Proper cricket on the Telly - and an old Boycott joke

"Cricket is an Indian game accidentally discovered by the English." Ash Nandy

Great to wake up this morning and find proper cricket on Channel 4. Well done to whoever took the decision to show the India v England test series on terrestrial TV. Sky's coverage is great but our national summer game (and India's!) deserves a wider audience for some of the time.

The amazing victory by India in Australia demonstrated the strength in depth of the Indians. Their young batsmen in particular have benefitted from the need to deliver under pressure in the IPL. This gave them the confidence to chase down a record 2nd innings target at the Gabba.

T20 cricket is undoubtedly fun and has reached a new audience, but in reality too many of the matches are fairly predictable from an early stage of the match. I have real reservations about the current T10 league taking place in the UAE. It would be no surprise to find the people most keen on this format are the spot fixers and illegal bookmakers.

It looks like the India/England series will be old fashioned cricket. Boycott* style batting and a real battle between skilful bowlers and obdurate batsmen. I'm pretty sure India have the better batsmen and spin bowlers, and this will enable them to win what hopefully will be a close series. You never know we may even see that rarest of modern beasts - a drawn test.

Thank you India, England and Channel 4 for giving us a reason to get up early in these dull, wet lockdown February mornings.

*They have a curry in India created specially for the visiting English. It's called the Boycott Masala - you still get the runs but more slowly.


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