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Well it means very few Durham fans will make it to the match.

If the MCC /ECB want to promote the future of game played under lights with a pink ball and under new regs they should fork out and lay some live TV coverage on and a proper package of highlights.

A live internet TV stream would help but not for those who cannot access the internet.

Am I right in thinking this will be the first ever FC day/night match?

Durham will play this match probably without Bunny,Pudsey,Bob and Colly ,assuming they will tour Bangladesh, as it overlaps with the England series in Bangladesh.

Cook is hoping to take in some additional matches too and is looking to Claydon,Evans and Baby H to show their form as part of a squad of 17/18 players.

Aidan

there is confirmation for you from the Lord's press release

MCC and Durham will contest the first-ever day/night, four-day match using pink balls.

After a bit of research this match is not as traditional as it is billed certainly, not at Lords.

In 1902 there was a Rest of England v Champion county at the Oval played at the end of the season in question.This fixture was repeated until the Great War and revived in the 1920's until WW2.

The match was revived briefly in 1947 but not played again until 1954 again at the Oval in Sept.It was missing in 1958 returned in 1959 and finally dropped in that format in 1961.

The MCC fixture v Champion County appeared,possibly in 1967, but as the CC winners in 1966, Yorkshire, already had an established fixture against the MCC in April at Lords,and were champions between 1966 and 1968,it is diffult to say when the Champion county fixture was actually designated as such.

In 1969 however Glams were the champs and they played the MCC in what is the first clearly designated Champion County match at Lordsin April 1970.

In 1977 there was a variation in so far as there were joint champions in 1976(Kent/Middlx)but only Middlx played the MCC at Lords.

The fixture was again discontinued in 1992 and MCC were replaced by England A and again in 1993.The latter match was the first of this period to be played away from Lords,this time a Chelmsford as Essex were the champions.

The trend continues in 1994 dressed up as the Tetley Bitter Shield( Middlx at Lords) and 1995 ( Warks at Edgbaston).

There was no Champion county game from 1996 to 2000 but an attempt to stage a match in 2001 between the Champion county and Nat West winners ,termed the Champion Charity Cup,was postponed and eventually not played.

There was no fixture in 2002 or 2003 and the current Champion
County match was revived in 2004.

It is therefore a bit off the mark as a traditional fixture ie 28 matches played as Champion County v MCC ,at Lords,out of a possible 40.

So the MCC - nothing but media tarts on the bandwagon then?

All interesting stuff Southwood, well done!

It was our former poster,now on Indian Cricket and 606, who got me thinking.

I remember this fixture in the late 60's and like so many assumed ,because it is lauded as the 'Traditional' season opener in the Press,that it was so.

Probably is evidence that there was not much significance in the match othewr for the county involved and as a brief moment in the season for cricket correspondents,many of whom know nothing or very little about the game.

Quote Southwood.

In 1977 there was a variation in so far as there were joint champions in 1976(Kent/Middlx)but only Middlesex played the MCC at Lords.

Hate to correct you Southwood. Obviously a man of considerable cricket knowledge.

But Middlesex were outright champions in 1976 and shared with Kent in 1977.

So it would be correct for them to have played MCC as The Champion County in 1977. though it was not listed as such.

In 1978, Middlesex also played MCC.

However, Kent don't appear to have featured in 1978.

However as they (Kent) won it outright in 1978. (the last occasion in their case).

I don't suppose they were worried. (the late Bob Woolmer featured in that team).

Many thanks Seaxe_Man and apologies for the error.

Durham ,in Abu Dhabi at the end of March, have arranged four one-day games either side of the four-day match against the MCC.

Two of the one-day games will be against Surrey and Sussex and two against local teams.

Good!

We need to play as much OD stuff as possible against the southern group teams

The MCC team has been announced for the game

Ramps is the most significant selection- possibily his last season?
MCC team to play Durham:
* Alex Gidman - Gloucestershire CCC
Scott Newman - Middlesex CCC
David Sales - Northamptonshire CCC
Mark Ramprakash - Surrey CCC
Dawid Malan - Middlesex CCC
James Taylor - Leicestershire CCC
† James Foster - Essex CCC
James Middlebrook - Northamptonshire CCC
Chris Tremlett - Hampshire CCC
Steve Kirby - Gloucestershire CCC
Steve Finn - Middlesex CCC

Full press release link
[www.lords.org]

Hey ho – the wonderful MCC have released the line up for our 4 day warm up match in the desert. The one that the MCC still likes to call traditional, but of course isn’t at all and is a rather unusual training match for us this year. [ John Stephenson, MCC Head of Cricket and Manager of the MCC team to face Durham, said: "This is a traditional fixture." Yeah right John ]

The MCC uses twitter and facebook as part of it’s promotion of activities at Lords ‘the home of cricket’. The @HomeOfCricket is so far touting the match on twitter this way - MCC v Champ County team profiles: [tinyurl.com] - words 'outstanding', 'excellent' and 'nasty' are used. #cricket

Which at the moment without confirmation of any broadcast linkups smaks rather a lot of ‘look what we will be enjoying later on this year – that us – not you!’

