With several past series in mind, the hope must be that neither side's enthusiasm over-spills. As to that it is much to the good that, as Michael Atherton has remarked, he and his opposite number are not only Lancashire colleagues but friends, as also is England's coach, David Lloyd. The world will be watching them.

I will give the subject of behaviour a rest this time, apart from congratulating umpire R V Hughes, secretary of the Association of Kent Cricket Clubs, on his courage in writing the stark and shaming letter to the editor condemning club cricketers, which was printed on Saturday, July 13. Also, may I remind with respect both Test captains that they are responsible for their sides' playing to the spirit as well as the letter of the law.

One looks forward especially to seeing Saeed Anwar, a newcomer to England with three attractive hundreds to his name already, and Inzamam-ul-Haq, who has developed into a formidable player since he came here as a fledgling in 1992: also, our old adversary Mushtaq Ahmed, who keeps the wrist-spin flag flying in support of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

It could even be that Pakistan may field spin at both ends, for against Kent over the weekend Saqlain Mushtaq, reputedly only 19, looked a highly promising off-spinner with some hint of flight and variety. It stands to reason that England will have to be at their best to beat Pakistan in a rubber for the first time since 1982. May the occasion inspire them!

The visit of the Pakistanis to our lovely Canterbury in perfect weather drew around 9,000 to the match. It acted as an agreeable aperitif to Canterbury Week which, in the era of the fourday game, now consists of one championship match. It starts a week tomorrow when Kent, strongly in the running for the championship, play Worcestershire, presumably including Graeme Hick.

For a diminutive 13-year-old at Lord's to make 75 (one more than the rest of the side together) and 44, and to take eight wickets for 97 in a two-day match which his side won by two runs is the stuff of schoolboy fiction.

Much the oldest and most famous of Weeks, it is in its 155th year but this is the 150th anniversary of the St Lawrence Ground, which has been a place of pilgrimage for lovers of Kent cricket since 1847. The best part of 20 tents will ring the field from the sight screen to square leg; on the first three days, bands will play, womenfolk will enter for the hat competition and the staff will sprout buttonholes on the Thursday, which by tradition is Ladies' Day.

When David Acfield's committee deliver their proposals for the future shape of first-class cricket, I hope they will feel able to put right the annual irritation of the void of 10 days without championship cricket at the heart of the season in mid-July. Sixteen of the counties are left idle, while the remaining two contest the Benson and Hedges Cup final. It was especially goring this time since the barren period coincided with the start of the most beautiful weather of the summer. The two fixtures involving the finalists (assuming the Benson and Hedges is to continue in its present form) would need to be accommodated later. Admittedly some flexibility in fixtures would be called for, but their need be no insuperable difficulty.

For a diminutive 13-year-old at Lord's to make 75 (one more than the rest of the side together) and 44, and to take eight wickets for 97 in a two-day match which his side won by two runs is the stuff of schoolboy fiction. It happened, though, exactly 50 years ago next week, the match being between Tonbridge and Clifton and the boy Colin Cowdrey.

Looking back, his chief memory is of terror at being kept on with his very slow, flighted leg-breaks when Clifton's last pair needed only three runs to win. In fact, the youngest boy to play at Lord's showed his nerve by bowling a maiden, whereupon the 10th wicket fell at the other end.

This was the first of Cowdrey's five years in the Tonbridge XI, in the last of which he not only averaged 79 with the bat but took 47 wickets. Four years after that, at Melbourne, he was making the first of his 22 hundreds for England.

What a pity, by the way, that Cowdrey's bowling was not in adult life taken seriously. Unfortunately for the prospect of this, when he started with Kent Doug Wright's career had seven years still to run, and Cowdrey's spinning skills withered from neglect.

MCC have commissioned a portrait of Sir Colin and the artist, Bryan Organ, is delivering it appropriately to mark the anniversary to the president, Sir Oliver Popplewell, during the Test match.