White tells of pitch glitch

Cameron White might be out of form at the elite level, but he regained his touch with 147 in Melbourne's grade cricket on Saturday. And he nearly had to do it on a pitch that was the wrong length.

Don Bradman's Invincibles famously played on a pitch that was two yards short when they stopped over in Ceylon on the way to England in 1948. Ian Johnson became suspicious and had the pitch measured, and it was found to be only 20 yards long.

In this weekend's case, it was too long. The match between Prahran and White's side, Richmond, was brought to a pause in the second over when the Prahran and sometime Victoria allrounder Daniel Salpietro raised doubts about whethere the stumps had been placed too far back at either end.

"We bowled two overs with a pitch 24 metres [approximately 26 yards] long before we had to re-measure the pitch and start again half an hour later," White said. "The bowlers thought there was something a bit wrong. They got the tape measure out and found it was too long.

"There you go. The things that happen in club cricket!"