Dogs being allowed to crap all over my route to the train station. Arsene Wenger fielding Arsenal’s third team in the League Cup. People using hands-free mobile phones when both of their hands are free anyway. Just because these things happen all the time, it doesn’t make them right.
I would like to add a cricket-related item to this list – back-to-back Test matches. It was only a few years ago that a back-to-back Test was worthy of comment. In 2000, there was not one back-to-back Test in the English season – each of the seven matches that the two touring sides (Zimbabwe and the West Indies) played against England were punctuated by tour matches.
This season, Pakistan will play six Tests in seven weeks. There were three days scheduled between the end of the second Test against Australia and the start of the first against England. The only break between any of the six games of more than three days is between the second and third Tests against England, in which one of those ridiculous two-day matches is due to be played against Worcestershire.
No time for rest or recuperation. No opportunities for fringe players to stay in form, or out-of-form stars to find some fluency. No chance for county supporters to see their local heroes pit their skills against a national side. Of all the many problems with the shambles known as the English cricket season, this is surely one of the most serious.
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