Marketing men tell us the only way to attract folk to cricket these days is to fashion matches completed in a day between teams with outlandish names and performed by players garbed in garishly day-glo hue.
Once enticed to attend, entertainment can only be seen as a fusillade of fours or a salvo of sixes.
Monday’s events at York’s Clifton Park surely proved the marketing men wrong.
For the first day’s play between Yorkshire and Warwickshire had none of the above.
Rather here was a day’s play that ebbed and flowed, enticingly. At times the ball was in the ascendancy, with a batsman’s survival, rather than scoring, the aim. Then the mood would change and batting seem the easiest thing in the world. But, in a moment, a magical piece of fielding or a fiendish piece of seam bowling would change it once more.
Was all this performed in front of the traditional one man and a dog? Not at all.
Despite it being a drizzly Monday, and not in the school holidays, Clifton Park was very well attended. The crowd - none of whom felt the need to dress as superheroes, nor drink themselves silly nor chant abusive inanities - was full in its appreciation of the play.
No one can doubt the attractions of the one-day game. But Monday surely showed that the four-day game can have a healthy and well-attended future if promoted and delivered as superbly as Monday’s fixture at York was.
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