WORCESTERSHIRE director of cricket Steve Rhodes said it best when asked about the Edgbaston wicket.

He said: “I can safely say that is probably the worst wicket that I have seen in professional cricket in England.”

How only Vikram Solanki ended up in hospital following four days of cricket on a horror wicket at Warwickshire’s Test match venue is beyond me, Rhodes or anyone else who was in attendance at Edgbaston last week.

To be honest, you’d be hard pushed to find a club wicket as poor as the one that was used for the LV= County Championship Division One derby between Worcestershire and Warwickshire, let alone a Test venue.

Worcestershire know they were second best in the 218-run defeat and maybe the outcome might not have been any different had the game been played on a better wicket.

Warwickshire were handed an eight-point penalty for a poor pitch by an ECB Pitch Panel, a decision they are appealing claiming that the correct procedure was not followed.

But at least Worcestershire can go into tomorrow’s Clydesdale Bank 40 match at Middlesex with their bones intact.