Talking Cricket: Lack of sell-out shows the price is wrong (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Talking Cricket: Lack of sell-out shows the price is wrong

3:30pm Wednesday 25th August 2010 in Talking Cricket column By Matt Donlan, Sports reporter

SHOCK horror, Lord’s may not be full for the opening day of the Test match with Pakistan tomorrow – and I couldn’t be happier.

As I droned on about in this very column the other week, there is no sadder sight than a cricket ground with empty seats for a Test match.

However in the case of Lord’s this week I will make an exception.

The prices for entry are too much and thankfully it seems as though a combination of the extortionate tickets and the dross served up by both teams at various stages of the summer has gone some way to putting the fans off.

Okay, it only costs a five for a junior ticket for the Test – but the bosses at HQ more than make up for that with the extravagant cost of everything else at the home of cricket.

Maybe Lord’s should really slash the prices in years to come and then, perhaps, the rest will follow suit.

Then again, maybe it is not too likely to happen too quickly – or until the public continue to vote with their feet and leave the seats empty.

l History could well be made in the Lancashire League this weekend as Jon Fielding needs just five wickets to become the first amateur to reach that landmark since Tommy Lowe of Church way back in 1939.

It would be a stunning achievement for Fielding, whose wickets are the reason for Ramsbottom being at the summit of a really tight Lancashire League.

Yet some people moan, saying he is an ex-pro and he shouldn’t be allowed in the league. So what. It is a joy to watch Fielding wheeling away with his left-arm spin.

And it is great for the league that the attention of a century of wickets will bring – and that is in everyone’s interest.

And I hope for one that he does get the landmark.