The backroom staff come good at last

Finally, the swarm of hangers on that Team England call 'backroom staff' have come good.

All the massaging, laptop analysis, hair straightening (or perming in Sidebottom's case) and tooth whitening since getting hammered in Jamaica clearly hadn't been enough to get the poor lambs ready to play again. With the group in need of further mental rehab and time running out, our support heroes took matters into their own hands. Taking to the beach in the dead of night (and in between serving cocktails for Freddie and Harmy), they transported 8 tonnes of beautiful white sand and dumped it over the outfield at the Sir Viv stadium. The bewildered groundstaff must have thought it was just part of their latest bizarre warm up routine. Game off. Job done.

What a shocker! The groundsman must feel as embarrassed as Matt Prior does when he stands up. Well maybe not quite.

The game will now re-start on Sunday at the Antigua Recreation Ground, so hopefully most of the supporters who have paid good money to be out there will get to see some cricket.

On to the flattest wicket in the world then. We might get to a hundred this time, who knows...