If a player contracts coronavirus he could be isolated and substituted as an extension of the concussion regulationsEngland’s Test series against West Indies and Pakistan look ever more likely to happen, albeit behind closed doors. We await confirmation from the government that this will be permitted even though it may be that the resumption of international cricket has not been at the top of their list of priorities of late.Meanwhile in the offices of the England and Wales Cricket Board and the International Cricket Council the details of the necessary protocols for playing a Test in such extraordinary times are being finalised. They must try to anticipate every eventuality although the guidelines may not include mandatory 60-mile journeys as an...
Extreme circumstances akin to 1945 Victory Series West Indies and Pakistan series a bonus for armchair fans The England and Wales Cricket Board is planning to play six Test matches this summer against the West Indies and Pakistan behind closed doors from the second week of July onwards. In a grim situation this may represent the height of optimism it would be a bonus for the armchair fans and the TV companies, even if every banal word of encouragement from behind the stumps would be echoing eerily around an empty stadium.These plans may come to nothing but if none are made there definitely will not be any international cricket this summer. It seems the right thing to do and Steve...
Squeezing the season into three months doesn’t look feasible – unless Test and ODI teams were picked to play at the same time In cricket, as in life, everything is up in the air. The administrators, especially, are caught between the devil and the deep blue sky of lockdown. But as they struggle to squeeze the English season into three months from 1 July, one possibility has been mentioned in passing. Could the men’s team play two international series at the same time?It helps that the fixture list was already looking like a tasting menu – three Tests against West Indies, three Twenty20s and three one-day internationals against Australia, three Tests and three T20s against Pakistan, and three ODIs against...
Everyone remembers the cricket but few recall the day John Walker took to the track in MelbourneIt started with a tweet. On 4 March 2018, reacting to the news that barrier-busting miler Roger Bannister had died, Mike Selvey – the long-term lord of this manor – posted the following: “The great John Walker ran a sub-four-minute mile on a track laid out on the outfield of the MCG during the Centenary Test in March 1977.”Hold up. He did what? During the most fondly recalled Test ever staged at the G? Continue reading...
The £500,000 donated by Joe Root and his team is a worthy start but clubs and their players face a difficult balancing actThe last time I was in the Lord’s museum I spotted a letter of 1981 with the familiar Somerset CCC logo at the top in one of the display cabinets. It had been sent to Viv Richards and was the confirmation of his salary for the forthcoming season. At the bottom was Viv’s signature. The sum agreed was just under £9,000 for a six‑month contract. That equates to a salary of £31,000 today.At the time Richards was the best batsman in the world, just as Brian Lara – arguably – was in 1994 when Warwickshire paid him £40,000...