FOR those of you who made Lord’s last week and then arrived at New Road and stayed until the end of the opening day of Worcestershire’s LV= County Championship Division One match with Durham — congratulations.

It was a long old two days in the County’s campaign but something that should not have been allowed to happen.

I think, like most of the supporters, I was back in Worcester before midnight on Tuesday and was at New Road in time for the Worcestershire and Durham players to take to the field at noon.

With the later start and rain last Wednesday it was nearly 8pm by the time everyone left to go home.

But why were we all subjected to a crazy 48 hours?

Middlesex, Worcestershire’s host on Tuesday, did not begin their Championship match until Thursday and they were at home.

There was no travelling involved for them, yet Steve Rhodes’ men were forced to trek all the way back from the capital to prepare for a four-day game.

To make matters even harder for the County, one of the players was subjected to a random drug test and the rest of the team were made to wait.

It was gone 1am by the time they were back home and were at New Road long before the noon start.

Should the England and Wales Cricket Board have allowed such a crazy piece of fixture scheduling? No.

But was the fact that Sky Sports wanted to showcase a Clydesdale Bank 40 match at Lord’s on Tuesday night the reason why we all travelled back and forth to the capital? More than likely.

Sky do plough a considerable amount of money into the domestic game and without them cricket would not survive as we know it.

But we do need them to exercise some common sense when scheduling their matches so we do not have to go through that farce again.