The backdrop is often more interesting than the racing
Credit: AFP
Imagine, for the sake of argument, that Lord’s served up a flat, lifeless pitch, one extinguishing any vestige of attacking cricket, every time that it hosted a Test match. Under the International Cricket Council’s grading system, introduced in 2006, it would, irrespective of its prestige, be stripped of the right to stage such occasions in future. The rules are unambiguous: amass five demerit points – often given to shockingly uncompetitive tracks that reward neither batsman nor bowler – and you are struck off the rota, even if you are your sport’s equivalent of consecrated ground.