Oh calamity as Robertson Hare used to say. Not many people will remember him, but he wasn't a cricketer. The massed ranks of the cricketing media are having a field day following England's calamitous defeat in Barbados but lets put things into some sort of perspective. England have lost one match, admittedly by rather a large margin, but fair to say that four of the West Indian players produced possibly their performances of a lifetime. Certainly Holder, Dowrich, Roach and Chase are unlikely to do as well again in the future, but full marks to them - all really outstanding.
However let us leave the endless post-mortems to the 'experts'. It has perhaps gone virtually unnoticed that England Lions, the second team squad, are not doing particularly well in India. One or two defeats already despite centuries for Davies and Billings (yet another pair of wicket keeper batsmen). England Under 19s have also lost their first match in Bangladesh, so something of a common thread seems to be emerging.
Not to worry for the discerning cricket watcher there are far more other things to think about. For instance although the Minor Counties fixtures were apparently published in full (but kept under wraps) some months ago, we are still waiting for most of the venues for 2019 to be announced. A few counties have taken unilateral action and have disclosed where they will be playing, but the majority still seem to be struggling to keep up. At least the Scarborough Beckett cricket league has announced full fixtures this week. Some very pleasant grounds in that area for the uninitiated.
One or two others have been asking me where the County Second Eleven fixtures for 2019 have got to. Yorkshire were first in the field and have been followed by Lancashire and Surrey, but the full ECB list is still not available. Likewise the MCC list of out matches, of which there are rather a lot against school and club sides, has not yet appeared. Perhaps the powers that be are unaware of the small number of passionate cricket watchers who watch cricket at all levels and wish to plan their summer calenders, which is a pursuit fraught with difficulties from the word go.
However no doubt all will be revealed in due course. It's probably the fault of the World Cup or something, which seems to be causing great consternation throughout the world of cricket's administrators. Something to which we will not be paying great attention in these columns.
Nice to follow the example of our Lancashire correspondent who watched England's two warm up matches in Barbados in pleasant surroundings before returning in his own words 'to the sleet of Manchester' before the Test match even started. He was impressed with the Three W's ground and his admirable pictures appear here.
Which brings me back to a story from a previous England tour to West Indies when several England players were renewing acquaintance with Gordon Greenidge. Darren Gough did not know the great man and asked his colleagues who he was. On being told he was one of West Indies all time greats, he asked if he was one of the three Ws!
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