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Tag: stokes

  • Naive England given reality check in Lord’s thrashing

    England vs South Africa
    1st Test (of 3)
    Lord’s, London
    17th, 18th, 19th August 2022
    Result: South Africa (326) beat England (165 & 149) by an innings and 12 runs

    The latest issue of The Cricketer magazine was laying on the doormat when I got home from work on Friday. Its front cover asked the question: “Can the Proteas’ pace attack puncture Bazball?”. As I was unwrapping it, on my television the tall South African seamer Marco Jansen bowled James Anderson to seal a thumping win for the tourists inside three days. The early evidence would suggest the answer to that question is “yes”.

    The first half of the English Test summer had been full of positivity. New captain Ben Stokes and new coach Brendon McCullum combined to instill a never-say-die attitude into the ailing red ball side, an aura of self-belief that carried England to four wins in a row. They benefited from New Zealand suffering from a lack of form and a spate of injuries – their best batter, Kane Williamson, is going through one of the worst patches of his career and their best bowler, Trent Boult, was wary having just taken part in a full-on season of the Indian Premier League. Colin de Grandhomme and Kyle Jamieson both succumbed to injury during the series and had to fly home. Yet, the Black Caps were in a position to win each of the three matches. At Lord’s, they had England on the ropes in the fourth innings but took the wickets of Stokes off a no ball, a reprieve that proved fatal. Then in Nottingham, a Jonny Bairstow inspired England powered to a final day chase that would previously have been seen as impossible. At Headingley, the home side were 55 for 6 in their first innings but were rescued by Bairstow and Jamie Overton.

    It went down in the record books as a series whitewash, but closer inspection reveals a story that wasn’t so one-sided. India were also sent packing in the Test rescheduled from last year, at Edgbaston, though you wonder how. Rishabh Pant made a brilliant hundred on the first day, then on the second Stuart Broad was whacked for a record 35 off one over. India were on top for so much of the game but didn’t bowl well in the final innings and Bairstow and Joe Root made the chase look easy. England’s daring new approach to the Test format is undoubtedly exciting – they back themselves to play their natural games, never give up and when one falls short they believe they will always have someone who will step up. The media coined it Bazball, named after the Kiwi coach in the sunglasses with the beard who looked cooly on from the balcony. The squad and the management themselves hate the term. They feel it cheapens what they’re doing and is used on social media to poke fun at the England team when it doesn’t all go to plan.

    It’s safe to say it didn’t go to plan this week. The series against South Africa had an oddly low key build up. It started six weeks after the India match ended, following a block of mostly disappointing white ball cricket and with the Hundred and the new football season in full swing. The first match was over so quickly that there is a chance some will not have noticed it. There had been plenty of chat in the days before the game, with South Africa captain Dean Elgar giving his opinion on Bazball (he’s not a fan) and Sam Billings giving his response. Billings had just captained an England Lions team (second string) to a big win over South Africa, in which they amassed 672 at nearly a run a ball. There was a bit of spice about the series not usually seen outside an Ashes. Elgar’s team had to back it up.

    South Africa captain Dean Elgar

    They did. All of England’s victories so far in the summer had come from chasing in the final innings, so Elgar turned the tables by putting Stokes’s men into bat on Wednesday morning. Then the mightily impressive South Africa pace bowlers got to work. Before long, England were 55 for 4 with both Root and Bairstow out for a combined 8 runs. The summer of 2022 has been characterised by very hot and dry weather, so naturally the first day of a Test match lasted just more than one session before it was abandoned due to heavy rain.

    It didn’t take long for South Africa to wrap up the England innings on Thursday. All out for 165 in just 45 overs. Ollie Pope, with 73, was the only batter able to offer any resistance. Kagiso Rabada took 5-52. South Africa’s openers then demonstrated anti-Bazball, if you will, seeing off the new ball nicely and putting on 85 for the first wicket until Elgar was extremely unfortunate to deflect an innocuous Anderson delivery with his arm onto his stumps. His opening partner, Sarel Erwee, ground out 73 from 146 balls – by no means an attractive innings, but one that put his side in control. England should take note. All but two of the South Africans made it into double figures, compared to the four that got past single digits in the England innings. They were all out for 326 in the 90th over, 161 runs ahead.

