Can the media shape a Test match?

With a climatic deciding Test a whole ten days away, the stage is set for rampant media speculation. On Saturday Alec Stewart merely had to wonder how Ramprakash might fair at the Oval for a national campaign to have emerged two days later.

As Gideon Haigh's brilliant lecture reminded us, the media plays a crucial in role shaping our game. When Shane Warne began the series with a withering attack on Ravi Bopara's temperament he was laughed off. But his continued media statements seemed to chisel their way into Bopara's mind. It's not simply Warne's ability to read the game that was his genius, it is his capacity to script it too.

The unpredictability of this series has left pundits gasping about 'momentum' - as though it offered some clue as to why each side has ventured from sublime to pathetic in days. Momentum is certainly another media made concept. Uninhibited by developments on the field for the next 10 days, the media has a monopoly on building momentum about the state of each side.

Any hopes of a decent contest at the Oval rest on England genuinely believing they can win. Given the pivotal role the media will play in this, there's no coincidence that the Langer dossier was leaked when it was. It's facilitated the suspicion of panic in the England ranks. How England manage their public image amid the media clamour will be crucial.

Bell on Song

First Test
Day 1 Comment
It had to be now - this series, this game, this day. With the selectors axe dangling tantalisingly over his neck Ian Bell played the sort of innings we've been waiting for, for almost four years.

His talent has never been in doubt, on song his effortless elegance is matched by no one in the England side. Test cricket though, has always demanded more than talent. Pressure is what separates the talented from the successful. Graeme Hick and Mark Ramprakash time and again battered attacks outside the heat of the Test arena, yet when the situation demanded it their minds scrambled and with it their techniques.

Bell was in danger of joining this pantheon of wasted gifts. All his hundreds to date have been scored in comfortable circumstances, following on the good work of his team mates. Yesterday was different. After England's solid start, they had lost their openers and captain in a flash. With Morkel and Steyn having finally found rhythm and Pietersen floored England were staring down the barrel. For the first time in his career Bell read the situation and rose to it. He launched a counter attack that was nothing short of spectacular. It allowed Pietersen time to play himself in and set up England's day and series. Should he go on today and to make hundred it will be far and away be his best, and may prove, finally to be that elusive breakthrough innings.