THE AURA OF LORD'S - THE MECCA OF THE GAME

As India plays England on the hallowed turf of Lord's on July 25, in the first of the four-Test series, we present an assortment of views on the Mecca of cricket.

Five awed opinions

1. Lord's is as much part of the London scene as Buckingham Palace, the House of Commons, the National Gallery, the red double-decker buses and so on: Cricket commentator Jack Fingleton

2. History modelled in turf and building: Cricket writer J.M. Kilburn

3. Lord's is the cathedral of cricket, The Oval low-church: Former Aussie first class cricketer Richard Gordon

4. Sir, now I know this country is finished. On Saturday with Australia playing, I asked a London cabbie to take me to Lord's, and had to show him the way: A letter to The Times , London

5. One walks with cricket's past, present and the future at Lord's: Cricket commentator Jack Fingleton

...And some disgusted opinions

1. The ground was sloping from one end to another, there were a lot of people at the gates and at the pavilion entrance. Everybody was too snobbish. I just didn't vibe with it: The former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar

2. The MCC should change their name to MCP: Former India women's cricket captain Diana Eduljee, on being refused entry to the Lord's pavilion during a Test match

3. If the only answer is disappointment, you are in very good company; the young Jack Hobbs thought it was an awful place: Mathew Engel

4. But for incivility, lack of co-operation and plain bloody-mindedness from the staff, inadequate or patronizing announcements, and for giving you the feeling that you are not wanted, there is nowhere to touch Lord's: A letter in the Sunday Times in 1982.

5. For a start (as two distinguished lady doctors have discovered in recent years, having been called in to treat patients and then humiliatingly hustled out) 50 per cent of the human race is excluded from entry to the pavilion at birth: Feature writer and sports columnist Mathew Engel

Design: Uday Kuckian

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