The Road to God Knows Where

GH embraces Darwin

The first time Darwin hosted a Test match, in 2003, it was realised, twenty minutes before the first ball, that there were no stumps. A Cricket Australia official reported that the local minister for sport was chiefly obsessed with ‘how important it was that the beer was cold and the government did not want to get any flak over this.’

Twenty-three years on, NT Cricket seem rather better prepared, even if the beer again looms in importance - it is dry season but still plenty hot. A cricket archway greets arrivals descending the escalators at Darwin Airport, but Marrara Stadium is still an hour’s bus ride from the CBD, there is no provision for additional transportation during the game, and I’ll be getting used to the familiar sight of Pete’s receding back.

I’m used to this

Marrara, at least, presents a picture from our press box vantage, even if that is regrettably square of the wicket. You can discern the much-discussed dividing line between the two halves of Jake Pavlich’s drop-in pitch, and wonder if the batters will too - John Maley’s World Series Cricket pitches were likewise, and players did kvetch about it. Still, that was logistically unavoidable, and it did not detain Pat Cummins when he surveilled the surface today.