By chance I was in Abu Dhabi as England’s first Test against Pakistan was getting under way just up the road in the sepulchral wastes of the Dubai Cricket Stadium. What could be nicer, I thought, as I sat in my hotel room, than watch a bit of cricket, and it’s local too. But in 24 sports channels, not a sausage. I could find camel racing, horse racing, snooker, meaningless Premier League games from days before, Australia’s T20 Big Bash, and some pointless veterans’ golf. But Test cricket, zilch, zero, nada. The new destination for global sport doesn’t really seem to give one.
The best joke came from the BBC’s Gary Richardson, who after pointing out that there were about 1,200 people in a stadium built for 26,000, said, ‘Who’d want to be a ticket tout there? “Anyone want 23,000 together?” ’ The cricket was fabulous to watch, though. It feels like England haven’t been given a good hiding for a while, and in the plethora of pre- and post-match excuses it was hard to work out how you can be playing too much cricket and ‘undercooked’ at the same time.
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