    Kagiso Rabada took 7 wickets in the match

    Zak Crawley was the first to go, as usual, in what must surely be his final appearance for a while in the England side. They seem to have such confidence in him that it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he were to line up at Old Trafford on Thursday, but with form players waiting in the wings, I just cannot see how the Kent man can continue wasting a place in the batting order. After Crawley, it was a procession of England wickets as their innings lasted a mere 37.4 overs. Only a fifty partnership between Stokes and Stuart Broad delayed the inevitable. South Africa had won by an innings – they had not just beaten England, they had embarrassed them.

    Let’s not pretend otherwise. For a team to be beaten by an innings within three days (don’t forget, the first day was largely washed out) – at home, especially – that’s bad. Lord’s will have to refund all the ticket holders for the weekend. Against the top teams, England have to realise that they are not always going to be able to assert their own style on the game. They are going to have to adapt to a situation, to play smart cricket. It was the lack of smart cricket that bothered me the most. It’s fine being ultra-positive, always setting attacking fields and playing the attacking shots, but at times the game demands that you think sensibly and do what is required to find a way back in. If that means keeping the flow of runs down for a while or blocking out a session, so be it. I’m all for the Bazball intention of having utter belief in your ability, but please use your brains. Oh, and drop Zak Crawley.

    The second Test starts on Thursday 25th August, 11am at Old Trafford, Manchester.

  • The Hundred might look like a good thing but it’s causing big problems for cricket

    A reminder: cricket is the best sport in the world. I feel it worth reminding everyone because I’m about to spend a few minutes chewing my nails about its current state and future direction.

    If you’re not a dedicated follower of the game, you would be forgiven for thinking that all is well and that cricket is entering the national consciousness more than it has done for some time. You may have noticed that BBC Two have shown a couple of matches from the first week of the Hundred tournament, and that cricket has also been a part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

    The Hundred is controversial because, while its outward intention is noble in attempting to get new fans interested in cricket, it has gone about this by implying that the traditional game can’t be sold to the public. The fundamentals – such as an over consisting of six balls – have been thrown out of the window, creating a whole new format that no one else in the world plays and bears little resemblence to the others. If the Hundred is meant to be gaining new fans for cricket, what is the point of changing the rules to the extent that those new fans will find it difficult to get into Test matches or One Day Internationals?

    Aside from the format, the Hundred disposes of the traditional county teams and is competed for by sides that reek of a marketing agency brainstorming session. If you think the Manchester Originals and the Welsh Fire sound tacky, you should see their logos. Obviously, in England we only have a few months of the year to play cricket so adding the Hundred to the calendar has raised serious questions about overly packed schedules and player burnout. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have made it clear that the Hundred is their marquee tournament – it gets the biggest marketing budget – and therefore it gets the prime place in the summer, during the school holidays. The T20 Blast, which since its inception in 2003 had been English cricket’s great domestic money spinner, was done and dusted by the time the kids broke up.

    Hampshire won the 2022 T20 Blast, but you’d be forgiven for having missed it

    Personally, I’m not a fan. I may have been a cricket devotee for twenty years but I’m not one of those pig-headed enough to think the game doesn’t have to appeal to new audiences. Ever since England internationals were sold to Sky in 2006, the game has waned in its relevance to the public. Children aren’t becoming obsessed by the sport by stumbling across it on Channel 4, like I did. Players like Joe Root and Ben Stokes should be rock stars, yet they could walk down most streets unnoticed. The Hundred does at least put cricket back on terrestrial television, yet in my opinion at an unnecessarily high cost. Pumping the same money into the T20 Blast, pushing it into the public eye on BBC TV at the height of summer would surely have had the same effect.

    I do still watch the Hundred. It is still cricket, and I doubt the impact of an individual boycotting something like that. But when I see the BBC Two coverage starting with a sort of rap/hip hop tune in its opening titles, I get the impression that this tournament isn’t for me. Every effort is made to appeal to young people, to ‘urbanise’ the game, and in a way it feels like a bit of an insult to cricket itself because the game is already great. I feel nothing for the teams, being made up and not steeped in any kind of history of tradition, and it takes me a while to remember who won its first edition last year (it was Southern Brave).

