Ting-a-ling-a-ling Goes the Championship's Death Knell

Eight dates: a July 18 1848; b February 13 1862; c May 12 1890; d August 27 1908;

e May 1 1963; f June 21 1975; g December 16 1977; h April 18 2008.

On those dates occurred respectively: a birth of WG Grace, feast-founder; b first international match, All-England XI v XXII of New South Wales/Victoria combined, Outer Domain, Sydney; c first match of official English County Championship, Gloucestershire v Yorkshire, Bristol; d birth of Donald Bradman, cricketer who turned medieval into modern; e first qualifying round of one-dayer, Gillette Cup, Lancashire v Leicestershire, Old Trafford; f first World Cup final, Australia v West Indies, Lord's; g first "Packer World Series" match, Australian XI v West Indies XI, Sydney Showgrounds; h Indian Premier League premiere, Royal Challengers v Knight Riders, M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore.

The eight some reel represents the most significantly fundamental dates in cricket history. After each of them the presumably enduring landscape was radically altered: no going back. And there can be no doubt whatsoever about this Friday. Professional cricket will never be the same after Rahul Dravid's Royal Challengers square up to Sourav Ganguly's Knight Riders in bonny Bangalore on Friday evening.

In with the new; out with the old. One thing's born, another dies. With near perfect timing, tomorrow morning, two days before the dollar-strewn Bangalore bash, sheepishly stirs another summer of what has tragically become a drawn-out primeval charade, the English County Championship. For decade upon decade it was a cherished adornment of the summer sub-culture, certainly for my generation when heroes were giants and giants were locals. About a quarter of a century ago the championship began fraying and then in no time unraveling. It is now a pointless exercise, unwatched, unwanted, serviced by mostly blinkered, greedy chairman-bullied committees and played by mostly unknown foreign and second-rate mercenaries.

Friday in Bangalore surely marks the day the dreaded black spot was pressed into the palms of the championship chairmen and you wonder if it will survive as we know it even till its 120th anniversary in 2010. With wicked relish I fancy the last rewarding pleasure it might ever offer could be this spring - seeing Kevin Pietersen having to make a rare appearance in it while all those pay-day tills still merrily go ting-a-ling-a-ling far away in India.

24-hour party people

Come to think of it, I wonder how our restless moaner Pietermaritzburg Kev would have managed under stickler Bradman's command? It was 60 years ago tomorrow that the Don's 1948 Invincibles-to-be disembarked from the Strathaird. They had 12 days in London before the first match at Worcester. This was the team's compulsory social program, mandatory blazers or dinner jackets, and a different speech to more than 120 guests from their captain every time:

Fri April 16 disembarkation and hotel.

Sat 17 dinner, Australia House, principal speaker: Australian High Commissioner.

Sun 18 golf and dinner, Burnham Beeches GC (RWV Robins, MCC).

Mon 19 lunch, Royal Empire Society (Ernest Bevin, Foreign Secretary); pm, Coliseum theatre, Annie Get Your Gun.

Tue 20 lunch British Sportsmen's Club, Savoy Hotel (Lord Aberdare).

Wed 21 lunch, Institute of Journalists, Savoy (EW Swanton).

Thu 22 dinner, Cricket Writers' Club, Public Schools' Club, Piccadilly (Sir Norman Birkett).

Fri 23 net practice, photo-call, Lord's.

Sat 24 FA Cup final, Wembley (Manchester Utd 4, Blackpool 2).

Sun 25 day off.

Mon 26 St Paul's Cathedral, service for anniversary of wedding of King George VI and Qn Elizabeth, followed by official lunch, St Paul's; pm, Mansion House, Lord Mayor's banquet of welcome (Clement Attlee, prime minister).

Tue 27 entrain Paddington to Worcester.

Wed 28 begin three-day match v Worcestershire (Australians win by innings and 17 runs).

My paper lions

Twelve months on, this very morning, the Lions manager, Gerald Davies, will announce the party for next summer's tour of South Africa. There is no knowing how many players by then will have suffered terminal burn-out and there are, of course, an awful lot of cauliflower ears still to be rubbed raw but, with the bet-hedging proviso that history shows how many fabled Lions came into the selectors' serious consideration only in the year of the tour, how is this for a first Test XV to take on the Springboks next June?

Rob Kearney; Shane Williams, Tom Shanklin, Shane Geraghty, Rory Lamont; Danny Cipriani, Mike Blair; Andrew Sheridan, Dylan Hartley, Euan Murray, Paul O'Connell, Alun Wyn Jones, Tom Croft, Ally Hogg, Ryan Jones (captain).