Test cricket may be going through the ultimate boom period, but the Office for National Statistics in England has rained on cricket's parade by removing the price of tickets to matches from the basket of goods and services that it uses to measure the cost of living. Each year the ONS updates its basket, which is used to calculate the inflation rate, and this year cricket has been put back on the shelf because of declining levels of support.

It's not the only thing to go: darts, tapes, hair conditioner, pipe tobacco, canned salmon and tea-leaves have also bought it. In dismissing such a stat-heavy sport as cricket, the ONS really has turned on one of its own. Haven't they heard of Adam Gilchrist or Nathan Astle?

Ironically, one of the items replacing cricket in the basket is frozen prawns - what would Graham Gooch make of that? - along with processed cheese slices, plastic patio sets and leg-waxing.

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