    So for all the Hundred is doing in appealing to new fans, it leaves us with a summer schedule bursting at the seams. Ben Stokes, arguably England’s most exciting player, withdrew from the tournament last summer as well as all other forms of cricket to prioritise his mental health. This year, he announced before it had even started that he wasn’t going to play in it before retiring from ODIs, citing having to play too often as one of the reasons for his decision. Having only just turned 31 and three years on from almost single-handedly winning the World Cup for England, these should be the prime years of his career so it should be a significant warning to the authorities that he felt his only option was to walk away.

    Ben Stokes played his last ODI in July, before retiring from the format at the age of 31

    The Hundred is just one of many domestic tournaments around the world that cricketers can sign up for. Unlike football, the international game has traditionally been seen as the most important and most lucrative. This has changed dramatically since the Indian Premier League (IPL) was launched in 2008. According to an article by Tim Wigmore in the August issue of Wisden Cricket Monthly, the IPL’s latest broadcasting rights deal will see each live match generate £12 million – out of all the sports leagues in the world, only the NFL (American Football) is more lucrative. Keen to grab their own slice of the pie, other tournaments have popped up all over the world. There is the Big Bash in Australia, the Pakistan Super League, and a new one that is due to launch in the United Arab Emirates early next year.

    The Indian Premier League has been an astonishing success

    Professional cricketers can earn life changing sums of money from playing in these tournaments all over the world. Only players from India, Australia and England could hope to earn as much from playing for their countries. This has left players with extraordinary decisions to make, and increasingly they are prioritising representing an IPL franchise over playing for their nations. It’s a worrying situation, and the Hundred is only adding to the headache.

  • Cricket is better than football

    England vs New Zealand
    2nd Test (of 3)
    Trent Bridge, Nottingham
    10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th June 2022
    Result: England (539 & 299-5) beat New Zealand (553 & 284) by 5 wickets

    Jonny Bairstow’s astonishing century won the second Test for England

    Sport is my strongest passion. My life is essentially a continuous festival of sport, and football and cricket are the headline acts. I love them both, but it might surprise some to learn that in the unlikely situation I was forced to sacrifice one to keep the other cricket would be my number one.

    It’s not easy to argue cricket’s case in the face of a sport that dominates as football does. Governing body FIFA estimates that 4% of the world’s population are active players or referees, and 3.2 billion watched the 2018 World Cup on television. In Britain, it feels like someone you meet is more likely to be a football fan than not and it is often a safe bet to use a following of the game as an ice breaker.

    Cricket is actually the second most popular sport in the world, though the numbers are boosted somewhat by its obsessed following in very large countries such as India and Pakistan. Here, it is not so common to come across a fellow cricket fan (even less so one in their twenties like me) and it at times feels like a passion – a guilty pleasure – to be kept a secret, fearful of hearing some nonsense about it being “boring”.

    I expect many to scoff at this, but I believe cricket is far from a boring sport and actually more exciting than football. You see, in football the sole aim of the game is to score a goal. Everyone watching is waiting to see a goal. Some will say they are interested in the tactical battle or the attractive passing style of play, but deep down they just want to see a goal. Even when a goalkeeper makes a great save, what the neutrals really wanted to see was a goal. Absolute goal fests in high level professional football are, however, very rare – that’s why they get talked about so much when they do come along – so in reality most football fans are disappointed and bored more often than not. People keep watching, keep turning up for each game because maybe, just maybe, the next one will be the one with all the goals in it.

    Every ball of a cricket match is an event. It has lulls of course, every sport does, but it can’t possibly be boring in comparison to football because you could see the equivalent of a goal every few seconds. Each time the bowler approaches the crease, there is so much that can happen. Perhaps a wicket will be taken – stumps flying everywhere, a stunning catch – or maybe the batter will whack it out of the ground, or try a risky reverse sweep. No one has ever unironically enjoyed a 0-0 result in football, either, while in cricket a draw can sometimes be among the most thrilling things ever to happen in any sport.

    Daryl Mitchell scored a century and a half century in the match but was on the losing side

    With three distinct forms of cricket (four if you count the Hundred, which I don’t), the thrills come in many ways. The five day Test match is my favourite and the game that finished on Tuesday, with England winning at Trent Bridge, is one of the best I’ve seen in nearly twenty years as a fan.

