Roll on to Lords

The first Test of the summer, between England and West Indies will start next Thursday at Lords. It seems to get earlier each year as England now hosts two teams during the summer in a packed schedule, that there is hardly any time to draw breath.

The Windies arrived in England this week and their arrival seems to have been met by rainfall, which is an unusual occurrence for once at this time of the year. There has been glorious sunshine and instead of the stop start scenario and rained off matches in the County circuit, there have been results and huge scores to boot. The Windies are struggling to get any match practice as their only match before the Test against Somerset in Taunton is likely to be disrupted by the rain.

The Windies dogged by continuing disputes between the board and players, a new captain at the helm in Sarwan, a team without the legend Lara, who has retired and a poor run of form in recent years, have a lot to prove and improve on. England have been the victors by a distance in recent years, unlike the thrashing the once powerful Windies inflicted on them in the 1970's and 1980's. It must be painful for the greats who played in that era and their loyal fans, to witness the decline of a team which seemed invincible, much like the Aussies today.

England must start favourites, thou they also have not had a good winter after loosing the Ashes and a poor World Cup and there are a few injury scares to captain Vaughan and star player Pietersen. There is a new coach, Peter Moores, who has gone about his new task quietly and without much fuss. The Zimbabwean connection continues with Andy Flower as his deputy. They have not had much time to prepare since taking over and it will be interesting to see how this new partnership performs in helping England put recent disappointments behind them and continue the good work started by Duncan Fletcher.

The Lords Test is always a grand affair as befits such a historic venue and the atmosphere and the buzz of anticipation on the first day is always something special to behold. I have been to the ground, on many occasions for a Test, and always cherish the atmosphere, the sumptuous surroundings, the chatter and banter of the fans and of course the play. It is hard to leave at the end of the day and it hardly seems like a whole day has passed. I always leave with memories of the day on my journey home with a big smile on my face. They call Test matches boring, well not from where I am standing.

Roll on to Lords.