England Cricket / Frank Gregan / 18 May 2009 /

The Second Test may be very much in the balance going into the final day but Frank Gregan wonders whether the ECB's planning and Geoffrey Boycott's recent comments as regards Test cricket being staged in the North East are on the money.

The second test in Durham has raised a number of issues in relation to the timing of the series against the West Indies and the venue. The North East public have shown about as much enthusiasm for the contest as the West Indians in the field and the crowds have been disappointing.

This has led to a number of commentators questioning the motives behind the series and none has been more vociferous than Geoffrey Boycott. His reasoning is that it is much too early to be playing test cricket and that if it has to be played this early it should not be played "Oop North" in the land of shove ha'penny, whippets and flat caps but in the "tropical" South of England! Boycott seems to think that the North East is for pigeon fancying - not cricket. His criticism of the wicket, calling it "flat and boring" seems unfair given that England collected 10 scalps on it during day four.

This is the earliest that a test series has ever been played in England and global warming seems to have bypassed Durham with the climate more like Siberia than Sedgefield. The crowds have been poor but there is not much point in heading out to watch the rain lash down. When the rain stopped on Saturday it was replaced with a bitter chill and those most likely to buy tickets were Eskimos, penguins and polar bears! The brass monkeys in the ground didn't need cricket boxes!

The party line from the ECB is that they need to ensure that England were not under-cooked going into the Ashes series and they want the team to be given the best possible preparation and that had to include five day cricket. The reality is that they are contracted to provide seven test matches and ten ODIs for television until 2013 and the TV revenue is vital to the ECB. They care not one jot about the type of fayre that is dished up or the preparation that the team is getting. Let's be realistic here: how can a two test series against a West Indies team that would rather be anywhere but on a cricket pitch in England be considered good preparation for the visit of the Australians?

The ECB maybe fulfilling their contractual obligations but they are serving up a dreadful product to the TV Company who could well say "thanks but no thanks" when it is contract renewal time. It can't have gone un-noticed that there has been some decent cricket on the TV over the weekend but it was on Sky's rival channel and beamed direct from South Africa, featuring domestic Indian sides.

The weather has affected the match but a sound display in the field on day four has set this match up nicely. The forecast today is for intermittent rain in the afternoon which will mean that the morning session will be vital. England are currently [1.65] to back and those that followed last week's recommendation to turn England green in the test series winner market are home and hosed. Those that took the smaller liability and backed England prior to the off at [1.95] are in for a tougher time of it. The weather was always likely to be a factor but if it stays fine England should mop up the remaining wickets.

As a Geordie, I found Geoff Boycott's comments about the venue, the crowds and the state of the pitch a little offensive. I found it ironic he used the term 'boring.' I'm from the generation that can remember Boycott playing even though I were nowt but a slip of a lad who had just walked 27 miles back from school in bare feet, before sitting down in front of the wireless with a bread and dripping sandwich, to listen to the cricket before going out to feed the ferrets in the back yard of our wee Northern hovel.

Boycott would open the batting and would usually get off the mark before lunch, be in double figures by tea time and have run out three of his team mates before being out with a strike rate of 1.7%! That folks, was boring!

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