    A flat pitch and a small ground meant a total of 1,675 runs were scored, compared to 837 in the first Test at Lord’s last week. 249 boundaries were hit across the five days, a record for a Test match. New Zealand, missing their captain Kane Williamson because he tested positive for Covid on the eve of the match, made the most of being put into bat by racking up 553. Nine of the eleven batters made it into double figures, with Daryl Mitchell adding 190 to his century at Lord’s and Tom Blundell joining him with 106. On Saturday, many were saying that England had gone back to their old ways – they got the decision at the toss wrong, they didn’t bowl well, they were wasting reviews.

    The new approach from the skipper Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum is always to take the positive option, and England were certainly positive with the bat. Scoring more than 500 in the first innings will usually ensure that you don’t lose the Test, at least, but New Zealand remarkably found themselves beaten by five wickets with a whopping 22 overs unbowled on the last evening.

    From Alex Lees starting to express himself as a Test opener with 67 and 44, to Ollie Pope’s long awaited second Test century, Joe Root continuing his astonishing run of form with 176 and Ben Stokes seeing England over the line with 75 off just 70 balls, it has been a series to savour for the batters.

    Then there’s Jonny Bairstow. In my piece about the Lord’s Test, I was dropping Jonny for Trent Bridge and criticising his recent lack of red ball cricket. More fool me. Unleased, given licence to go full on white ball mode, he cracked one of the great Test innings. 136 off 92 balls makes it the second fastest century by an England batter in this form of the game and, though he nicked behind and wasn’t there at the end, he had certainly “broken the back of it” in his words. An extraordinary cricketer.

    England complete a win that will live long in the memory

    At the end of it, England have won a series for the first time in 18 months and go to Headingley for the last match full of confidence. For all the positives, Zak Crawley contributed only 4 runs in the game and Jack Leach sent down some very uninspiring spells of slow left arm bowling. So, will they be tempted into a change for Leeds? Here is who I would pick:

    1. Alex Lees
    2. Rory Burns/Ben Compton
    3. Ollie Pope
    4. Joe Root
    5. Jonny Bairstow
    6. Ben Stokes (c)
    7. Ben Foakes (wk)
    8. Stuart Broad
    9. Matty Potts
    10. James Anderson
    11. Matt Parkinson

    I maintain that there is still a Test match opener in Rory Burns, who scored a timely century for Surrey this week. Ben Compton is still in excellent form for Kent so should also be in with a shout. I expect them to stick with Crawley, mind. They might decide to rest one or both of Anderson and Broad, the veterans having played two in a row. Jamie Overton has been called into the squad. Matty Potts deserves another go. I completely understood the decision to stick with Jack Leach, who never got the chance to make an impact at Lord’s as he left with concussion after about an hour, but it just doesn’t seem like he’ll ever worry a batter. Parkinson should play in his place.

    Just over a year ago, New Zealand sportingly set England 273 to win from about 75 overs at Lord’s. There were no World Test Championship points on the line in that series, so not much to lose. They didn’t go for it, and trundled to 170 for 3 and a draw. It’s incredible how much things have changed. 299 in 72 overs is a stiff ask, and at 93 for 4 even I would have been inclined to shut up shop and take the draw, but this England side are afraid of nothing. That last day needs to be seen to be believed, so I’ve put the highlights video below.

  • Talking points from England’s brilliant win in the second Test

    England beat the West Indies by 113 runs in the second Test at Old Trafford

    The first international cricket played since the start of the coronavirus pandemic has not disappointed. The Test series between England and the West Indies is level at 1-1 going into the final match on Friday after the home side completed a superb 113 run win today. Here are a few talking points I’ve found from the second Test.

    First innings runs were key

    England were bowled out for 204 in their first innings in the first Test at the Rose Bowl, a match they went on to lose by 4 wickets. They arrived at Old Trafford knowing they needed to post a bigger total and they did so, amassing 469-9 before declaring on the second evening. It was slow going – they took 162 overs to score those runs and Dom Sibley’s 120 came from 372 balls, the third slowest ever by an England batsman in a home Test. I have read a few pieces criticising Sibley for batting too slowly – frankly, that’s ridiculous. England have been crying out for a solid opening batsman ever since the retirement of Alastair Cook and now they’ve got one we must not start moaning at him. Remember, they tried to turn limited overs opener Jason Roy into a Test batsman last summer and the experiment was a total failure. The value of building a big first innings total cannot be overestimated, no matter how slowly it comes.

