Cricket Wiseguy

 Maybe I'll extend the Wiseguy operation after assessing England's chances in the test match today at well odds on and so taking the even money at 12.30.

Not quite as wise, maybe, as taking 5/1 an hour or so later would have been but I didn't fancy them so much by then.

Today, the Test Match Special coverage, which is always great even if not much is happening, is a candidate for the Event of the Year but Malcolm Keeler, Portsmouth Baroque Choir and their Messiah need not worry. Listening to the wireless while flicking through computer screens to weigh up one's chances is a very artificial experience compared to being there.

 

The blowsy gratification of The Hundred that starts tomorrow at Trent Bridge can't, by definition, compete with days like today, matches like the fifth test and a whole five match series of them. It swung and swayed all the way through between two well-matched teams but I make my own decisions about who won and don't count the official result. England won that series, maybe not 3-2 but by about 2.7 to 2.3.

The thing about test cricket is the time involved. You don't have to hit the ball out of the ground every few minutes. A good delivery well defended is good cricket. A six in the Hundred isn't exciting, it's routine.

But Broady's record of 600 test wickets and 3000 runs, shared only with Shane Warne, is unlikely to have to be shared further because future players won't play as much test cricket. Whatever happens to circus cricket - the Parrots vs. the Pigeons, or whatever made-up teams are created to play it - it won't be going back to the 5 day game or anything like what happened when Hambledon used to play England.

Stuart Broad was never a big favourite of mine, certainly not compared to my own Golden Age of Derek Randall, Basil D'Oliviera, Michael Holding bowling to Brian Close, that unplayable West Indian side and a time when such all-rounders as Botham, Imran, Kapil Dev, Rice and Hadlee were all available. However, credit where it's due, notwithstanding some of the silly games he kept up until the end, fiddling with bails that weren't his to fiddle with, and the statistics are all in place, not least hitting the last ball he faced in test cricket for 6 but taking a wicket with his last ball, and the wicket before it, too.

Test cricket, like the 12 Hour in cycling, and maybe eventually all road time-trialling, might be in decline and not have such a glorious future to look forward to. That doesn't mean there's not plenty more to come from it or diminish all those things that have been done and, quite honestly, like those of us so pleased with ourselves that we had 60's and 70's pop music, some of us are beyond caring.

 

But, well played, the cricket. That was tremendous.

Being back in funds after minor weekend turf setbacks, we'll have a double on the first day of Goodwood tomorrow,

Array, 2.15

Courage Mon Ami, 4.35.

 

And P.S. The cricket statistics. Bill Frindall and his diligent pencils set a standard for a long time but what Andy Saltzmann can do with his computer is almost rocket science.

Did you know that Alec Stewart scored 8463 test runs and was born on 8.4.63.