Cricket at Lords

I was not too sure how much I would use my debenture seat at Lords and whether it would prove good value as you have to pay for the debenture, which gives you the right to a dedicated seat, and then the seat itself at cost price for a test , ODI or t20. There is a further problem of booking in advance and finding the weather or alternative event can alter that planning. Today, for example, I have to attend a funeral and passed my ticket to my neighbour. Any doubts were dispelled on arriving at the Home of the Cricket at 9-30 yesterday. Some arrive after play commences to avoid the entry queues and security which can take a good 30 minutes. I am in the opposite school of arriving too early.

A Test day is huge operation. In the lift to the Upper Mound level I spoke to one of the catering team for the boxes onto second level who started work at 4 am. On arriving at the upper level, I looked down at the empty sward  and Lords was resplendent. It’s a ground whose architecture marries successfully traditional and modern: the magnificent red brick Victorian pavilion to the newest stand at the Warner.

In the programme the retiring chief executive Derek Brewer, who has done a magnificent job, wrote of a MCC project in the townships of Cape Town South Africa. I wonder how many would have predicted that at the height of the d’Oliveira affaire. Then the MCC held moral authority as well as actual one in the world game of cricket but this has now moved to the subcontinent. Now the very future of Test cricket is questioned given the popularity of the white ball format and the riches it confers.

English and Welsh cricket is now venue-driven, the number of Test ground increased, as has the debt to improve the facilities at many of them. Lords has responded  to the challenge – as has the Oval – without crippling debt but still the MCC is riven by the issue of development of flats at the Nursery End. Can Lords finance future developments without the monies received from the developers? To do so it needs two Tests a year. I believe it can. It is a well-run organisation, the staff  everywhere smiles and are helpful. You don’t have to queue for toilets in the Upper Mound, a benefit you do not get at Twickenham and most football stadia. All of this and an excellent breakfast gave me not just a feeling of well being but justification for the outlay for the debenture.

I have not not commented on the cricket itself. After 3 pm I was socially side-tracked at the bar in the company of a successful QC and advertising heavy hitter who attended  the same school, but had not seen one another for years. It may have been the conviviality or even the drink but the years melted away and we were all soon in lively conversation which continued into tea. After that I left for my afternoon nap. All I can say is that I was not alone as it’s such a social  place that there were some I suspect who did not see one ball bowled. And had a wonderful time. I listened to the moving tribute to Henry Blofeld. He surely will recall his final Test commentary at Lords and surely too Jimmy Anderson will get  his 500th Test wicket.