It's not as if anyone was in any doubt, but the English cricket authorities have reluctantly acknowledged that the World Cup is occupying centre stage at the moment, and have agreed to the erection of a giant screen at Old Trafford to allow spectators to watch England's second round match against Denmark at the weekend. Although over 14,000 tickets have already been sold for Saturday's play, the ground authorities were keen to avoid a repetition of the scenes at Edgbaston, where there were barely 1000 spectators in the ground on the fourth morning, with most choosing to stay at home and watch the football. Such is the draw of the World Cup that there were even talks about moving the lunch interval to accommodate the 12.30pm kick-off, but this was scuppered because of contractual rights over the showing of live football.

"The screen will be in the car park so fans can watch the football and have a few drinks as well," said Jim Cumbes, Lancashire's chief executive. "We want people to realise that if they want to watch the match there will be enough television sets here to do that and we'll have them in all the bars and all the suites. The big danger is that people will not turn up to the Test even though they have got tickets."

Cumbes added that the crowd for the Benson & Hedges semi-final at Old Trafford last week was severely hit by the football, with fewer than 4,000 spectators for a match they would normally expect to attract over 10,000. "That has a big impact on the game financially, there was a big impact on us because we would have been entitled to half the gate and we also lost out on bar and catering takings."

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd