A few things.

Doesnt look good for Durham that its not sold out, and the fact that most spectators are wearing big coats wont make the ECB want to return there soon.

Cook and Compton both failed again I see.

Good to see Hales showing his worth now.

Why don't the TCB like big coats? Are you supposed to wear lots of jumpers like an umpire?

Grim weather forecast for today and tomorrow, Sunday better, just off there now to pick up the wife from her sisters gaff, will report back with on the spot report

It will likely be Durham's last test for a while through no fault of their own. It cost them £923,000 to host this in addition to the staging costs so they have had to charge around £50 a ticket to try and make some money out of it.

However it being late Spring when the weather ain't too grand and the fact that SL have lost virtually all of their big names means that they are struggling to get people through the doors.

Also tonight there is the England footy match up at the Stadium of Light. Not too many would have fancied doing both and if they had to choose one most would have gone with the footy. Which they have as it's sold out.

Mr Warwick makes a few valid points. Just to add to them Durham in the Spring? Would be better off playing the test down Sarf, and playing the test at Durham later in the summer. Would have more chance of 5 days play. Also the reason early season test away from any of the Old Boys Network speaks for itself financially. Jobs for the Boys etc.
Not that I'm synical.

An outer garment was required, however the sun the came out while I was there and a balmy 15c was recorded, maybe the evening session will be adorned with sun.

The weather was chilly, but a good full day of entertaining cricket. Felt sorry for Compton in a way, hell of a catch.

I feel sorry for the paying public. This sri lanka team arent worthy of a test slot.

Whats the point of playing them.

What does it actually mean?

There is no league or promotion or relegation.

Its just a match in a rota that counts for nowt.

The bowlers are goimg to fly up the rankings and have false stats. I reckon I could bowl these out. And I never bowled when I played.

Its definitely getting to the stage that unless its the ashes there is no point.

So much nonsense in one post, you need to stop trying to talk about cricket.

Oh dear. Did they really just bite at my post there.

And did I get called a cricket bore.

The world is definitely taking itself too seriosly these days.

Have England ever won a Test where it's not solely down to the opposition playing badly?

Or could it be that in Cook, Root, Broad and Jimmy we have four of the best ever English players and we're actually a tidy little team who would be a nightmare to play against?

I agree we do have some very good players. Not sure why you named three by their surnames but one by his first. Bit gay that.

But can someone explain to me the point of this series?

So we win right.

What does it count for?

Few people watch it.

Tv audiences are down. It just seems a waste of a series.

It doesnt matter if we are good now but were shit before.

People still turned up in their thousands to watch the ashes or the great west indian teams.

Hardly anyone gives a fuck about sri lanka and never will.

Cricket must be the only sport where the pinnacle games are more or less friendlies. Cos the count for the square root of fuck all.

Even if we lost and lost the next couple of series it wouldnt make the next ashes any less compelling.

So whats the point?

was awful seeing the ground empty on Monday.

Feel sorry for Durham but what's the answer, would it have sold out if played in June or July or is there just not enough interest in the north east

My folks went on Monday. They paid £25 each so surely it's not the cost.

I was there Monday as well. According to the ground map thing for Monday there was more tickets sold than people had shown up. I didn't think the game was going to get that far and defiantly not last as long as it did. I think a lot didn't bother on Monday because of how little action they expected to see, an opinion shared by Durham who gave out free T20 tickets for tomorrow as an incentive.

It was pretty nippy as well, all I can think is that it wasn't exactly great weather and the level of opposition. I don't think the previous game only being at Yorkshire helped either.

Part of the problem is that Chester Le Street is a ball ache to get to.

I don't think there is that much interest in the North East compared to other parts of the country. You could probably provide a dozen reasons why it was poorly supported at the weekend which would have all contributed but it was certainly the final nail in the coffin.

I could go only go on the Tuesday so spent the weekend praying for a few hours of rain which never materialised.

I fully concur with this.

But I still ask the question about whats the point?

Cricket is stuck way too much in its traditions,having to play all the teams, having to tour them all, and having to entertain them all almost equally. Almost.

I am sure the Durham test would have sold out had it been Australia, even if we played them every year.

I went on Sunday and it was a cracking day's cricket. 7 wickets fell and Sri Lanka put up a real fight with the bat. The application and patience of several of their batsmen was top class.

This winter's tour of India should be excellent. The way England are shaping up I'm very keen to see how they get on against India in their own back yard.

Day 4 was reduced prices. Tickets cost roughly £45-£55 for the first three days. the ECB are money motivated. It's not as if they are struggling...they have reserves of £70 million. When the bidding process ends in 2020 I hope Durham get a reasonable allocation. The journos all think Durham will never host a test again. Well if the ECB's boast about wanted to take the game around the country is true then Durham should get a test every now and again. As long as it's not against one of the piss-poor nations in May.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/36428120

So I was talking shit then eh?

