IT was a pleasant occasion and a worthy cause, which raised threequarters of a million pounds or more, all of it for the Memorial Fund as W G Grace was not there to celebrate his 150th birthday by appropriating the lion's share for himself.
As a game it lacked the cut and thrust of real competition. Batsmen batted without their averages at stake, bowlers bowled and picknickers lunched. A band played at lunchtime, and the Falcons dropped from the sky before the start. Happily there were no leg-breaks before Mushtaq Ahmed's.
So relaxed was the atmosphere that fielders did not dive around the edge of the boundary, harking back to days long gone. When Saeed Anwar edged Glenn McGrath for a streaky four, the outback Australian did not actually say ``capital shot, old chap'' but he did refrain from administering an earful of abuse. Even Mushtaq appealed for lbw no more than every other ball.
Overall, the agreeable organisation and amiable contest made it very similar to MCC's Bicentennial Match of 1987. That game needed a vendetta to quicken pulses, when the sight of the Indian Dilip Vengsarkar inspired Malcolm Marshall to bowl his hottest. This time it was Sachin Tendulkar who set the game alight with some batting that culminated in his scoring 22 off one over from Aamir Sohail with some clubbing straight-drives.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul would not have been the universal choice if someone had to make a century for MCC. His favourite scoring areas are rather too square of or behind the wicket to be spectacular; the dominance of his bottom hand enables him to be lithe, talented, left-handed and Asian in origin yet far from elegant.
Still, Chanderpaul made 127 runs undefeated off 144 balls, and without him MCC might have been embarrassed. They were the weaker batting side in any event, and for the first half of their innings the ball was swinging and seaming. The pitch was the same as the one used for the Benson and Hedges Cup final last weekend of painful Leicestershire memory.
Mohammad Azharuddin, more than Chanderpaul, first brightened the occasion with many glorious strokes, the majority of which connected with the ball once he had passed 30. The Indians and Pakistanis looked the rustiest at batting, but no international cricketer is very out of season nowadays. McGrath was the only one coming back from a long lay-off, and he was soon into his stride from the pavilion end.
The Rest of the World began their chase by losing Sanath Jayasuriya to a ball which appeared to land outside his leg stump. The Sri Lankan left-hander, the player of the last World Cup, is even further from form than his colleagues in the touring party who were routed by Glamorgan.
Mike Atherton, enjoying the rare pleasure of commanding a penetrative bowling attack, gave McGrath first chance of using the strong downwind, and followed him with Allan Donald. As soon as he came on, the South African took the wicket of Saeed Anwar when he mistimed a lofted drive, which left the onus on Tendulkar.
Like his compatriots, Tendulkar hit and missed several times early on, but the young champion in him made him apply himself and the drives through cover and midwicket began to flow. Even Donald was made to disappear though midwicket when he strayed anywhere near Tendulkar's legs.
Tendulkar reached his hundred off 93 balls shortly after straight driving Sohail so heartily for two sixes and 22 runs from his over in all. By now, any imperfections had been ironed out, the imperial dominance was purple. Fielders ceased to move as the finest batsman of the moment took McGrath, Donald, Anil Kumble and Brian McMillan to pieces, let alone the change bowlers.
Even stockier and stronger than Tendulkar, Aravinda de Silva joined in the master-class of strokeplay. If Atherton had not known the feeling before, he knew now what is for the captain to have not much control in the field.
The stand between the Indian and Sri Lankan took the game on to a higher plane than anything hitherto, and also left little time for Graeme Hick to display his wares. But then Hick is as certain to return for England's fourth Test side, in place of Graham Thorpe, as Ian Salisbury is. As Thorpe had another scan on his back on Friday, and expects an operation on it, it has to be assumed that England will have to find another middle-order batsman for the rest of this summer and, for the first time in four years, another first slip.
Mark Butcher scored only 10 runs in his two innings in his comeback game for Surrey, but remains a stronger candidate for the opening position than either of his two rivals who have been chosen this season, Steve James and Nick Knight, or John Crawley who has begun to open for Lancashire. Nevertheless England's selectors would be grateful if Butcher were to score more than 10 in his AXA League match at Guildford today.
Although Ashley Giles had a fine last game for Warwickshire, England are unlikely to play more than one spinner in the Trent Bridge Test starting on Thursday. The extra seamer to be added to the party could be Ed Giddins, the controversial swing bowler, rather than Dean Headley, who has taken 36 wickets in his nine Tests (excluding Kingston where he did not bowl), but is more effective on a hard pitch.