So farewell then to Chester-le-Street, England’s fortress, more secure against overseas marauders than nearby Hadrian’s Wall. The game against Sri Lanka was England’s sixth Test match here and the suggestion is that it may have been their last. This is not absolutely certain so for now it’s more “au revoir” than “goodbye”. But the simple, sad fact is that they can no longer afford Test cricket in the north-east.
England have won all of their six Tests at Durham’s home, three of them by an innings. No venue on the globe has provided its home side with such unbroken success.
There are a variety of reasons for that. Except for the Ashes Test of 2013 all the matches have taken place early in the season in archetypal “English” conditions and several of them have been against the weaker sides on the planet.
First there was Zimbabwe in 2003, then Bangladesh two years later; then West Indies, the 21st century version, who travelled far from home with no greater enthusiasm than Dennis Bergkamp.
Early in the summer there has often been a little sap in the pitch, some nibble for the seamers rather than excessive pace for the fast men. But most importantly, on the ground where there has always been the warmest of welcomes for visitors, it has often been freezing out in the middle or in the stands. Tourists from nearer the equator seldom feel comfortable in such temperatures.
It was here that Zimbabwe were 48 for eight in their first innings in 2003; that the Bangladesh players, stooges as England completed their preparations for an Ashes summer, were unable to feel the tips of their fingers in 2005; that Chris Gayle would trumpet the joys of T20 cricket as opposed to the five-day format – even though he was West Indies’ captain at the time. This was a predictable prelude to England winning by an innings and 83 runs before the leaves were out on the trees that surround Lumley Castle, which overlooks the ground and once terrified Shane Watson.
Most memorably it was here that England secured their Ashes victory in 2013 with Stuart Broad on the rampage and Tim (“what’s he doing bowling?” groans Shane Warne) Bresnan grabbing critical wickets when Australia were threatening to knock off the runs.
It is hard not to have sympathy with Durham’s lot. They were encouraged by the England and Wales Cricket Board to create the most northerly Test venue in the world and they delivered a spacious, modern stadium.
Then they were rewarded with a string of Test matches (with the exception of that Ashes fixture) that Richard Branson would struggle to sell.
It seemed like a good idea at the time to expand the number of Test venues but that is how entrepreneurs operate. Currently in England (and Wales) there are too many grounds geared for international cricket and several of them are losing money as a consequence.
On a grey bank holiday Monday the gate receipts for Durham were not heavily bolstered despite the promise of free entry to the county’s next T20 match. The anoraks and hoodies were out in force again. It was cold. How you must love the game to sit transfixed for six hours or more when the temperature creeps into double figures. This barely crosses the minds of administrators in their cosy, heated boxes when slavishly pursuing the notion of day/night Test cricket in this country.
This is a format that can probably work wonderfully well in climates as accommodating as those in Adelaide and Brisbane as well as the subcontinent (dew permitting), but whether in Chester-le-Street or Southampton it is asking a lot of the punters, whom TV moguls love to have filling the stands to provide the optimum television product, to stay glued to their seats as the temperature plummets. It is the equivalent of trying to play cricket in the monsoon season, though the schedulers sometimes try that as well.
In this country it can often be too cold to watch cricket comfortably in the daytime, but those who turned up on Monday were rewarded by a bit of history and a defiant innings from Dinesh Chandimal. He may well have hit the last Test century at Chester-le-Street and it is an even safer bet that no one else will be able to notch their 10,000th run there as Alastair Cook did. Which is a pity. Aside from the warm welcome at a model stadium, Durham has recently been the nursery of some of our best young cricketers.
Now Chandimal and his Sri Lankan team-mates move down to St John’s Wood for the final Test of the series. The stands will be full there most of the time. They have two Tests a year there. Lord’s makes money.
