Certainly took the sting out of the Sri Lankan innings. Cricket’s all about the honey these days anyway.

@Gedd, I’m not sure where the nuance lies, to be honest. He’s basically saying that the pitches aren’t roads and they are unable to cope with anything else. That’s pretty poor.

Hmmm.

I have now read that YJB interview in full and I think there is sufficient nuance in his comments – you can judge for yourselves:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27068787/people-were-waiting-us-fail-jonny-bairstow-lashes-england-critics

FYI, it is the ICC that is directing the curating of the pitches for this tournament. Nothing wrong with that, but it must at least partially explain why particular grounds end up with pitches that behave differently from “normal”, i.e. when the ICC is not there to direct pitch preparation.

I have been vocal in my criticism of the ICC’s overly-commercial approach to the in-ground experience for supporters – it was/is truly ghastly. At Lord’s, where the scoreboards are the big screens, it meant that we were hardly ever shown the score. Replays were often cut short in order to revert to adverts, And that’s before an old-timer like me starts to complain about 8 hours of solid, banal noise.

But I’m not critical of the ICC’s aim to produce pitches that make for a good contest between bat and ball – indeed I applaud that aspect.

I also think the TV coverage has been pretty good this time around – it’s just a shame that the UK doesn’t show any of it on free-to-air television, but that matter is not the ICC’s fault – the ECB still has failed to get a grip on the reality of that massive broadcasting shortcoming.

Fascinating Tavare fact, Sam, although in truth he is 64, currently in his 65th year.

Apropos to Tavare and as a prelude to England v India on Sunday, here is the scorecard from a previous world cup encounter between those two teams – the 1983 semi-final.

**Spoiler Alert** This does not end well for England.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8039/scorecard/65088/england-vs-india-1st-sf-prudential-world-cup-1983

Fascinating Tavare fact of the day number two: quintessential slow-coach Tavare has the fastest scoring rate of all the England batsmen in that match, exceeded only by a quickfire dash by Dilley right at the end of the innings.

Fact of the day: Chris Tavare was Trescothick’s first county captain in 1993. Chris Tavare is now 65 years old.

Och, I loved the piece, I obviously did, but Trescothick is retiring having been my home county hero for two thirds of my life and 100% of my cricket watching time so please forgive me for not giving that my attention first…

Oh good, they’ve started getting tetchy and blaming journalists. Always a promising sign.

Well basically we’ve massively overshot and written something with far too broad appeal.

Didn’t get around to mentioning it, what with the Tresco ‘thing’, but – yes, this is tremendous. I agree that this is one of your best pieces on the site. Superb analogy.

Hang on – if Bail-out’s the one-person audience, who am I…?