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England v Australia, Twenty20, The Rose Bowl
Don't let your kids watch
Edward Craig
June 13, 2005
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Paul Collingwood: at least he batted for longer than Australia's middle-order
© Getty Images
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The Rose Bowl witnessed a tragedy today. England
thumped the Aussies in the first serious international
match of the summer, under cloudless skies with a
packed, enthusiastic crowd. It couldn't get any
better. And that's the problem: it won't.
Today was the first experience of the sport for many
children, drawn to the colour, the glamour and the
noise of Twenty20. They must think it is always like
this. How cruel to tease the innocent - 7 for 8 in 20
balls is irresponsible cricket from England. They
should be well-practiced and prepared for
disappointment by the time the Ashes starts - like the
rest of us - not left floundering in false
expectation.
This match was a battle for first blood - in fact, it
was all about firsts: the first Twenty 20 match for
England; Kevin Pietersen's home international debut on his home
ground; Australia's first meeting with England in
2005. And didn't the crowd enjoy it.
The fantastic facilities at the Rose Bowl made this
occasion work so well. The players warmed up on the
picturesque practice ground next to the main pitch.
Spectators found any vantage point they could,
including a dormant JCB, to catch a glimpse of Freddie
having a net. They cheered when he smashed Gareth
Batty and Jon Lewis out of the practice ground - they
booed his defensive shots.
Away from the professionals, NatWest set up their
usual array of cricket activities to keep the kids
entertained. So in between Australia's humiliation and
Hampshire's thrilling last-ball win against a PCA XI
(the under-card event), children (and too many adults)
lined up to Speed Bowl and Target Bat. One
four-year-old boy found the game too daunting, with a
crowd of his cheering father and brother, he couldn't
lift an oversize bat to hit balls lobbed at him from a
machine and left in tears after 20 seconds.
Luckily Pietersen doesn't suffer from such nerves. In
fact, when a crowd is involved, Pietersen doesn't
suffer from anything: nerves or failure. He picked up
the Man-of-the-Match award (but admitted Paul
Collingwood should have taken it) thanks to rough
batting and tough catching. Twenty20 is a tacky game
and it suits him perfectly. The purist batsman in the
England side, Michael Vaughan, lasted one ball - he
has too much class to worry about this trivial,
fake-Rolex version; for some reason, KP loves it.
Nobody is fooling themselves, though, after this
"happy hitting" affair, as Pietersen described it.
Ricky Ponting says they'll be laughing this off (when
you are 31 for 7, what else can you do?). Vaughan says
not to read too much into it, but there were moments,
personal battles that started and will burn throughout
this summer: Flintoff versus Brett Lee; Andrew Strauss
versus Jason Gillespie - both sides, whether they
wanted to or not, drew key battle lines - and it
finished 1-1. Gillespie cleaned up Strauss and Freddie
floored Lee with a delicious chin-shaker.
So don't get carried away and, more importantly, don't
let the children get over-excited. Twenty20 is great
but this victory and the optimism of the crowd have a
distinct feeling of 1997 where ultimate Test failure
followed one-day success. This cricket comes with an
18-rated certificate, and should remain so until the
real thing begins in July.
Edward Craig is deputy editor of The Wisden Cricketer
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