The third was given to Kevin Curran Kumble went to mid on and a daring experiment had sadly been

The third was given to Kevin Curran, Kumble went to mid on, and a daring experiment had sadly been almost stillborn.As it was, the breakthrough came for Northamptonshire in the eighth over, when Pooley pushed forward and followed one from Taylor and was caught by Rob Bailey at second slip. In these opening exchanges, the outstanding stroke had been a short-arm pull for four by Weekes off Curran.Kumble came back for the 13th over and bowled four which produced 15 runs before bad light intervened. A pull through square leg for four from Ramprakash just before the end may have been the most likely clue to the way the match will now go.The first part of this second day went so well for Northamptonshire that they looked like finishing with nearer 600 than 500. Bailey reached his 100 off the ninth ball of the morning, but at 363 he was well caught by John Carr at slip off Dion Nash. Bailey had faced 308 balls for his 157, hitting 11 fours and two sixes in an innings which was watched by Test selector Fred Titmus, and made one wonder if he might not still have a part to play for England.After Bailey’s dismissal, Northamptonshire did not capitalise and wickets fell now to careless strokes, leaving them short of 500.

Philip Tufnell twisted his ankle after he had bowled six overs in the morning.. If there was a time when sports fans saw their heroes as fair- minded young people who would never dream of trying to hoodwink authority, somebody should tell us when this saintly perspective prevailed. Certainly, in the minds of more people than would be prepared to admit it, there is today a notion that anything goes. It seems clear enough, yet the chances are that there is more misinformation on this than any other topic in sport.
One of the things worth remembering is that none of us knows what is really going on out there. Another is that any number of sports performers are not above fakery.Cricketers of otherwise unimpeachable integrity, devoted parents and trusted friends, choose to ignore the patently obvious results of an ill- timed shot until the umpire’s finger is raised. When the West Indies opener, Stuart Williams, was given out at The Oval last week, my colleague, Martin Johnson, described it as “ludicrous confirmation of an even more ludicrous appeal” They call it swings and roundabouts.

Really.No incident in football history is recalled more frequently than the goal Diego Maradona punched past Peter Shilton in the 1986 World Cup finals. The incomparable Pele was not above trying to gain free-kicks. Line-outs and mauls are fertile ground for confidence tricks in rugby.The fact is that sport is no more willing than it has ever been to abandon ploys that infringe spirit as well as law. Insofar as it convinces the players that their mentors are working hard, and therefore contributes to their own peace of mind and concentration, it is largely harmless. The problem is that it contains the seeds of its own destruction.Some of the fault, it may be said, lies with the stupidity of the law makers, the indescribably muddy prose which conceals the code, and muddle- headed administrators who do not fully understand it.Bearing this in mind, it seemed significant when Graeme Le Saux of Blackburn Rovers and Roy Keane of Manchester United were cautioned this week for attempting to persuade the referee that they had been unfairly dealt with in the penalty area, Keane being sent off for a second bookable offence.It raised the possibility that referees have been instructed to come down heavily on a form of cheating that, together with feigning injury, can cause serious animosity in the audience. If so, and as Trevor Francis emphasised on Sky television, the key is consistency.The essential qualifications for success in sport are what they have always been: talent, physical hardiness, self-reliance, cheerfulness in the face of adversity, and acceptance of bad luck. Those who are not prepared for the hazards have nowhere to turn for sympathy.Facetiously, it was once suggested that before a game the players of each team draw up in ranks, lift their right hands and solemnly pledge not to – or attempt to – deceive anybody.

This would, of course, cause a great deal of embarrassment in dressing-rooms throughout the land.It does not mean that all card-carrying members of the sporting clan are cut to the pulp fiction pattern – scheming, selfish, dishonest mercenaries devoid of all decent feeling. It is just that they are expected to put victory above all other considerations. When coaches talk about pride, emotion and momentum all the time it begins to dawn on us that the material scales are weighted against honesty The most honoured of them have invariably been pragmatists. One declared famously that it would be a great personal disappointment if his club did not finish bottom of the Fair Play league instituted by a national newspaper.We will have to wait and see what effect professionalism will have on the traditions of rugby union. Does it mean that a compromise with ethics is inevitable? Probably playing ball for a living beats opening oysters, but the advantages may not be what they seem especially when it comes to standards of behaviour.As for cheating, it is an indefensible idiocy that should be dealt with as firmly as it was at Ewood Park last Monday.. DEREK HODGSON

reports from Edgbaston
Warwickshire 278 Gloucestershire 54-4This is another of Steve Rouse’s Mohicans, emerald green down the middle, sandy brown and shaved at the side.

If Gloucestershire, who were bowling, knew not what to make of the pitch, much the same could be said for the Bears.The priority, for the champions, was to make up for the first day lost to drizzle. One of the reasons why Warwickshire are the most successful team is that whether batting, bowling or fielding, they get on with it. There is no time for introspection or self-doubt.So despite early overs during which Roger Twose saw a ball from Javagal Srinath whistle past his nose, from a length, in the seventh over, only to be bowled by one that was no more than ankle high, in the next, the scoring rate rarely flagged.The price to be paid was in the frequent fall of wickets and a cracked little finger of the left hand for the Scottish all-rounder, Dougie Brown. Last night he was doubtful for Saturday’s NatWest final.Gloucestershire fielded all day as if a bowler short, which they were, Mike Smith having a strained side, but their newcomer, Jon Lewis, a 19- year-old right armer from Aylesbury, formerly with Northamptonshire, made a pleasing first-class debut, 4 for 64, especially as he was probably over-bowled.Fortunately the pitch became merely untrustworthy once the first shine and hardness had gone from the ball and the bright drying sunshine was replaced by thickening cloud. Wasim Khan, a lithe left-hander, scored an adventurous 68 in two hours, a foundation the Warwickshire middle was able to build upon.Brown had looked capable of a useful score when he was dropped, off Mark Alleyne, at mid-on.