World Cup opening ceremony

Date: Saturday 09 January 2010

The official opening of the ICC Under-19 World Cup will take place in an art gallery in Christchurch on Sunday, a choice of venue by the New Zealand organisers well in keeping with cricket's ethos.

The small ceremony marks the start of a programme of warm-up matches which Leicestershire’s Nathan Buck will be hoping to feature in, before the tournament itself begins in Christchurch, Queenstown and Palmerston North next Friday.

Ireland see action on the first day against South Africa at Queenstown, and England, coached by Mark Robinson - open with Hong Kong on the second day at Lincoln University, the ground hosting the final on January 30.

The England squad acclimatised in Wellington, over the water in North Island, having left London on New Year's Day, and their build-up has been shorter than most countries.

In the windy city, Robbo's Gang trained and played a practice match against a Wellington XI containing Jesse Ryder, the beefy New Zealand Test batsman and old boy from the 2002 junior world cup. His appearance was part of recuperation from injury.

The official warm-up fixtures, all at minor grounds in Christchurch, pit England against Papua New Guinea on Monday and New Zealand on Tuesday, though perhaps the most intriguing game will be Ireland's Monday testing of Afghanistan, fellow qualifiers from Toronto last September.

The Afghans might possibly have the key players to upset England in Group A but, more used to baked mud strips, they are having to adjust quickly to the faster pitches in New Zealand.

India, the champions and England's main threat, arrived after winning a fully fledged triangular tournament in Johannesburg against South Africa and Sri Lanka.

Captained by Ashok Menaria, they impressed all through, demolishing Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in their final match after shooting them out for 52. South Africa found the going tough -- some indirect encouragement for Ireland in Group B.

The opening at the Christchurch Gallery on Worcester Boulevard will be attended by Daniel Vettori, New Zealand's Test captain and left-arm spinner.

Art is associated with the subtle beauty of the game and occasionally with cricketers themselves, as the twin careers of wicketkeepers Jack Russell (Gloucestershire) and Martin Speight (Sussex) would illustrate.

And then there is Michael Vaughan, the painter extraordinaire whose work was featured at a Castle Gallery exhibition in Milton Keynes last December.

No Rembrandt or even a Russell, he built up a portfolio of pictures by whacking paint-smothered cricket balls against blank canvas, which the former England captain described as "therapeutic".

The abstract results were... well, splodgily memorable. A mud-coloured single splat was described as follows by the Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones.

He said: "Here, the world of cricket pays homage to yet another modernist giant. The darkness of this spatter recalls the late works of Mark Rothko, and the sense of gloom is just as foreboding - rain stopping play or a defeat by Australia?"

If England's 15 lads conjure up success in this tournament, I will personally smack 15 yellow-smothered shots against an all black canvas and call it Golden Flowering in New Zealand.

As with Vaughan, the limited edition signed prints would go on sale at £300 each with the firm expectation that at least 15 would be sold to the glory boys. And even Robinson, a Yorkshireman, might put his hand in his pocket.

Article provided by Charles Randall. Charles is a journalist with 20 years of experience writing for the Daily Telegraph and other national newspapers.