BUMBLE AT THE TEST

FIRST-CLASS BOWLING

THERE have been rumblings about quality of the opposition but I don’t buy that. This England attack would be a handful for anybody in these conditions. Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad are right up there with the best combinations England have had. They are going to bowl sides out, especially at this time of year in

the north of England.

SRI LANKA’S PLAN

AND Sri Lanka finally worked out yesterday how to play in English conditions. They got across their stumps and plenty stood outside their crease and were far more disciplined. Angelo Mathews averages 50 and Dinesh Chandimal 44 in Test cricket so these guys are no mugs.

CAN YOU SPOT FOXY?

IT’S good to see Graeme Fowler up here. He’s a Lancastrian who finished his career at Durham and did a fantastic job with young cricketers at Durham University. We go back a long way but even his oldest friends walk past him not knowing who he is with that big WG Grace-like beard (right). Foxy has recently produced a very honest, thoughtprovoking autobiography. It’s a must-read.

PIES AND MUSTARD

Test Match special has a wonderful tradition of people sending cakes to them but at Sky we now have our answer to that. We get sent Dickinson and Morris Melton Mowbray pork pies, which are an absolute must to get you through a Test match day. Lovely with a spot of mustard.

SATURDAY PUB CRAWL

I SPENT Saturday evening with my close chum Paul Allott, who is now doing his paper round, cricket Writers on TV, from the venue rather than a studio. Nice to catch up with him on his old stamping ground of Durham where he took me on a nostalgic pub crawl and reminisced about the time he was at college, when he got eight pints of lager for a pound. That explains a lot.