The old rhythms

It seems barmy that the first cricket Test match of the summer begins as early as next Thursday. The madcap trawl for profits obliterates all the old established rhythms. The Lord’s Test was traditionally high summer harbinger of the London ‘season’ at once followed by Wimbledon and Henley. You can bet, anyway, that a Lord’s Test in mid-May will ensure any sparkling springtime weather is ended forthwith and that the rains will be bucketing down as they toss for innings on Thursday morning. The Test players of England and the West Indies have hardly laid bat on ball since the drearily pointless hotch-potch of the Caribbean’s World Cup. Not that either side did so to any remotely hooraying effect during the course of that tedious tournament. In terms of fresh new luminaries, we’re told that the ‘success story’ of the England XI’s dire endeavours of the winter was the emergence of a 36-year-old wicket-keeper sar’nt-major type who was the finest we’ve ever had at ‘sledging’ the opposition.