THE World Cup final is almost a year away, but it looks as if it will be confirmed as a UKP 32 million sell-out by the end of this month.
The semi-finals are also proving popular, though the disappointing crowds for the third Test are echoed by the relatively slow take-up for tickets at Old Trafford - Edgbaston is outselling Manchester by two to one. ``We've been very encouraged by the initial response,'' said the tournament director, Michael Browning.
There have been 30,000 applications for tickets and the final-linked packages have proved so attractive that roughly half of the overall figure of 500,000 tickets are accounted for.
Browning himself has made at least three visits to each of the 21 venues and reports: ``There's a level of excitement not generated in sport normally. The smaller counties are genuinely thrilled about the prospect of staging international cricket.''
Zimbabwe was where it all began in 1990. Mark Nicholas captained a party notable for the number of players who had brief Test careers: John Stephenson and James Whitaker (1), Martin Bicknell and Richard Blakey (2), Alan Igglesden and Steve Watkin (3).
The Nineties have been as traumatic for Brighton and Hove cricketers as they have for their footballing counterparts. They were left without a ground when their former home was sacrificed to the Brighton bypass in 1990. Undaunted, they found a new ground in Hove in 1992 and re-established themselves, attracting almost 100 Colts players aged between eight and 16 as well as boasting a thriving women's section.
Their optimism was pricked at the start of the year by a business rates demand from Brighton and Hove Council, complete with arrears, which had risen to £5,594.
Dick Roberts, the Colts manager, wrote to local MP Ivor Caplin and also brought the club's plight to the attention of Sports Minister Tony Banks, saying the demand was ``jeopardising the future of a club which provides outstanding value to the community''.
They claimed that the club should receive 100 per cent relief and a semblance of humanity surfaced on Thursday when the council finally agreed to waive all but the arrears of around £2,000.
In ceremonies surrounding the event, a lane in the village was renamed Allee du Criquet (having previously been Green Street) while the Mayor of Liettres unveiled a commemorative plaque.
The match itself took place only after the farmer's field, which served as the ground, was mown to a reasonably low level following a franc exchange, as it were.
There were 500 spectators, the largest crowd for a French cricket match in modern times, and the English were beaten by 52 runs after their hosts had made 121 for eight in their 35-over innings.