Ringing the changes
On Thursday morning Kate Cross, of Lancashire, England and the No Balls podcast, became the first woman to ring the bell before an international fixture at Old Trafford – and they have not just been changing their ringers but ringing the changes. Half an hour earlier Cross’s county, international and podcasting teammate, Alex Hartley, who had mounted a small-scale campaign to have a floodlight named after herself, saw her wish granted – though it had to be pointed out to her, after she managed to walk right past it on her way into the ground without noticing that it suddenly had her picture on it. “I’m beaming with pride,” she said on TMS later. “Just wait till she gets turned on later, she’s going to look great. I wonder if I can phone Lancashire at 4am and say, ‘Will you turn my light on?’ Because I can see it from my house.” Also getting christened this week: Sky’s commentary team are now housed inside the Michael Atherton OBE Suite, while the new building on the east side of the ground features Jimmy’s Bar, which is dominated by a large photograph of England’s record wicket-taker that could charitably be described as “moody”, and less charitably as “serial killer in a second-rate thriller”.
