AFTER spending three months staring at the walls, five days of cricket doesn’t seem so bad now, does it? This morning, for the first time since September 2019, international cricket returns to these shores, as the West Indies and England begin a three-Test series for the Wisden Trophy behind closed doors— two at Old Trafford in Manchester and one at the Ageas Bowl in Hampshire. Rejoice. If anyone on furlough would like to swap jobs with me for the next three weeks, email now.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of ‘which team is better’ (England) and who is likely to win (also England), it’s worth remembering the debt of gratitude the England Cricket Board (ECB) owes the West Indies for traveling so far in these strange times. I would hope that those in the higher echelons of English cricket, and the International Cricket Council, don’t forget the lengths to which Caribbean cricket went to make the sport happen here this summer. Would India or Australia have made the same effort?
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