    Dom Sibley batted for more than nine hours in scoring his first innings century

    Stokes just gets better and better

    What a cricketer Ben Stokes is. We already knew that after last year – England would not have won the World Cup without his innings in the final and he batted them to a quite simply miraculous victory in the Ashes Test at Headingley. The way he has resurrected his career since that incident in Bristol could have so easily killed it has been incredible, and how lucky we are that we haven’t lost a player of his calibre.

    Ben Stokes was the man of the match

    In the first innings Stokes scored 176, but said he was ‘more buzzing’ to have faced 300 balls in his innings because ‘it’s something I never thought I would be capable of doing’. In the second innings, when England were looking for quick runs to set up a winning position, Stokes was sent in as opener and cracked 78 off just 57 balls. Later in the day, after fielding a ball on the boundary off his own bowling at one point, he took the crucial wicket of Jermaine Blackwood on the stroke of Tea – just as the West Indies looked like they might be settling in for the draw. Stokes is quite simply indispensable.

    Write off Broad at your peril

    Stuart Broad was dropped for the first Test at the Rose Bowl, the first time that had happened to him in a home Test for eight years. The 34-year-old said he was ‘frustrated, angry and gutted’ to have been left out, so when he was brought back at Old Trafford while James Anderson and Mark Wood were rested he was determined to prove a point. On the fourth afternoon, with the draw the most likely result, Broad took 3 wickets for one run with the new ball to turn the game in England’s favour. He took 3-42 in the second innings. His powers are certainly not waning and he is now just nine away from 400 Test wickets.

    Stuart Broad is closing in on 400 Test wickets

    Who do England pick for the third Test?

    The Covid-19 pandemic has forced the English cricket season to include six Test in seven weeks, and the third Test against the West Indies starts in just four days’ time. Do England go with the same eleven, adhering to the old adage that you ‘never change a winning team’? Or are there decisions to be made?

    The batting line up was impressive in the second match, putting a big total on the board in the first innings and being versatile enough to whack 129 in just 19 overs in the second. In Rory Burns and Sibley they have two solid openers, Zak Crawley looks a decent prospect at number three although he is still finding his feet, Ollie Pope is a fantastic young talent and they are all supported by the experienced heads of Stokes and the captain Joe Root, who returned for the second match having missed the first to be at the birth of his daughter.

    The England team and the selectors clearly love having Jos Buttler around, but he just doesn’t seem good enough with the bat in Test cricket to warrant a place in the side. Especially not when a top keeper and perfectly good batsman in Ben Foakes is waiting in the wings. Buttler is a magnificent player in the shorter formats but he still only has one Test century to his name in 43 matches. He was given the perfect opportunity to go full on One Day mode in the second innings as he was sent in to open with Stokes but played on for 0. It won’t happen but I’d pick Foakes ahead of him.

    England may be tempted to bring back Jofra Archer for the decider

    It would seem like insanity to drop Broad again so the question is whether Chris Woakes, Sam Curran or indeed both make way for Anderson, Wood or Jofra Archer. Archer would have played in the second match had he not breached the bio-secure protocols that have enabled this series to take place at all by popping home to Sussex before arriving in Manchester. His pace would no doubt have caused problems to the West Indies batsmen, and England may be tempted to bring him in.

    All in all, this was a superb Test victory for England and one of the most entertaining final days you could ever wish to see. With the whole of Saturday washed out by rain, the home side have done brilliantly well to force a positive result and it feels like they may now have the momentum heading into the third match, which will decide the winners of the Wisden Trophy.

  • England in South Africa – preview

    England’s tour of New Zealand was a bit of a let down. It was a much anticipated first meeting of the two teams since the World Cup final, the sides evenly matched and now rivals full of mutual respect. The series of five T20s, however, was four too many. I understand that preparations for next autumn’s T20 World Cup are now the focus but five felt like too much.

    The tourists rested most of their biggest names for those white ball matches and went with fresh faces. There was no Jos Buttler, Jason Roy or Jofra Archer to name just three, but there was Tom Banton, Pat Brown and Saqib Mahmood. While it was intriguing to see how these youngsters got on, it left the T20s without that star quality – especially as New Zealand were without their captain Kane Williamson, who was injured.

