Cricket: Northants to bank on their assets in attack

AT a time when the National Westminster Bank is allocating a fair proportion of its staff to the debtors' department, the showpiece Cup final it currently sponsors is being run by people whose grasp of the real world appears to terminate at St John's Wood tube station.

Grasp is the operative word. The Test and County Cricket Board is presumably aware that the majority of people wishing to support Leicestershire and Northamptonshire today do not live in offshore tax havens with numbered Swiss bank accounts, and yet they continue to move the game further away from the real supporter, and closer to the tentacles of corporate entertainment.

Whether the customer knows the difference between a caught and bowled and a cocktail cherry appears to be of little concern to the TCCB, whose ticket arrangements for this match are the hallmark of a body that nowadays does not so much concern itself over matters associated with 'howzat?' as 'howmuch?'.

Leicestershire have never before appeared in the September Cup final, and yet 1,000 of their 4,500 ticket allocation has been returned. This is not surprising, as they all priced at either pounds 40 or pounds 35, which were the figures demanded for no fewer than 3,000 of the tickets originally sent to Grace Road.

Of the rest, only 1,000 were priced at a more reasonable, yet hardly inexpensive, pounds 26, while a mere 500 went on sale for pounds 18. This latter figure is not quite the snip it appears, as the catch here is that you cannot actually see a catch. From the restricted view underneath the Grandstand, the ball disappears from view once it gets above shoulder height.

It is hardly surprising, therefore, that 1,600 tickets remained unsold this morning - the first time in the past 20 years in which demand has not vastly exceeded supply. It is not even as if the NatWest Trophy final actually guarantees a good day out. The criterion on these occasions is a good pitch, runs by the bucketful and a breathless finish, but in recent years the showpiece final has had a tendency to be all over closer to breakfast time than supper time.

Last year was an exception, but in two of the previous three games, the man of the match award ought to have gone to the captain who won the toss. In 1988, there was so much early moisture around that Worcestershire's top order had disappeared by 11 o'clock, and in 1990, Phillip DeFreitas won the match for Lancashire by taking five wickets in the first hour.

Northamptonshire were the victims on that occasion, and given the sort of weather we have had in the past couple of weeks, the pitch moisture that results from a combination of the Lord's water table and 10.30am September starts is likely to be there again this morning. The last six finals, and 15 of the last 18, have been won by the side batting second.

Northamptonshire have lost all but one of their previous five 60- over finals, although they start favourites to improve that record today against a Leicestershire team that, after years of being regarded as underachievers, have perhaps surprised even themselves by their results this summer.

However, the long-standing adage in this type of combat, who performs better on the day, was well illustrated by Leicestershire's semi- final victory over Essex. Without their two leading bowlers, David Millns and Vince Wells, they were so short of bowling resources that they even called Jonathan Agnew out of retirement. The BBC's cricket correspondent has just about regained full use of wind and limb, and has been declared fit to take his place in the commentary box today.

This is not the most glamorous of Lord's finals, although local rivalry should give it an extra intensity. Throughout the Seventies and early Eighties, there was a good deal of needle between these two clubs, so much so that one of the rare instances of a declaration came when Ray Illingworth did so on the final afternoon of a Championship game, knowing full well that Leicestershire would be obliged to follow on. The object, pure and simple, was to deny Northamptonshire bowling points on a rain-affected pitch.

Northamptonshire, who have more potential match-winning batsmen, and Curtly Ambrose spearheading a better-balanced attack, look likely winners on paper, and although Leicestershire probably come out ahead on team spirit, their odds will lengthen even further if Millns is declared unfit.

LEICESTERSHIRE (from): N E Briers (capt), T J Boon, J J Whitaker, P E Robinson, V J Wells, J D R Benson, L Potter, P A Nixon (wkt), W K M Benjamin, G J Parsons, A D Mullally, D J Millns.

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE (from): A Fordham, N A Felton, R J Bailey, A J Lamb (capt), D J Capel, K M Curran, A L Penberthy, D Ripley (wkt), C E L Ambrose, J P Taylor, N G B Cook, J N Snape, M N Bowen.