Bat and ball / Frank Gregan / 23 June 2008 /

Frank Gregan looked on in astonishement as the second ODI between England and New Zealand in Bristol was called off just one over short of finding a result. Here's hoping we never have to witness that again, he says...

Embarrassing, unprofessional, pathetic or inept. Take your pick from any of those words to describe the debacle that was last Wednesday's one day international in Birmingham. There was a collective gasp of disbelief from the crowd and the TV audience as the umpires took the players from the field of play knowing that one more over would have guaranteed a result. It shouldn't have come as a surprise to us, the one word that I would use to describe the attitude of crickets' hierarchy towards its supporters is apathetic.

I stood a chance of getting a part on the Catherine Tate show as I sat screaming at the box "How very dare you!" I was gutted and all I had done was given up a couple of hours of my day in order to keep up with the state of play. Imagine being a father taking his son for his first taste of international cricket.

You'd have had to have taken a day off work, the hassle of taking your boy out of school during term time, travel arrangements, cost of tickets et al. Your son would have been bored stiff due to the weather delay but the day had been salvaged and a finish (albeit not a particularly good one for the home nation) looked likely.

Enter the 'we don't give a flying fig for our supporters' brigade and the day that started full of expectation ends up being about as much fun as mumps! It was a disgrace. The product is as good as it has ever been if not better. The powers that be just need to learn some customer service skills.

The footballing equivalent would be for the referee to abandon the game in the 89th minute. I'm sure there are some examples out there of that happening but I've never seen one. I know of lots of occasions when by the letter of the law the game should have been abandoned but invariably the referee applies common sense and the game goes through to it's conclusion.

Newcastle played Sunderland in a Championship play off semi final second leg in 1990 at St James's Park. It was a gum shield in, visor down local derby full of spite and hate, that was just the mascots! It didn't go Newcastle's way and late on there was a pitch invasion by thousands of seriously disgruntled Geordies.

A friend of mine was in the Sunderland team that night when the referee George Courtney came into their dressing room. He explained he had already told the Newcastle camp that it didn't matter if they were there until three in the morning, they were finishing the game that night. Mounted police cleared the pitch, he got the players back out, re-started the game and blew his whistle almost immediately. Job done. Newcastle were robbed of the little bit of time they had to salvage the game caused by the actions of their supporters. Common sense prevailed, something that cricket seems to be lacking by the bucketful.

Still, from a selfish point of view both opening partnerships ran their course in Birmingham so perhaps you made a few bob on my recommendation of backing the Kiwis' opening pair. The low scoring affair in Bristol on Saturday gave us the result that keeps the series alive and that's where I'm looking for value this week.

The Black Caps had a dreadful time of it until last week and perhaps being denied their victory is going to be the catalyst that turns the series on its head. I'm going to try and get a match for New Zealand to win the series at [5.0] and hope the umpires don't take the players off the field because it's a bit chilly or some other trivial issue!

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