Following the four day game against The Australians at Taunton Somerset Chief Executive Peter Anderson was in bouyant mood.

He told me: "from a cricketing point of view it was a great success. It was a pleasure to watch the Australians play. Their batsmen were an object lesson for our young cricketers to learn from and played with a straight bat. They were very athletic in the field, and their bowlers were very disciplined, and bowled to their field."

With regard to the finances of the situation he told me "over the course of the four days 15,000 people came to watch and we grossed £100,000, so financially the match was a success for the club."

Regarding the two Pakistan Test players who guested for the county he said "all of our members know that the bottom line for the club is to retain our first division status in the County Championship and the Norwich Union National League, and to do this we have to rest key players for crucial matches on the run in at the end of the season. We introduced the two Pakistan players to add interest to the fixture."

© SOMERSET