It seems some very important cricket people think the same.

Sri Lanka actually won a series here two years ago, they have lost some quality experienced players and are in a transitional period. But the inexperienced players are going to benefit more from a tour here than only playing the likes of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. I think the comments are little disrespectful and arrogant towards Sri Lanka, they already improved by the second innings at Chester Le Street and have been dealt a shitty hand with an inexperienced team playing two Northern Tests in May. How would we do on dust bowls over there in 40 degree heat, I'm suggesting not very well. I do think promotion and relegation in a two tier system could work though in the future but it should a shame if you missed out on tours over a long period of time because you weren't in the same division. England have been out of the top five in rankings plenty since they were introduced. Not playing the big series because of it really could be the death knell for Test Cricket and probably why the system will never happen. It's cyclical teams have strong and weak period like in any sport.

Test series tours were devised in the days when it took weeks to travel to the places. Sport has moved on and cricket needs to.

A five match test series could be played in 6 weeks. Forget all the other games. So 6 series couldbe played every year, giving the players 16 weeks off.

If it was split into two divisions of 4. You could play the series over 18 months comfortably. 3 home series three away.

Bottom team gets relegated.

At least then test cricket would mean something.

But whats the point? Whats it all for?

What you are suggesting is that the current series, whoever we play, is the most important series. Then when its over, the next one is. And so it goes on.

There needs to be more to it than just playing a series against whoever.

For example a few years ago we lost the ashes 5-0. I cant remember who we played next, but by the time we played the next series, the ashes was forgotten about. Meaning the next series was more imporant. Its a bit daft.

The system isnt building towards anything. Just protecting all the playing nations.

All very traditional like.

Five Tests in six weeks!?

25 days of cricket out of 35, are you proposing fast bowlers only have five Test Careers as well!? Can you imagine the physical demands you are placing on fast bowlers? You'd seriously compromise quality of cricket as well.

Test cricket has a meaning as much as a meaning as any other International team sport does. It has a meaning when England are losing and people can moan like fuck. English mentality, England are winning let's find an angle to moan like fuck about. We have two of the best opening bowlers we've ever had in the right conditions they can bowl out anyone as easily as they have Sri Lanka a couple of times, they did it to Australia last summer.

If Pools beat a team five nil one season when you turned up to play them next season it would also count for fuck all.

Surely this league system would have a time frame when you played each other it can't just be keep going for ever.

well the authorities are proposing it, not me. I just agree with it.

Maybe you should email Michael Vaughan

You are proposing it it's been talked about for years.

I have already said I think it could be a good thing I just can't see it happening.

For example as things stand we wouldn't play Tests against South Africa, a series which pretty lucrative in terms of ticket sales and numbers who travel for the away series.

I just can't see how it would work in reality and I can't see any of the boards agreeing to it.

Oh and as things stand if it was a top four we wouldn't play New Zealand, the cricket against them at the beginning of last summer was fantastic.

Maybe if they hadn't spent £965,000 for the privilege of staging a Test.....

You wonder how Somerset afford Gayle, yes they sell out every game but the ground only holds about 7,000. Agree about the Riversides location we normally do to one of T20 games on a Friday night and even with 6-7,000 in the traffic is horrific.

Other counties might do this too but one thing that I've always thought typifies Durham's financially limited times is the fact that several of their players are usually allowed to go and play club cricket at the weekend. Ryan Pringle and the Weighell's do well enough for Durham but I don't recall this ever happening when money was easier to come by.

In terms of test cricket I prefer the idea whereby everyone plays one another over a set period and then there is some sort of playoff for the top 4 teams. Not in a knock out format but in an all plays all group format like the one Scyld Berry proposes here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/10601604/If-the-ICC-cared-about-promoting-Test-cricket-they-would-give-a-World-Test-Championship-the-green-light.html.

I'm not sure how you would incorporate the aspirant nations like Ireland and Afghanistan in this system though. Regarding these two countries it's encouraging that despite the rise of T20 both appear to have genuine ambitions to play test cricket.

Easy to get away from the ground last night - even with the ticket giveaway at the Test, there can't have been more than 1,500 in, and it was so cold a good few hundred left straight after Durham's innings finished.

Good game though, and a comfortable win after Collingwood's innings put Durham in a great position.

Dunno about overseas stars, it's a privilege to watch Colly in this form - has to be England's most underrated player of modern times and an absolute giant for Durham.

Was at the game Wednesday as well and enjoyed a good all round display, I was surprised how early some people started leaving though. Having the floodlights allows games to start later and more people to get there but its not ideal when a game is midweek and public transport links aren't exactly the best from Chester-le-street on an evening.