Vaughan probably has a particular dislike for back-to-back Tests in view of the fact

Vaughan probably has a particular dislike for back-to-back Tests in view of the fact that he succeeded to the captaincy between back-to-back Tests against South Africa a year ago. This enormous programme has to be fitted in and then time has to be set aside for the Twenty20 competition.Of course, it is all pretty tiring for England’s leading players, but they have surely to ask themselves if their central contracts with the ECB would produce as much money if the international programme was curtailed. To accommodate this lot it is surprising that there are not more back-to-back Tests than the first and second and then the third and fourth in the series against the West Indies. Michael Vaughan complained the other day that back-to-back Test matches had been forced upon England on two occasions this season. The amount of cricket, both international and domestic, steadily increases and all the new stuff is designed to enlarge the pot of gold that the England and Wales Cricket Board will have collected by the end of the year and from which it will have to pay its contracted players and all the other many expenses that come its way.
The triangular one-day competition of 10 matches played in midsummer has become a fixture.

As there will be three one-day games against Australia outside the triangular competition next year, it is reasonable to assume that from now on each summer will see these three extra games.This September will also see England hosting the Champions’ Trophy between the nine Test-playing countries and one qualifier, the United States. This year, three more one-day games against India have been fitted in for September. and reflected on how frustrating it was to end one of the finest days of my modest sporting career feeling inadequate.b.viner independent.co.uk. This he has done as a former leukaemia sufferer himself, and with a replacement hip. In October he plans to cycle across Australia on a penny- farthing.I know this because when the cricket was over I read his c.v.

And I subsequently noticed that Gatting, who had replaced Athey at the crease, sent Broad back after entertaining the notion of a quick single only to spot that I was the man swooping at mid-wicket But maybe I was fantasising by then. That nice Jim Rosenthal said it was one of the most spectacular things he had seen for some time, but from a man who makes his living watching Michael Schumacher repeatedly processing to victory, maybe that wasn’t the acclamation it might have been.In the absence of anyone who had ever played cricket with me before, I was able to affect a kind of nonchalance, as though catches like that were second nature. One of my wickets was that of Lloyd Scott, a former fireman who has raised £3.5m for Children with Leukaemia, having walked to the North Pole, the South Pole, abseiled down Blackpool Tower, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and run several marathons in a deep-sea diving suit. I don’t think Gatting does quick singles in charity matches.I later took two wickets and scored 18 runs. The momentum rolled me over a couple of times and I realised, when my flailing limbs finally came to rest, that the ball was still in my hands and Athey was on his way back to the pavilion, while my team-mates were scurrying over to congratulate me. Syd Lawrence bowled, Athey pulled, and I, finding an agility in my 43rd year that I don’t remember having in any previous year, plunged headlong and caught the ball an inch off the turf.It is an interesting sensation, pulling off a sporting feat that is entirely at odds with one’s usual prowess. And undoubtedly the strangest was the breaking of Broad and Athey’s opening partnership.