Media&’s focus will quickly shift to football&’s Premier League

Angus Fraser
 
The joy of witnessing England take an almost impregnable 2-0 lead in this summer’s Ashes has not been lost on the British public. The chance to ridicule our oldest foes is not being wasted and the Australian supporters I watched and spoke to while Alastair Cook’s side thumped the Aussies at Lord’s had a forlorn and slightly embarrassed appearance. Many preferred to be drinking Pimm’s on the Coronation Garden at `The Home of Cricket’ to watching the cricket. 
Despite the Ashes thrashings England suffered during my career England’s win in the 2nd Test did not provide me with a huge amount of satisfaction. It felt a little hollow. Yes, of course, it was great to see Cook and Co triumph but I left Lord’s relatively underwhelmed as I did not feel I had witnessed much of a contest. England were excellent and for that Andy Flower, Cook and the team should be congratulated but from the moment Australia lost nine first innings wickets for 62 runs on the second day the result and the cricket played had an inevitable feel to it. 
Many England cricket fans will be relishing the fact their side have the chance of winning the Ashes in less than a fortnight, and that they then have an chance to inflict a 5-0 whitewash on Michael Clarke’s side. Yet it is questionable whether this is actually a good thing for English cricket. 
Cricket is currently the first item on the sports section of television and radio news. It fills the back pages of newspapers too. All this is brilliant for the game. Victory at Old Trafford and the retention of the Ashes will continue this theme. But what then? After that the Ashes, as a newsworthy item, will become a non-event. 
Before a ball is bowled in the fourth Test at Chester-le Street the focus of the media will have quickly moved away from the Ashes and Joe Root to football, the Premier League and the latest club Wayne Rooney has been linked with. Cricket lovers will have to wait for their game to feature on the news and search deep in to a newspaper to find reduced coverage. It sounds unpatriotic but the best thing that could have happened in this series was England losing the first Test in Nottingham. Then everybody would have been buzzing about Ashes cricket until the end of August. 
I hope Australia put in a strong performance in Manchester because I want to see a contest similar to that in the first Test at Nottingham. Middlesex were preparing to play a t20 game at Richmond as Australia closed in on their target of 310. The state of the game at Trent Bridge had captured the attention of the Sunday crowd. Hundreds of people were packed in the bar at Richmond trying to get a glimpse of the action. Hundreds of others had earpieces in and were listening to the action on radio. It was a marvellous sight. When I left Lord’s on Saturday, with Australia seven wickets down and with more than 400 runs still needed, it was the Harris and Coronation Gardens that were packed. For them it was more fun chatting with friends than watching the cricket. Their apathy was understandable because the contest was over.  And that is why I, with the exception of when Middlesex and Liverpool FC are playing, turn up to watch sporting events. I go to see a contest, to watch great sportsmen — whether they be English, Australian, West Indian or Indian — perform great deeds. For me the occasions when Brian Lara, Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Sachin Tendulkar have starred is almost as good as when James Anderson, Graeme Swann, Kevin Pietersen and Cook have produced the goods.  The Ashes of 2005 was a once in a lifetime series and we still talk about it fondly today. For all the immediate gloating Sunday’s win allowed England supporters need more Tests like Nottingham 2013 than Lord’s 2013 if we are to remember this series in five years time.     THE INDEPENDEnt