Why send the Sri Lankans north?

I DON’T want to go into the moral issues involved in presenting visiting teams with unfavourable conditions (I seem to remember a similar Test match in India last autumn when Ajinkya Rahane, right, was the only batsman to make any runs) and, anyway, the weather situation in England is unpredictable.

What bothers me is the effect on spectators, revenues and the visiting teams.

Given that there are three Test venues in the North, two in the Midlands and four in the South and West it seems foolish to send teams from warmer parts of the world (and that’s all of them) to the North for two Tests out of three (and the first two at that).

Especially if you are trying to encourage them to play more Tests as I believe is the case with Sri Lanka. I feel really sorry for them; their last tour was to New Zealand where the weather is close to ours.

Nor did they get much acclimatisation and preparation time. I think the South Africans were more generous to us on our tour.

My other worry concerns attendance and revenues. A three-day Test match norm is presumably going to cause problems with sponsors and TV companies and in this case (with an inexperienced and weakened Sri Lankan team on the one hand and probably the world’s best new ball attack on the other) it would make more sense to provide a flat batting track.

I know it’s not likely to happen because the dates seem rigged in favour of the London venues but I wonder how three days at Lord’s compares with five at Headingley as far as revenues are concerned. Surely the ECB could provide a more balanced schedule and even make allowances for the perceived quality of the visiting team. BILL PRICE via email