I have to say as someone who would have gone to an Engilsh based fixture [but obviously March is mad for this sort of thing] I’m interested in how they are going to get this match the maximum amount of viewers. So I have been on their case a bit. Earlier I suggested that they could have trialed the pink ball at a high profile charity match only to be told ‘@HomeOfCricket
- Only trouble with a charity match is we want people to take the pink ball seriously. This will certainly do that.’

So if they want the pink ball and presumably this match to be taken seriously – why aren’t they getting the maximum possible exposure for the match?

This is what the ‘@HomeOfCricket’ said when I have asked them – “Obviously what Sky do is their call - doing what we can. Hope to at least have 'web-able' radio coverage. More details when we have them”. And about last years fixture @HomeOfCricket
“ They didn't cover it live 'ball-by-ball' as it were but SkySportsNews had a camera here - likely to have a camera there this time too.”

So at the moment only the likes of doshed up MCC members and high profile ICC Champaign quaffers are the only spectators worth garnering. So the likes of you and I who would actually like to get a look at the pre season condition of our non England duty team, might get some MCC web radio if we are lucky.

If I have to experience this match through the PR titbits of the MCC I am going to go nuts.

I have asked about a static live feed of the pitch for web broadcast? Presumably If it’s an important trial won't some remote people want to see ball behavior? Won’t they want to record it in a way for discussion later?

I’ll let you know if I get any interesting responses – or they may manage to PR something in the meantime.

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Planet Durham: CCC [planetdurham.wordpress.com] an illustrated cricket blog type thing….

Thanks for that 668. I was busy yesterday so did not get a chance to read tthis input otherwise I would have raised it at the Forum last night.

Clive Leech was there and he might have been able to use his contacts to make more headway.

I have also e mailed John Stephenson, who seems to heading uo this fixture,about the whole broadcast idea but so far no reply.

Wonder where the kit for last years video highlights came from? The video equipment they used for the one day packages that the club started to post on the website and then did not persist with as the one day form was poor.

Presumably the club will take the performance analysis equipment too – just wonder if they can get something together using a combination of that if nothing better presents?

Some Durham controlled video highlights and some stills on a website extension would be better than nothing. Sky news updates are there and gone – you are not guaranteed to catch up with them – I never seem to anyway! And proper media photography just stays with stills of big name players.

I spoke to a friend who is considering going [he is mainly a T20 fan, but has found that he likes CC too – so one of those with jobs!!] And he made the point that it’s expensive to get to London anyway if you are not staying with friends – so he will be taking the sun option and making it a holiday [cricket being the only reason to go to UAE]

Shame they didn’t turn it into a set of T20 games – more of the fans with dosh would have gone, I suspect. The first class loving members are rather more if you can afford the time for the championship you are less likely to be able to afford to jaunt of to UAE.

Good idea 668.

Yvette Thompson is usually quite good at fielding and passing on such ideas.

Do you want to send her an email or phone her?

Yvette Thompson Media and PR Manager 0191 387 1717
ext 2873

yvette.thompson@durhamccc.co.uk

668- Coincidentally Yvette e mailed about the AD match so I took the opportunity to raise the issue of some form of filming.

She said she find out what coverage there was likely to be and try to keep everyone informed.( A politicians answer ?)

Well my friend who was thinking of going – was thinking of the Durham tour. Having seen the price…… even with the lure of winter sun - that is definitely not for him! I know a couple of others who are completely gob smacked [ and one I know who would have gone to Lords]

£2090 quid if you were thinking of treating yourself - £1595 if you were to go with an equally flush traveling companion - I know sports tours aren’t cheap but.....this is not an international test match!

I had an twitter exchange with whoever does that web twitter thing today. This was the response at one stage on twitter - @DurhamCricket We'll be tweeting the action...if that helps!

I’d rather watch it on ceefax/cricinfo! So ‘look what we will be enjoying later on this year – that us – not you!’ Is coming from Durham too. Tweet? My @#$%&!!

