In Praise Of The Honest Professional

Test cricket has been well served by the series between England and India which ended yesterday. The gap between the sides was markedly smaller than might be suggested by the bare statistics of England's 4-1 series victory. Both sides have manifested frailty, particularly with bat (the magisterial Kohli excepted) but the drawn-out tautness of the contest might hopefully have won some converts from the false faith of twenty20.

Attention has in particular fallen upon two yeoman professionals - men who are just bloody good at their respective jobs. Both Alastair Cook and James Anderson arguably fall a mite short of absolute greatness but there is no shame in that. Cook's sheer weight of runs (made moreover as an opener) is testament to a mighty obduracy. Anderson gets better with age. Anderson yesterday overtook Glenn McGrath's record test match haul of wickets amongst seam bowlers - McGrath's strike rate and average are signifiers of his greatness but one should remember that he never had to bowl against the titanic Australian line-up of which he was a part. Equally Anderson never gets to bowl at England's brittle top order. Incidentally if you want to see an example of good grace in operation then track down McGrath's generous words of congratulation for Anderson.

Test cricket does itself no favours with its slow over rates but it remains the true expression of a beautiful sport. Long may it survive.