Lord’s and Roses encounters prove game in rude health

First, there was the enthralling Roses tussle at Headingley that saw Yorkshire come agonisingly close to snatching victory from the jaws of defeat in what was their 3000th County Championship match.

Then, just 48 hours after the White Rose’s brave resistance had finally been broken by Gary Keedy trapping Rich Pyrah lbw, England and India produced a truly spell-binding finale at Lord’s as Andrew Strauss’s men emerged victorious on a nerve-shredding final day that served as a fitting way to mark the 2,000th Test.

Between them, the two games had just about everything apart from Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th international century, from the spectacular collapse that left Yorkshire facing humiliation against their most bitter of rivals at 45-8 before Pyrah led a stirring fightback through to the heroic deeds of Kevin Pietersen, Jimmy Anderson and Matt Prior in St John’s Wood.

As someone who was fortunate enough to be present at one of these great gladiatorial combats and glued via a combination of television/radio to the other, I can surely not have been alone in seeing the old game pronounce itself to be in the rudest of healths. England’s 196-run win, in particular, made a mockery of those who claim that Test cricket must change or risk dying out.

All manner of proposals have been put forward in recent years as a way of curing the game’s ills at the very top level, from switching to day-night Tests and restricting the number of overs a side can bat to reducing contests to just four days.

Mercifully, none of these gimmicks have been adopted, while even the world Test championship that will kick-off in 2013 involving the four highest-placed teams in the rankings will do well to match the drama of last month’s Titanic Lord’s tussle.

Much may be made about the necessity of one-day cricket in both financial terms for the counties but also in attracting the next generation of cricket devotees through the turnstiles.

But, in terms of an ability to build a plot in a style similar to a crime thriller or a great suspense movie, little comes close to either Test cricket or the much-knocked County Championship.

Both offer that rarity in sport – a contest that tests the combatants to the full, with a combination of tactical know-how, concentration, ability, resilience and bravery being required to prosper.

All these qualities were seen in abundance during the first Test and the preceding Roses encounter as every day brought a twist more dramatic than anything one day cricket, and Twenty20 in particular, could provide.

Not that I am saying Twenty20 is the evil force that some claim. Far from it, in fact, with the shortest form of the game certainly having injected a sense of fun to the sport since its advent in 2003 along with many thousands of spectators.

There is, for example, a lot to be said for ending the working day by heading to the cricket for an enjoyable few hours of bish, bash, bosh on a summer’s evening.

The fare may be more fast food than gastronomic delight and, a bit like a Big Mac, almost instantly forgotten. But that is not to say that what is on offer cannot be enjoyed.

I doubt, for instance, that many in the 6,500 crowd that flocked to Scarborough last month for the Twenty20 clash with Durham had many complaints, save for the pre-match swarm of greenfly that made sitting near the scoreboard between the West Stand and Pavilion End distinctly uncomfortable – especially for those of us whose pint kept getting invaded by the little blighters.

Yorkshire emerging triumphant by three wickets helped, of course, but I still doubt too many of those fortunate enough to be born within the Broad Acres would have left too disappointed had the result gone the other way.

As pleasant an afternoon as it had been, however, by the following morning there was no mistaking the feeling that we were watching a far superior product as the Championship game against Worcestershire got under way.

Our party stayed on the East coast for the first two days, meaning we left with Andrew Gale’s side firmly in control courtesy of the visitors being 117 runs behind with just six second-innings wickets in hand.

That Yorkshire subsequently almost made a mess of it merely served to illustrate just how unpredictable – and engrossing – the Championship can be when at its best.

Last month’s Roses encounter certainly fell into that category, as did the first Test at Lord’s when all five days were played out in front of a captivated full house.

Never was that more so than on the final day when the ECB showed themselves to be surprisingly in tune with the common man by slashing prices to £20 for adults with children getting in for free. The upshot was the first wave of fans turning up at 2am and the queue to get in eventually stretching as far as St John’s Wood tube station, which as anyone who has ever been to Lord’s knows is a sizeable distance.

Once inside, the atmosphere was electric, particularly among the large Indian contingent, to set the tone for the fantastic day of drama that lay ahead.

Together with Yorkshire’s enthralling recent Roses encounter, those events of a week ago at Lord’s proved to the wider sporting public – even those who usually like nothing more than to decry cricket in its purest form as ‘boring’ due to its ability to last four or five days without producing a result – that there is plenty of life yet in the oldest form of combat between bat and ball.

And that, to me, suggests the old saying, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ has never been more appropriate and the County Championship and Test match cricket should be left well alone.