CRICKET: 08 JANUARY 2017

Wet start to a memorable Sydney long weekend

By JOHN ROZENTALS

An invitation from NSW Cricket to participate in the Friends of Cricket Parade on the fourth day of the SCG Test provided a memorable start to a diverse and fascinating long weekend in Sydney — which also included opening-night performances of Ladies Black (the new musical at Star Theatre’s Lyric Theatre) and Prize Fighter (an extremely provocative new play at Belvoir) and the opening of Margaret Olley: Painter, Peer, Mentor, Muse, a new exhibition at the National Trust’s SH Ervin Gallery in the Rocks.

Not that attending the cricket started at all promisingly, with heavy morning rain leaving plenty of water throughout grounds immediately adjacent to the SCG and continuing, if much lighter rain as the clock ticked towards scheduled starting time.

I’d already removed myself from Moore Park and was waiting for a train at Central when rays of sunshine hitting the platform gave me hopes of an eventual start and encouraged me back to the ground.

Even there it took plenty of patience, with an early lunch being taken and play starting at 1.15pm.

But, boy, am I glad that I gave the cricket a second chance. After all, I did get to watch Australian opener David Warner plunder the Pakistani attack and score the second-fastest 50 in Test cricket history — taking just 23 balls to reach his half-century.

The innings played a crucial part in setting Steve Smith’s Australians up for a second consecutive unlikely victory when so many had already discarded the games to the drawn basket.

And then there was the unique chance to stroll the hallowed during the tea break.