Thursday, November 19, 2009

Some Fantastic Place

Lords already gets at least one test match a year - it also gets more than its share of one day internationals, plus any one day finals that happen to be taking place - international and domestic. The only exception is 20/20 Finals Day which, perhaps explains why that is one of the liveliest and enjoyable events in the cricket calendar.

In the coming summer, Lords is getting a third of all the days of international cricket taking place in England, based around the rather tired premise that 'all international touring sides want to play at Lords' - which ignores the obvious retort of 'tough, they can't.'

Yet, the MCC still aren't happy.

Actually, the MCC will only be truly happy if the whole world is put in a time machine and transported back to 1895. But I digress...

I'm not suggesting that Lords be denied a test match in any summer - a Lords test is an integral part of any sporting year, but lets please lose the assumption that they have to host every side that pays a visit, and have to have more than their fair share of ODIs dolloped on top of that.

Other venues around the country have lashed out big bucks on improving their facilities - all without the 'guarantee' of future internationals.

As a venue, yes, Lords is a special place, but it's not that special.

2 comments:

Samir Chopra said...

It's a wonder you haven't had someone from the MCC correct your spelling yet (it's Lord's, not Lords)

Mark said...

I can't see this being top of the MCC reading list to be honest, Samir.

Nice thought though.