It was a case of the new normal colliding with a dose of the same old, same old. Mizzling rain wiped out the first three hours of the first Test and for a spell it looked as if the weather might hold sway all day; a cruel joke after a sun-drenched spring and early summer.
But come 2pm, after Ben Stokes and Jason Holder had produced a moment of socially distant mirth through an awkwardly duffed handshake at the toss, and players and coaches on both sides took a knee to denote the Black Lives Matter movement, Test cricket’s 129‑day hiatus was over.
It has not returned in the same shape but rather as a made-for-TV product in ridiculously pared-back form. No supporters, no corporate boxes, no sponsor activation hubs or programme sellers. Just 13 cricketers and two umpires on a green stage in the Hampshire countryside, with Spidercam hovering overhead and a smattering of workers looking on.
The first three overs, before another shower swept in to force another break, gave a taste of what is to come this summer. When Dom Sibley shouldered arms to Shannon Gabriel and the opener’s off stump received the kind of trim his lockdown locks are in need of, the eerie silence was briefly disturbed.
International cricket has been played in near-empty stadiums before. But in England? At this point, after a couple of hours drinking in the rain, the home crowd would normally be letting out a collective sigh at Sibley’s misjudgment to go with pockets of cheers from those supporting the tourists. Yet the only sound bouncing around the empty stands of the Rose Bowl was of West Indies players congratulating their now fit-again battering ram and only then through a collection of fist bumps and foot kicks, rather than high fives and hugs.
The need for such restraint in the moment was a disappointment but the wicket was a relief of sorts. The setting for this Test may be sterile and the protagonists are coming in slightly underdone but, regardless of the vacuum, Sibley will likely attest to being in a serious battle during the four balls he faced.
It has been a fair effort to get to this point. After last summer’s World Cup and Ashes delux combo meal, Steve Elworthy, the director of events for the England and Wales Cricket Board, was probably expecting a slightly quieter 2020 (the launch of the Hundred notwithstanding).
But he and his team have been plunged into a world of medical protocols, ground schematics, zones and one-way systems, juggling a headcount of 300 and trying to keep everyone within it healthy. Every element of staging a major match day, something the ECB has had down pat for a while, needed to be broken down and rethought through the prism of Covid-19 in order to get the game back on and, crucially, keep the Sky money rolling in.
The so-called “Lord’s hum” on television may help trick minds at home but the measures put in place to receive government sign-off for this series were always going to deliver a slightly dystopian experience in person.
Entering the bubble – or at least the outer zone permitted for day workers, such as the 12 members of the written press – actually began a couple of days ago, when one of the ECB’s Covid-19 testers knocked on my front door and stuck a swab in my nose and throat. Not exactly an Amazon delivery.
With no news being good news on this front and having spent the previous week filling out a daily health questionnaire, arrival on site was then a case of passing through not one but two thermal scanning units – tents with infrared cameras – before following the one-way system to the new press box.
A converted suite in the Shane Warne stand, it has 12 desks spaced at least two metres apart, all of which have face masks and alcohol wipes ready for use. Hand-sanitiser stations dotted everywhere around the ground – including the boundary’s edge – further the feeling of being in hospital rather than hospitality.
The players and coaching staff have been living on site and experiencing this weirdness for some time now; while the outside world piles back into the pubs and the cinemas, they still find themselves having to stand in the corner of lifts facing away from each other and eating breakfast at separate tables.
But the early signs on the field are that they have adjusted to the new normal. Once it fades into the background for the rest of us – and provided the bubble doesn’t burst with a viral outbreak – the contest should become the chief talking point.
