Low key start to Cup; ever heard of Stewart?

There are no banners in the streets, no posters on the walls and even the World Cup theme song, performed by Dave Stewart, is not due to be released until two weeks into the tournament.

The former Eurythmics singer and songwriter is hardly at the cutting edge of contemporary pop music and attempts this year by the England and Wales Cricket Board to widen the game’s appeal have the same dated feel.

Anneka Rice, a sometime television celebrity who would struggle to make most people’s B list, was present at a launch of the England team’s snazzy new kit.

She is unlikely to be asked back.

“The game is run by a club which has only just decided to let women in,” Rice told reporters, referring to the Marlyeborne Cricket Club’s vote to overturn a century of entrenched misogamy and admit women members.

Attempts to borrow ideas from major American sports appear similarly misguided.

Teams in the Sunday One-day league have been renamed in line with US football, basketball, baseball and ice hockey teams.

The titles range from the vaguely appropriate to the frankly bizarre and Darren Gough found it difficult to keep a straight face as he tried to explain the derivation of Yorkshire Phoenix at the launch of the new league.

Gough is one of the few Englishmen with genuine star quality and his performances with the ball are essential to England’s progress through the tournament, which climaxes with the final at Lord’s on June 20.

Neville Cardus would have approved of the doughty Yorkshireman, recognising the qualities which he believed made cricket one of the supreme forums for revealing character and individuality.

The peerless Manchester Guardian cricket and music writer disdained One-day cricket but as far back as 1953, he recognised an important truth still at the forefront of English administrators’ minds.

Cardus had been at Lord’s while Stanley Matthews was performing his magic at Wembley as Blackpool came back from the brink of defeat to beat Bolton Wanderers 4-3 in the FA Cup final.

“I felt pretty certain I had been attending a decaying contemporary industry which, but for the artificial respiration applied from time to time by the Australians, would before long pass into the hands of the brokers and gradually disappear, no greatly lamented into profound oblivion,” Cardus wrote gloomily.

In the final months of the 20th century, soccer is even more of a threat to the English summer game and the mediocre performances of the England cricket team in both Test and One-day games have not helped.

Gough apart, there is not much to enthuse about in the current team. On the wider canvas though, provided the unreliable English spring weather is kind, the World Cup promises a feast of sporting entertainment.

From a comparatively early stage in his career, Cardus referred constantly and nostalgically to lost golden eras and lamented current standards.

He might not have liked One-day cricket but he would surely have recognised the quality of the current cast of international players who have propelled the game worldwide into a new golden age.

The individuals on parade next Friday will include Sri Lanka’s wily and generously-proportioned captain Arjuna Ranatunga plus Sanath Jayasuriya, who redefined One-day cricket in the 1996 tournament with his explosive opening batting.

India boast Sachin Tendulkar, probably the finest batsman in the world in both the Test and One-day arena, while Brian Lara who played what might well have been the best Test innings ever against Australia this year, leads former champions West Indies.

South Africa, the early favourites, and Australia have the strongest complements of class all-rounders; Pakistan the fastest bowler in Shoaib Akhtar and a volatile team capable of reaching the heights.

The English spring and the probability of seaming pitches may demand more conventional tactics than in the previous two tournaments but nothing can be assumed in a game which has become a sophisticated sport in itself rather than just a poor relation of Test cricket.

In 1992, New Zealand opened the bowling with spinner Dipak Patel, four years ago Jayasuriya was reaching his half-century before some spectators had settled into their seats.

Ranatunga has hinted at further innovations this Friday and he has the players to deliver as Sri Lanka open the defence of their title.

So too do the other leading contenders and, if the advertising campaign has been non-existent, the authorities at least have a product of genuine quality to offer the public.