I watched a cricket match the other week. No surprise there as I am this newspaper’s cricket reporter.

But this cricket match was different.

It wasn’t at my normal haunts of Lancashire, Ribblesdale or Northern League, this match was on a park pitch as I took a wander en-route to my chosen destination.

There was plenty of interest in the game and it was competitive so for half-an-hour I decided to catch the action.

And what I witnessed was quite concerning.

The pitch obviously had not been prepared – not the wicket I hasten to add, that was an artificial surface – but the ground as a whole.

The grass was long enough to lose a small dog and obviously had not been cut for some time.

And it was also littered with the dirty leftovers from dogs whose owners were obviously not of the diligent type and didn’t believe in ‘bagging and binning’.

Now it’s all well and good encouraging people to take up sport – and this cricket match was certainly of the recreational variety – but surely the local authorities have a duty to make their playing fields fit for purpose.

We all pay our council tax so you would expect the fields to be fit.

Or maybe it’s me.