Ten balls

England were seven for none after 1.4 overs at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium when the match was abandoned.

Not delayed. Not suspended. Abandoned, on the first morning, and the remaining four days were cancelled.

What was wrong

The bowlers could not stand up. The outfield had been laid on sand and their run-ups gave way underfoot within a few deliveries.

Alan Hurst, the match referee, is quoted on the scorecard: The ground conditions, and especially the bowlers’ run-ups, were unfit and potentially dangerous and we decided it would not be possible to rectify those fundamental issues over the course of a day or so.

Jerome Taylor had bowled one over for five. Fidel Edwards had bowled four balls for two. Andrew Strauss was 6 not out from 8 deliveries and Alastair Cook 1 not out from 2.

They had been out there thirty-four minutes.

Full scorecard: West Indies v England, 2nd Test, North Sound, 13 February 2009 →

What happened next

The Test was moved to the Antigua Recreation Ground, the old ground a few miles away, and started two days later on the Sunday.

That match is Test number 1908 and was drawn. This one is Test number 1907 and is also recorded as drawn.

Two Tests, two numbers, two grounds, two days apart, between the same two sides. One of them contains ten balls.

The line that makes it strange

The match notes carry a sentence that most people who know this story have never read: The statistics from the abandoned Test count towards career records.

So Strauss has six runs in his Test aggregate from an abandoned match. Cook has one. Taylor has an over in his career analysis that was bowled on a surface the referee had just declared dangerous.

West Indies’ eleven are listed on the card and none of them batted. They are recorded as having played a Test match.

Two ways to not exist

Compare it with the other end of the problem.

In England in 1970, five matches were played over five days each, in front of crowds, between two full sides, and carry no Test number at all.

At North Sound in 2009, ten deliveries were bowled and the match has a number, a result and career statistics.

The line between a Test and not a Test has nothing to do with how much cricket was played. It has to do with who the two sides represent, and that is the only criterion the record actually applies.

The eleven who did nothing

Chris Gayle, Devon Smith, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Brendan Nash, Ryan Hinds, Denesh Ramdin, Jerome Taylor, Sulieman Benn, Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards.

Nine of them touched nothing. Taylor bowled six deliveries and Edwards four.

All eleven are recorded as having appeared in Test number 1907, and for nine of them there is no entry anywhere on the card beyond their name.

What was never answered

How it got that far.

The stadium had been open for two years and had staged matches. The ICC had inspected it. The ground had passed whatever process exists for confirming that a Test venue is a Test venue.

An inquiry was announced. Officials in Antigua blamed bureaucracy, the ICC blamed the venue, the venue blamed the schedule, and no document has been produced explaining which specific person signed off a Test match on an outfield that could not hold a bowler’s studs.

The card is precise about everything after the first ball and silent about everything before it, which is the pattern this blog keeps arriving at.

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No. 4 in Ghost Games, a series of 9.

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