Cricket and derangements

Extract

Some time last year I clipped from the Guardian a report on the bungled draw for the quarter-finals of the Benson and Hedges Cup. The relevant section is

The problem arose because a competition rule states that sides who play each other in the zonal rounds cannot meet in the quarter-finals. The draw is made by pulling ping-pong balls from two velvet bags—one for the teams who, by topping their preliminary groups, are entitled to a home draw, and the other for those destined to play away.

On each of the first two occasions that the draw was attempted yesterday—by the TCCB chief executive, Alan Smith, and the board’s new secretary of cricket, Tim Lamb—all went smoothly until each bag held only one ball. But those balls said Glamorgan and Hampshire, both from zone D. Only on the third attempt was the result satisfactory.

Smith later conceded that it was “an embarrassing cock-up”. Lamb, he said, had spent “hours” practising. In any other organisation a senior executive who spent his working day pulling table-tennis balls from a velvet bag would soon find himself on the corporate funny farm. But this is Lord’s.