The Bob Willis Trophy named for a man who was never really a county cricketer, and the junking of the Wisden Trophy, have done the game no favours
One great controversy has divided the sports-watching nation this sad summer. There can be no abstentions on this. Fake crowd noise on TV? Yes or no? My answer, to my own astonishment, is yes – even after spending decades at loud sports events, in old-tech days screaming urgent newspaper copy down bad telephone lines, and wishing everyone else would just shaddup.
Last Sunday, I was at Edgbaston watching Warwickshire play Northamptonshire. There were five of us in the press box, at the top of the spectacular newish pavilion, a handful of radio blokes downstairs. A single photographer had camped in the Hollies stand. Sometimes a member of the groundstaff would appear briefly on the far side. The Warwickshire dressing room, invisible below us, applauded their teammate Tim Bresnan’s fifty and hundred. Otherwise, silence.
Related: Learie Constantine and a thread that runs through West Indies cricket history | Andy Bull
Continue reading...