In South Africa (not to mention Australia) they do things differently. All the main grounds and some of the minor ones are bathed in the shadows cast by light pylons.Driving through the charming, old Eastern Province town of Graaff-Reinet yesterday one of the first sights was a lovely, lush cricket square. Its mobile lights will be transported along the motorways of England next summer between Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester. With a ball left, West Indies needed three to win and Mike Brearley, England's captain, responded by putting all the fielders, including wicketkeeper, David Bairstow, on the boundary.

The authorities soon put a stop to that sort of caper.Still, the ECB has obviously embraced day-nighters now. There might not have been time, after all, since 28 November 1979 for the proposal in favour to go through every committee and working party.It was on that date at Sydney that England batted first against the omnipotent West Indies, then world champions, and won a rain-affected tie by two runs It was a thriller and led to changes in the rules. But if, for example, they were to lose the toss on Friday against South Africa and again have to bowl in the afternoon, bat in the evening, it would probably gnaw at their soul.It is commendable that the England and Wales Cricket Board has at last permitted the playing of these games and surprising in many ways that it has taken up the baton so soon. "But I've lost four tosses in a row, it would be nice to win one." This does not explain England's poor cricket after 7pm, sometimes going about their business as though they are in the dark.

Nasser Hussain, the England captain, has not made a single excuse for his side all winter and is not about to start now, so his observations about lights can be trusted."There is an advantage batting first," he said. While it is 21 years since they played the first floodlit one-dayer, in Australia, they have never been regularly exposed to the form. Each new team has to begin the learning process all over again.This does not quite excuse some of the fielding errors or plain awful shots, but it would help their mindset if they could win a toss, bat first and watch the opposition struggle to adjust. Actually, given the choice of unusual conditions, they would probably select thin ice as being more trustworthy and this coming summer, when the first three day-night international matches are played in England, they may have to contend with both. Their continuing twilight uncertainties, especially when batting second, as they have been forced to do twice in this triangular tournament, are caused largely by unfamiliarity. England's cricketers still look to be on thin ice when they are playing under floodlights.

England's cricketers still look to be on thin ice when they are playing under floodlights. Actually, given the choice of unusual conditions, they would probably select thin ice as being more trustworthy and this coming summer, when the first three day-night international matches are played in England, they may have to contend with both. What we have got is the Olympic tail wagging the national stadium dog."He was particularly scathing about Sports Minister Kate Hoey, describing her appointment last July at a crucial stage in the proceedings as "unfortunate".He accused her of "dodging" the real issues, particularly the need to invest £2.5 billion in the infrastructure at Wembley if it was to be suitable to mount a bid to host the Olympics."If the politicians get off our back, we can get on with the project," he added.However Ms Hoey, who was also appearing before the committee, said Wembley National Stadium had only considered the requirements of athletics at a very late stage in the design process."To be absolutely honest here, I don't think Wembley were looking at the athletics aspect until very late in the day," she said.Culture Secretary Chris Smith said that when he was shown the plans in mid-July, he had a "gut instinct" that there were problems with the scheme that was being proposed.Although some concerns were dealt with, others remained, particularly the difficulties of the "sightlines" for the athletics which meant that some spectators would not be able to see the events properly.He said that overall, the design was "too far below the optimum" and would not have been good enough to support a bid to host the Olympics."I am completely certain that we have made the right decisions," he said."If we had gone ahead putting all our eggs in the Wembley basket, we would have been ruling out effectively the possibility of bringing the Olympics to London."He said that in addition to the £20million of lottery money being paid back by football, the £40million set aside to construct a temporary running track at Wembley and build warm-up facilities would now go towards a purpose-built national athletics venue.end. It's been used in Monte Carlo where they held the World Athletics Championship there."There is no reason why athletics could not be staged at Wembley. it is an athletics stadium and then a football stadium - not a combined one."We did a great deal of research.. and the platform system works. Why, I do not know," Bates told MPs."The uniqueness and the cleverness of the Wembley design is that...