Shadows loom large on eve of second Test

By Ted Corbett

MANCHESTER, MAY 30. Shadows lurk everywhere at Old Trafford on the eve of the second Test between England and Pakistan.

The darkest threatens Alec Stewart, England captain for the 15th time because of the injury to Nasser Hussain's thumb, and watched cautiously because any day now he will be summoned to an interview with Lord Condon, head of the Anti Corruption Unit.

Lord Condon is looking into an allegation from the bookmaker Mukesh Gupta that Stewart received œ 5000 for information during the 1992-3 tour of India. Even those who claim that Gupta has never given a bad tip yet cannot believe Stewart guilty. `What you see is what you get' - WYSIWYG as the computer buffs have it - with Stewart.

His Surrey and England team-mate Graham Thorpe is astounded at Stewart's cool. ``He will find solace in being England captain. The Condon report must have made it a tough time for Alec but you would never have guessed. He is a tough individual and I know I would have cracked under such pressure,'' says Thorpe, whose batting will be a major factor as Pakistan tries to level the series after the innings defeat at Lord's.

At this point you have to consider the sort of cricket conundrum that delights the chattering classes. Unless Stewart loses this match - and the odds are on a draw - England would have won five series in a row - against Zimbabwe, West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka. Ray Illingworth was the last England captain to force five series victories in succession back in 1968-71.

Should Hussain get the credit? Or share it with Stewart? He will be at the match and so be able to oversee strategy but should he be ranked alongside Illingworth?

The most serious shadow stretches ten miles from Oldham, still smouldering after three days of Bank Holiday race riots; but the consequence for Old Trafford may not be drenching trouble between Whites and Asians but worries about its future as a Test ground.

Durham's Riverside Stadium waits for a Test - it stages two one- day Internationals next month - and if the prospect of a racial clash deters other spectators, the old ground may be deemed to be unfashionable by the England and Wales Cricket Board and dropped from the list.

Only 35,000 tickets have been sold for the first three days. Wasim Akram, the former Lancashire and Pakistan captain, who will want to make an impressive last appearance at Old Trafford, says: ``I love the place and feel almost as much at home here as I do in Pakistan.''

The biggest cricket shadow is a two-hour drive away in Worcester where the Australians gather for their traditional opening match beginning on Friday. They dropped in via Gallipoli, their Army's most famous battleground, and according to Steve Waugh, their captain, it proved an inspiration as they pushed aside memories of their defeats in India.

``I hope every Australian team pays a visit,'' he said. He claims that the undoubted world leaders are even closer after the series loss to India; a formidable belief indeed.

Waugh added: ``England has many of the same players as it did when I last saw it in Australia two years ago but it has more confidence now and is much more of a team.''

Only two players in the 12 will be strangers to the Australians - Marcus Trescothick and Matthew Hoggard - but they may play key roles in the Ashes series. Once again Hoggard is likely to spend the next few days gazing wistfully at Test cricket from the players' balcony. More's the pity since he is too fine a bowler to waste his learning years as a 12th man.

Pakistan may use this match to introduce one of its youngsters but is unlikely to make the error of the first Test when it missed Saqlain Mushtaq's magic.

The teams:

England (from): Alec Stewart (captain), Michael Atherton, Marcus Trescothick, Michael Vaughan, Graham Thorpe, Ian Ward, Nick Knight, Dominic Cork, Robert Croft, Andrew Caddick, Darren Gough and Matthew Hoggard.

Pakistan (from): Waqar Younis (captain), Saeed Anwar, Salim Elahi, Faisal Iqbal, Younis Khan, Inzamam-ul- Haq, Yousuf Youhana, Abdur Razzaq, Rashid Latif, Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq and Mohammad Sami.

Umpires: Messrs D. Shepherd and E Nicholls (West Indies); Match referee: Brian Hastings (New Zealand)

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