    Somerset youngster Tom Banton got his first chance to impress in England colours in New Zealand

    The cricket was good, to be fair. England won the first game, then their inexperienced bowlers suffered and they found themselves 2-1 down. Dawid Malan then scored the fastest T20I century by an Englishman, smashing an unbeaten 103 from 51 balls, and leg spinner Matt Parkinson took four wickets on his debut to level the series.

    After the drama at Lord’s in July, incredibly, the last match ended in a tie. Reduced to 11 overs a side in Auckland due to rain, both teams scored 146. This time the Super Over was decisive, with England comfortable winners.

    New Zealand’s Jimmy Neesham couldn’t believe it when another match against England went to a Super Over in Auckland

    There were only two Tests, which is never enough but especially not when it’s England versus New Zealand. The Black Caps have become a very fine Test team in recent years and deserve at least three matches against the ‘marquee’ sides. Reportedly the New Zealand board lose money when they host Test matches, which rather forces their hand unfortunately. Neither of the Tests were part of the World Test Championship either, which gave the whole series the feel of a warm up for bigger things to come.

    As beautiful as the cricket grounds of New Zealand are, the pitches prepared did not provide a great advertisement for Test cricket. The Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui hosted its first Test match but saw the hosts bat for 200 overs and then dismiss England for 197 to win by an innings. A week later in Hamilton the England captain Joe Root made a very welcome return to form with 226 but rain and a placid surface meant New Zealand easily played out a draw and took the series 1-0.

    New Zealand wicketkeeper BJ Watling batted for 11 hours in scoring 205 in the first Test against England

    Williamson’s men were using the series to prepare for crossing the Tasman, as they had been given the rare opportunity to have a proper go at Australia. For the first time in more than thirty years New Zealand will be part of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Aussies are resurgent at the moment and thrashed them by 296 runs in Perth – it remains to be seen if they can bounce back from that.

    England will be playing on Boxing Day as well, in Centurion in the first Test against South Africa. It feels like a properly big series, this one. Four Tests, two well matched sides, playing at grounds that have produced exciting cricket over the last few years. For the TV spectator back home, the time difference between the UK and South Africa means the first ball of each day’s play will be bowled at either 8am or 8.30am. Wonderful. Especially when the New Zealand games were real through-the-night affairs.

    Jimmy Anderson, England’s all time leading Test wicket taker, looks set to return to the team after a year blighted by injury. He has not bowled a ball for his country since limping off after sending down four overs on the first day of the Ashes at Edgbaston in August. It would be great to see him back. The tourists will also hope that Root’s double hundred in his last outing means the skipper has turned a corner, as well as that Jofra Archer can bowl at his quickest once again.

    Jimmy Anderson is fit and ready to return for England in South Africa

    South Africa have been in chaos off the field. Among other things their board’s chief executive was suspended following allegations of misconduct, their players were apparently considering going on strike over a breach of commercial rights and a number of sponsors announced they would be ending their association with Cricket South Africa, raising concerns about the board’s financial security.

    The team itself were recently hammered in a Test series in India, and earlier this year were surprisingly beaten at home by Sri Lanka. Former captain Graeme Smith is now interim director of cricket and has appointed his former wicketkeeper Mark Boucher as coach so the Proteas will be hoping some form of stability at the top will enable the team to be somewhere near their best against England.

    It should be a fascinating series. I can’t wait.

  • Having a Blast: my trip to Old Trafford

    On Sunday I went to Old Trafford for the T20 Blast match between Lancashire and Durham.

    Me, my mum and her partner at Old Trafford

    A week on from England becoming world champions (I will never get tired of saying that), cricket is enjoying a boost in popularity. The Cricket Paper reports that counties have noticed an increase in ticket sales for the T20 Blast as people who maybe haven’t been to a match for a while, or indeed at all, seize the opportunity to see the game in the flesh.

    This includes – crucially – children. Most of the crowd in Manchester, which was huge for a domestic game, were families with youngsters. I’m not a big fan of kids – they are noisy, carry illnesses and can’t sit still for five minutes – but they are vitally important for the future of cricket. They all seemed to be having a great time, and that’s key. Children need to think of going to a cricket match as a normal thing to do, and something to look forward to. They will be the next generation of players and fans and will hopefully pass on their enthusiam to their own kids in years to come.

