Fourth test snippets

Where there's mucking about there's money

I'm listening to the BBC radio online description of the Headingley England v Pakistan test. Because the game was evenly poised at the start (though is no longer as I type with Pakistan 5/84 at lunch chasing 300+) a good crowd turned up but caught the ground authorities napping.

The BBC invited the Yorkshire secretary to explain why so many people willing to pay 15 quid ($38) to get in had to wait for so long to do so. His explanation was bizarre: each ticket had to be sold individually, and then the stubs reconciled, presumably while the queues inched forward.

I'll be interested to see how widely this bumbling is reported elsewhere in the British media.

Sun's cricket man gives soccer a boost

In the lunchtime discussion a panel including John Etheridge, the Sun's cricket writer (is "correspondent" too multisyllabic a term for that paper?), ruminated about various matters sporting. In the course of conceding that this northern summer's cricket season hadn't grabbed the public's imagination as last year's had done, Mr Etheridge actually referred to the world game as "soccer". I hope that all the people in Australia who have insisted that the game be called "football" take note.