I think the club/MCC should give some info on how to do it more cheaply. I am really appalled at how complacent they are being to the supporters on this one. [Day night pink ball or not – test cricket is still going to look rubbish if no one is watching it at the stadium]. They can’t have it both ways – it’s either a closed doors training match – or it is something [if you can afford it] worth spending two grand on seeing. And if it’s that good – then you make sure the home supporters at least have a chance of experiencing it somehow, with some quality.

I suggested that they see if they can link up with some of the NE trade mission to try and get some cheaper room deal – you would think with the MCC they could get something together for independent travelers wanting to go.

Did some web browsing looks like you could do 5 or 6 nights for 700 ish. Still way out of my price range and well above the £15 a day it costs at Lords, although I know London hotels aint cheap.

It was always going to be costly and at the end of the day this is nothing more than a pre-season friendly game. Fair play to those who will make the trip but I will settle for following it via whatever media sources are available at home.

Extract from an e mail reply I have had from Durham CCc.

"Further to my email on Friday I have made enquiries to the MCC about the coverage of the game. From discussions they have had they are confident that Sky Sports News and a number of broadsheets will be attendance



Discussions are ongoing about the possibility of ball by ball radio coverage.

In a bid to keep its supporters up to date Durham CCC will be updating the match action as it happens on the www.durhamccc.co.uk website, with photographs from the game. We shall also be uploading exclusive video interviews from the team. Those people who follow us on Twitter, we will be updating the action on there too. We are in the process of having an interactive feature added onto the official website in time for this fixture, which will allow supporters to get involved and ask questions as the action happens and we shall respond/upload relevant information – so if anyone has any queries/thoughts they can share them with our online community (in a similar vein to the BBC 606 board).

As this is an official MCC fixture the initial responsibility for securing TV/radio coverage lies with them, with Durham CCC offering support where necessary with regard to player access for interviews etc."

I hope the MCC can get ball by ball coverage - Martin Emerson did it last year from Lords.

I guess it won't be fully live on Sky then.

A report on the pink ball experiment in Aus
[www.abc.net.au]

[quote southwood]Extract from an e mail reply I have had from Durham CCc.

"Further to my email on Friday I have made enquiries to the MCC about the coverage of the game. From discussions they have had they are confident that Sky Sports News and a number of broadsheets will be attendance

Oh good..... cctv footage sandwiched between reports on Rooney's baby's latest hairstyle and jason Kundy talking about Chelsea's defensive woe's.

And lots of "coming up after the break, a live report from Abu Dhabi" only to find that they really mean in 3/4 of an hours time after they've suckered you in to watching endless football nonsense in the interim

Yes I always find the SSN announcement "coming up..." very irritating. It would be better if they said "coming up some time today, and if we can fit it in...."

Sky Sports News should also be changed to Sky Football News With The Odd Coverage of Other Sports Thrown In.

Have got an email from Martin Emmerson - the BBC and the MCC are going to do joint radio coverage of the match. At the moment confirmed for website broadcast - he is still finding out about if there will be any conventional AM stuff for the NE.

Martin says
"Because of the time difference, and the fact the match is a floodlit affair, the hours of play in England will be just like they are in a County Championship match in September, with play due to start at 10.30am each day and finishing at 5.30pm.

Obviously this is a very historic match. Not only will the game be played under lights, they will also be using a new pink ball for the first time and if the match is deemed a success it will make way for the first floodlit test match, which will see England play Bangladesh under lights at Lords in May.

I will let you know more details about our coverage when they are confirmed nearer the time. The match takes place from Monday the 29th of March to Thursday the 1st - the day before Good Friday"



So there will be something - not much, - but something, and at least by someone who knows our players.

Not sure which time zones Martin is talking about when he says the match starts at 10.30am - I presume as it's day night the 10.30 is UK and it is starting after lunchish there in Abu D?


Don't fancy the idea of a day night test match in May! Neither will the Bangladesh team - it is when Bangladesh is at it's hottest - they will be the miserable West Indians all over again, but even more so cos it will probably be colder.

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Planet Durham: CCC [planetdurham.wordpress.com] an illustrated cricket blog type thing….

Beat me to it 668- have spent the day entertaing and being entertained by a future Englnad hopeful, currently aged 6 months.

6 months old eh? Bating, bowling, ace fielding, allrounder?? No pressure then!

His Great Grandfather has him down as a batsman but he is good at appealing so I reckon he will be more of a bowler( or wkt keeper).