    The players warm up at Old Trafford, Manchester about an hour before the start of play

    I had been to Old Trafford before, for the Test match between England and India in 2014, and enjoyed the laid back atmosphere and friendly stewards. This makes it the ideal venue for 20 over cricket compared to, say, Lord’s which I find stuffy and inaccessible. The emphasis was on fun, with the Lancashire mascot Lanky the Giraffe dancing on the boundary before play began.

    As for the match itself, T20 is perfect for those who are unfamiliar with cricket. It’s short and sharp and you get to see plenty of big sixes and wickets. Lancashire batted first in their opening home game of the tournament and amassed 189-3, opener Steven Croft top scoring with an unbeaten 65 from 43 balls. The star of the show, however, was Australia international Glenn Maxwell. The world number one ranked all rounder in T20s hit 58 off 33 balls with four sixes. Each boundary was received with loud cheers and a burst of pop music. It was interesting to see how partisan the crowd was, a lot of the people there seemed to feel for the Lancashire cricket team the same way I feel for Norwich City Football Club. They weren’t just there to enjoy a day out, they were there to see the home side win.

    Australia international Glenn Maxwell bats for Lancashire in front of a huge crowd at Old Trafford

    Durham never looked like chasing the 190 they needed to win and were all out for 117 within 17 overs. Scott Steel had scored 58 from 46 balls but the next highest score for the visitors was 12. Lancashire won by 72 runs and a couple of run outs were enough to secure Maxwell the player of the match award.

    Maxwell played for Australia in the World Cup (having won it in 2015) so he was the main attraction for the kids. They gathered round to watch him be interviewed at the end of the match, taking photos and hoping for an autograph. The occasion was slightly lacking in big names. Both sides were packed with solid professionals and the standard was high but aside from Maxwell only D’Arcy Short, another Australian, would have been recognisable to most of the crowd. Short was not involved in the World Cup but has played for his country, as well as in T20 leagues around the world. Also on show was Keaton Jennings, who has scored a Test century for England but has otherwise struggled at the highest level and has been dropped from the most recent squad.

    Player of the match Maxwell is interviewed after Lancashire’s 72 run win

    The majority of the England players involved in the victorious World Cup campaign were getting a well deserved rest, with the seven week long tournament soon to be followed by a Test match against Ireland and the five match Ashes series against Australia. Part of me, though, wished that there could have been a way to get those stars involved in the first couple of rounds of T20 Blast fixtures to really capitalise on the current popularity of cricket in this country.

    Had those England players been available, the Lancashire side would have featured Jos Buttler and Durham’s side would have boasted Ben Stokes, who was player of the match in the World Cup final. Mark Wood is also a Durham player but is injured and out until September. It would have been fantastic for the crowd to have been able to see their new heroes, but I understand that with a packed schedule it was almost impossible. Wood and Stokes paraded the World Cup trophy around Durham’s home ground the Riverside on Saturday, as captain Eoin Morgan had done around Lord’s, where he plays for Middlesex, on Thursday. I had a faint hope that Buttler might have done the same around Old Trafford on Sunday but it was not to be.

    The T20 Blast is a fantastic product. Now in its 17th season, the crowds are big, the standard is high and overseas stars want to play in it. If some of it was on Free-to-air television instead of it all being on Sky Sports I have no doubt it would be a massive annual summer event.

    Walking away from Old Trafford, I couldn’t for the life of me fathom why the authorities have felt the need to invent an entirely new format of the game to try to attract new fans. Next year will see the launch of The Hundred, a convoluted version of the game with the simplest part being one hundred balls per innings. Eight completely new teams, based around the major cities and with awful names like London Spirt and Leeds Superchargers, will take part. These teams will have to start from scratch, with none of the existing loyal following of the county sides. The only thing going for it is that some of it will be on BBC TV. It makes absolutely no sense and from what I can see it is doomed to fail.

    My visit to Manchester on Sunday was conclusive proof for me that the England and Wales Cricket Board already has everything it needs to make cricket the undisputed second sport of the nation again. I can only hope that their seemingly muddled thinking doesn’t mean they miss the opportunity.