War stops play

Patrick Kidd, in his blog in the Times, revisits the summer of 1939 when the Second World War brought the West Indies tour of England to an abrupt end. He compares that scenario to 1914, when cricket remained quite insulated from the initial lead-up to the First World War before the conflict put an end to the first-class game for five years.

We are fortunate not to live in such dark days. While every death in Afghanistan is a disaster for the families of the fallen, the fact that 200 fatalities in a campaign is seen as outrageous rather than 200 in one hour shows how far we have come. There is little threat to cricket from conflict - save in Pakistan -and for that we should be grateful.

Martin Williamson elaborates on the terminated West Indies tour of 1939 on Cricinfo's Rewind feature.