Alex

Think it was coca leaves rather than cocaine.

Could just use Uber instead

I think it's much more about the desire for land and power. It provides a damn good excuse though.

Alreet, Leazes

Aye, it's great. Love his work although I doubt I'll ever get the time to read it all.

Got nowt to do with the batsmen any more. The offering of the light to the batting side is long gone. It's set by the umpires. They'll decide at which point, with the aid of their light meters, the light isn't good enough then, once they've set that standard, they'll come off whenever it fades to that amount of light at any stage during the test match. In the old days the batsmen would be offered the light then could come off it they wanted. Technically a fielding team could appeal against the light too back then but in practice that virtually never happened. As for the scoring, it would've been very difficult to get the runs in less than 4 or 5 overs imo, which would equate to about 25 mins at the pace the Pakistani team were bowling them. The boundaries being right back on the fence unlike ODIs and T20s in particular and, of course, no fielding restrictions regarding amount of men inside the circle and so on. Crap advert for cricket though I agree. The daft thing is the rules were changed to prevent similar situations in reverse, i.e. a batting side about to be bowled out being saved by the light.

You reckon ?

White ball is easier to see under floodlights is the simple answer That said the rules were most to blame (rather than the umpires or even the Pakistan players) in this instance. You have a situation where blatant gamesmanship / borderline cheating is rewarded. The umpires had to be consistent with the light issue but I think they could've played on longer on the previous days too. The umpires didn't even seem to have a word with the Pakistan players or their captain either when they were obviously taking the piss.

Just been to the Lakes for a week. Weather was lush for this time of year. Did Helvellyn via Striding Edge. Sphincter was twitching like Stevie's after 8 bottles of Broon.

And then test cricket at its worst

Book's mint

Joan Collins fighting with Crystal Carrington

Nicely put. Supposed to be a good bloke because he was softly spoken or something like that if you believe some of the drivel being spouted.

You'd think they'd have gotten MC Hammer like.

@@Monkeys Fist Great news, mate. Well done

Carry me off to hell in a handcart if that wasn't a helluva speech.

That must be why it was used as the setting for White Christmas.

Unlike you I'm guessing he watched him play a few times