Cricket is best played in dark (it might even help Atherton)

MIKE ATHERTON might have stood a better chance if he had practised in the dark. The former England cricket captain, who resigned on Monday, is likely to miss tomorrow's one-day international against the West Indies after being dropped from yesterday's warm-up match - a win for England - and will now have to consider every possible means to fight his way back into the team.

Net practice with the lights switched off could be one option. Psychologists described yesterday how cricketing skills can be honed by the unlikely measure of playing in the worst possible light. Simon Bennett, of Manchester Metropolitan University, trained poor one-handed catchers by standing them in front of a machine that fired tennis balls at 10 metres a second. He told the British Psychological Society's conference in Brighton yesterday that those who practised mostly in the dark, wearing black clothes and gloves and with only the ball illuminated by ultra-violet light, improved quicker than those practising under normal conditions.

At the start of the study both groups successfully caught 6 out of 30 balls fired at them. After 15 practice sessions, those trained in the dark were catching 22 balls out of 30, compared with 18 for those who practised in the light.

Dr Bennett said darkness helped the catchers focus on the illuminated ball without being distracted by extraneous information. However, it could be too late for Atherton. The method had only been tested on novice catchers and was likely to be of most use with children.