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No beer? No show!

By our correspondent

A day after Lancashire authorities introduced rules to ensure "good behaviour" by spectators at the county's cricket ground, Old Trafford, they got their reply.

No beer, no show!

On a bright sunny day, a mere 11,000 people turned up to watch the first day's play of the third Test between England and South Africa.

Is it just that the English crowds are not interested in Test cricket, or is it the beer? Having decreed that outside beer could not be brought in to the ground (the county committee, of course, made an exception for their own members -- presumably, members of Lancashire county cricekt club are able to hold their alchohol a bit better than the paying yobs), they then permitted the beer bars on the ground to dispense their stuff.

What was dispensed was a watered down version. "It only made you pee," said a disgusted spectator, accurately if a bit inelegantly.

Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that interest in cricket, in the land that has made that game its own, is waning. And it is not just Test cricket -- close to 2,000 tickets remained unsold during the May 1998 ODI versus SA at Headingley, and even the limited overs game at this venue, Old Trafford, had seats to spare.

Time perhaps for the alarm bells to start ringing? As, in fact, they do every time cricket is played somewhere outside the Asian sub-continent, and the cameras pan around half empty stadia.

But if there is any such concern, the International Cricket Conference does not appear to share it.

It will be recalled that last month, the ICC met at Lord's -- and prominent on the agenda was the finalisation of plans for a world championship of Test cricket.

In fact, middle of the meeting week, ICC chief executive David Richards announced that a working proposal for such a championship was now in hand, that the ICC executive would consider it over the weekend, and finalise.

No such luck, though -- hordes of mediapersons landed up at Lord's on the day, ready and eager for the announcement.

The one we got was from ICC president Jagmohan Dalmiya. A bland "We could not take a final decision."

Richards was a shade more forthcoming. "This needs a lot of research," he said, rather making you wonder how come that particular thought hadn't occured to him less than a week ago when he confidently announced that a final decision was imminent. "In terms of the history of cricket, the decision shouldn't be much longer," he added, coyly.

That's an interesting statement right there -- what it means is that while a decision is not going to be taken any time soon, whatever delay there is, will be only a fraction of cricket's lifespan. In other words, that statement is perfectly valid even if the decision comes ten years down the line -- a decade, after all, is not much 'in terms of the history of cricket', is it?

Meanwhile, the sub-committee constituted to improve and strengthen the standing of Test cricket will continue its sittings for at least six more months, before coming to some sort of conclusion.

If they are looking for a place to sit, they could try Old Trafford -- plenty of seating available there, really.