Maybe now England should finally declare when it comes to test cricket. We no longer have the players capable of playing the "long format" of the game. Also the audience is no longer that interested, even during the ashes series if there weren't regular wickets falling or towering boundaries being struck, making "beer snakes" and beachball games quickly started up. At the county level it is now very very rare to find a team capable of batting all day and reaching stumps only 3 or 4 down. Attendances at these matches are in the main woeful, bettered in many cases by non league football games.
Maybe I'm just getting old but I remember many a pleasant day spent at Canterbury watching Chris Tavare "seal an end" and happily trot off at stumps unbeaten on 40 or 50. A couple of rain delays and a good supply of Shephard Neames' finest. Yes those were the days.
