Twenty20 still no match for school days out at Lord's

ALAS, a 自白.

Until yesterday I assumed an 原子の kitten was a small 世帯 pet that had miraculously 生き残るd the conflagrations of either Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

I've realised this 提携させるs me with those antediluvian 裁判官s who have to enquire what someone called David Beckham does for a living, but fortunately there was youthful 援助 on 手渡す to 始める，決める me straight.

原子の Kitten, I now understand, are 現実に three attractive lady mummers who on July 19 will rent the night 空気／公表する of Trent 橋（渡しをする） cricket ground in Nottingham with amplified vocalism that will probably 活動させる／戦時編成する car alarm systems in 隣人ing streets and 誘発する sleeping children to 乱すd behaviour.

They will be there to celebrate the first final of the Twenty20 Cup 郡 cricket 競争 that began last evening all over the country; a 20-overs-aside slogathon trimmed to be over inside three hours. Much pop music and other gimmickry, from bouncy 城s to watching from a Jacuzzi, will be 会社にする／組み込むd in a frantic （選挙などの）運動をする to reignite England's passion for cricket.

Heaven knows, as a lifelong fan and former cricket 特派員 of this newspaper, the last thing I want to do is 注ぐ 冷淡な water over any 事業／計画（する） that could help fill the grounds and encourage youngsters to （問題を）取り上げる a game so disgracefully 害（を与える）d by the sale of so many school playing fields and the 無関心／冷淡 of 貧しく-paid teachers.

But I am of a luckier 世代.

Reginald Halliday, of blessed memory, taught English and history by day and had us in the 逮捕するs in the evening. He brought 負かす／撃墜する professional cricketers from the Hampshire staff to coach us. We played on beautiful wickets three times a week, for our school on Saturdays and for our 地元の club on Sundays.

No 量 of pop groups can 生き返らせる the days when such 激励 had us 列ing outside Lord's at 8am to squeeze into a 実験（する） match with our 挟むs or take a むち打ち for playing truant t o watch Denis Compton and 法案 Edrich batting for Middlesex in Bournemouth.

Without 逆戻りするing to the 記録，記録的な／記録する 調書をとる／予約するs, I believe Denis 得点する／非難する／２０d 107, 法案 50 and even the sixth 一打／打撃 of the 茎 was 価値（がある） it.

In 開始する，打ち上げるing the England and むちの跡s Cricket Board's 続けざまに猛撃するs 250,000 Twenty20 競争, their marketing 経営者／支配人 Stuart Robertson, said this: 'The audience profile for cricket is 悲惨な: middle-老年の, middleclass and white.' This was rather 広範囲にわたる. The 推論する／理由 why 郡 matches are so 貧しく …に出席するd is that so many of them are rubbish. Far too much meaningless, anodyne cricket is 存在 played by performers 簡単に going through the 動議s. 実験（する） cricket, desperate for television and 後援 歳入, has become almost as bad. England v Australia or West Indies will always draw the （人が）群がるs. England v Zimbabwe, while 認めるing the 訪問者s' problems, was 簡単に awful.

Where I have to part company with Mr Robertson is his believing that cricket is a white man's game.

Sir Frank Worrell. Sir Clyde Walcott. Sir Garry Sobers. Sir Vivian Richards.

Sir Everton Weekes.

Throw in a couple of commoners like Sachin Tendulkar and Clive Lloyd and you have performers who would pack the 前提s.

The last time I was in the Calcutta ground, 公式の／役人 capacity 80,000, it was 概算の that more than 120,000 were inside.

Cricket genius was the explanation, not 原子の warblers.

While wishing Twenty20 井戸／弁護士席, I believe there is another 投機・賭ける that will do rather more to regenerate youthful enthusiasm for the game.

Twelve years ago 法案 Greaves, a former Daily Mail 新聞記者／雑誌記者, and his friend Haydn Turner 開始する，打ち上げるd a programme called 資本／首都 Kids Cricket at a time when より小数の than two dozen out of more than 800 最初の／主要な schools in London's 17 inner boroughs were 申し込む／申し出ing even the most rudimentary form of cricket 指示／教授／教育 to their pupils.

Today, 支援するd by support from the Lord's Taverners, the MCC and the 郡 clubs of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent and Essex, more than 700 of those schools have cricket on their curricula.

On Monday and Tuesday, 260 pupils from those schools will be coached and play matches at Lord's, an 適切な時期 that fills me with envy.

No blaring music, just the inspiration of playing on the most 特権d cricket acres in the world. I really don't despair of cricket's 未来 but it is no thanks to 連続する 政府s, Tory 同様に as 労働, that 許すd all sports, not 単に cricket, to wither as they sold off British land for supermarkets and car parks.

i.wooldridge@dailymail.co.uk

AT a disreputable lunch with some lowlife friends on Thursday I was bet that I couldn't get the word anthropomorphism in today's column. 井戸／弁護士席, there it is in print.

It means the attribution of human form or behaviour to a deity or animal and 明らかにするs 絶対 no relevance to anything I have written.

Drinks all 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, gentlemen, for Sportsmail's splendid sub-editors who have 許可／制裁d its 傾向, thus 論証するing the ultimate 力／強力にする of the 圧力（をかける）.

Stewart and McCoy deserve thanks for 存在 honourable SO DEAR OLD Becks will have to put on the glad rags and a 最高の，を越す hat to come 負かす／撃墜する from Manchester, or maybe up from Milan, Barcelona or Madrid, to receive his OBE from Her Majesty.

His preferment was 確認するd yesterday after some excitable little こそこそ動く had 漏れるd the news a week ago, probably to 高める the Beckhams' 王室の 小旅行する of Hollywood where Americans are likely to equate an OBE with a peerage.

Definitely bad form, this. New Year and Birthday Honours are 通知するd to 見込みのある 受取人s six weeks in 前進する so that should you be a 共和国の／共和党の, who reckons the whole system is 設立 nonsense, you can 辞退する one without 当惑 to any party.

Particular congratulations to two sportsmen who have done so much to 高める my enjoyment of sport yet kept their mouths shut: an OBE for Alec Stewart, who at 40 still keeps wicket and bats for England without 競争相手, and an MBE for Tony McCoy, the 主要な maniac の中で those fearless 国家の 追跡（する） jump (v)策を弄する／(n)騎手s.

For me, there is one 優れた 指名する 行方不明の. No 指名するs, no hints, but I hope come December, the omission will be 修理d.