mollified perhaps by the decision to put live coverage of the FA
Cup final on the big screens.
In these situations the umpires are liable to be the focal point for the ire
of the people and it was awkward for Steve Bucknor that he was on duty here
for his first big match since his part in the acrimonious New Year Test at
Sydney which led to his suspension. Nor has his part in the World Cup final
fiasco in Bridget-own been forgotten.
For Friday’s match in Manchester, Bucknor will be replaced by Darrell Hair -
another official anxious to restore his tarnished reputation - before
returning for the final Test in Nottingham.
