Tunku Varadarajan, the academic, narrates his experiences while watching two days of the first Test between England and South Africa at Lord's. Click here to read his article in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal.
The thing to understand about a day at Lord's is that it is as much about the cricket as it is about the sybaritic senses. No one would go to watch a Test match there without calculating in advance precisely what to eat and drink. Old Etonian (OE), a sublime host, had undertaken to fulfil the role of victualer. And here, I must digress again, to note that nowhere is England's class structure more visible than in the rules governing spectators at sporting events.
Contrast cricket with soccer. No one can bring into soccer stadiums, or purchase there, a drop of alcohol. The soccer-watching classes are not trusted to handle the stuff in a civilized way. Cricket grounds -- visited by a more genteel demographic -- have few such restrictions. At Lord's, for example, although spectators are permitted to bring in only one bottle of wine per head, there are bars dotted conveniently around the ground, and tents that sell wine and champagne. (In any case, the rules aren't strictly enforced: OE brought in three bottles, saying one was for his wife, the other for his "friend already inside," and was waved through by the steward.)
One of the correspondents of the Economist also saw the first Test. Click here to read his dairy.
The flood of Twenty20 tournaments in England, at least from 2010 onwards, could seriously affect the future of the County Championship and the Friends Provident Trophy, writes Christopher Martin-Jenkins in the Times.
The more tournaments there are, the more each special event is diluted, which the ECB seems unable to grasp. Pile 'em high and sell 'em for as high a ticket price as you dare seems to be the policy. For the time being it is laughing all the way to the bank, but the ice is thin. It desperately needs England to win the third Test against South Africa at Edgbaston next week, for a start.
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