Cricket: England wary of conducting a trial by fire

HEADINGLEY today joins The Oval in providing an English Test- match crowd with action replays via an outdoor video screen, although, after Old Trafford, it is only fair to warn parents of younger spectators that some scenes may offend.

The giant screen places the umpires under more pressure than usual to get the hairline decisions right - not so much the lbws and run-outs, but how to hand over a sweater without causing offence.

One of the match officials is Ken Palmer, the elder brother of Roy, who along with David Constant was the subject of a Pakistani objection on the tourists' last visit here in 1987. The TCCB overruled this, and the tourists' reaction to what they regarded as a typical display of arrogance may in turn have had a significant bearing on the umpires allocated to England on that winter's tour to Pakistan.

Shakoor Rana might be the name chiselled on Mike Gatting's captaincy tombstone, but it was an umpire by the name of Shakeel Khan who lit the bonfire for that series with a series of decisions in Lahore which so outraged the England team that Faisalabad was only a surprise in terms of the size of the conflagration.

It would be difficult to overstate the emotions generated on both sides by those eight Test matches in 1987, and the warning lights are on again now as yet another England - Pakistan series finds itself in danger of overheating. Old Trafford, five years on, did little to support the theory of absence making the heart grow fonder.

Pakistan, ultra-talented though they are, were always at short odds to lose their discipline under Javed Miandad, whose newly cultivated choirboy image evaporated in a cloud of acrimony in the last Test. Thank heavens for the no- nonsense, get-tough code of the ICC, who should be appointed at once to police the trouble spots of the world. The Second World War would never have happened had an ICC referee been on hand to 'firmly remind' the German skipper to maintain the spirit of the game.

Hopefully, the next time the referee becomes involved, he will do something to alter the image of a job largely regarded as a gin-and- tonic junket. Hopefully, there will not be a next time, but you would not mortgage your house on it.

Conrad Hunte, the stand-in referee when the fertiliser flew into the fan in Manchester, has now flown home to America (possibly by hot-air balloon) and the short straw for Headingley returns to Clyde Walcott. Yesterday, the ICC chairman, Colin Cowdrey, met the captains and managers of both sides to issue them with their final instructions ('no low blows, break when I tell you, retire to a neutral corner . . ?') for a good clean fight.

In terms of legitimate weaponry, England should be led back to their stool, rendered unconscious by a battery of inswinging yorkers, well before Monday evening. However, Headingley is the one venue almost guaranteed to embrace the more prosaic virtues of the English medium-pacer, and as such, they must have a chance.

The last draw here was in 1980, thanks mainly to the weather, since when England have been on the wrong end of six of the 10 results - including the one that cost them the 1987 series against Pakistan.

It is odds-on another result this time. The pitch is moist, which makes winning the toss an important factor, but it is also cracked, which means that it might become even more difficult when it dries out. Graham Gooch will be tempted to pick John Childs, which (as a spinner selected for Headingley) places Childs in danger of being stuffed and mounted for exhibition in the Lord's museum.

However, the last spinner (from any country) to take a wicket on this ground was Phil Edmonds in 1987, and unless Gooch is planning to bowl himself far more than he is naturally inclined, Childs's inclusion would not sit easily with seven batsmen. As England's natural instincts at Headingley have always been riddled with negativity, a seven batsmen-four seamers combination remains the most likely choice this morning.

Yorkshire have issued a statement to the effect that spectators are limited to bringing in four cans of alcohol per person, and that 'stewards and police will be keeping a close watch on the crowd'. From the evidence of Old Trafford, they will be facing the wrong way.

ENGLAND (from): G A Gooch (capt), A J Stewart (wkt), M A Atherton, R A Smith, D I Gower, G A Hick, M R Ramprakash, C C Lewis, D R Pringle, T A Munton, N A Mallender, P J Newport, J H Childs.

PAKISTAN (from): Aamir Sohail, Ramiz Raja, Asif Mujtaba, Javed Miandad (capt), Salim Malik, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Wasim Akram, Moin Khan (wkt), Waqar Younis, Aqib Javed, Ata-ur-Rehman, Mushtaq Ahmed.

Photograph, County reports,

Scoreboard, page 35