FOR more than 60 years across three days in May or sometimes late April, the eyes of the cricket world used to be on Worcester.

More specifically the beautiful ground in New Road, home of Worcestershire County Cricket Club.

Because it was there the international touring team of the summer, be it Australia, India, West Indies, etc, played its opening first-class match.

Would Bradman score another century? Would Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith terrify the home batsmen?

How would the Nawab of Pataudi, who played for Worcestershire in the 1930s, fare when he returned to captain India in 1946? People wanted to know.

Now all this information and a lot more can be found in a fascinating new book called The First Square authored by former WCCC vice-chairman Jack Randall which concentrates solely on the history of the touring teams’ first game.

Hands up, I know Jack and have done for a long time. We met in the first year at Worcester Royal Grammar School and played cricket together on the back lawn of his parent’s home in Lower Broadheath.

Often accompanied by rock ‘n’ roll music echoing through the French windows from the 1950s walnut cabinet radiogram in the sitting room. Good Golly Miss Molly.

We were also in a 1960s rock band together that cut four tracks for a Brum Beat album. So Jack could have been a rock star or a sports star but instead chose the adrenalin rush of accountancy and eventually became a partner in a leading local firm.

Which made him the ideal man for such a book because no sport is as obsessed with numbers and statistics as cricket.

Ask the question which left-arm spin bowler has taken the most wickets on a Thursday before lunch and some nerd somewhere will dig out the answer. But Jack’s book is not that intense.

It’s not just a list of names and numbers and covers every tourist match with a written description wrapped around the figures. The words give context to scores and take the reader back to the days of flappy flannel trousers, stiff leather boots with tacks hammered into the soles and when batsmen faced lightening fast bowling bare-headed.

The team to establish the tradition of starting its first-class UK tour against Worcestershire was South Africa in 1929 but the County Ground had hosted overseas visitors long before that.

The first recorded was a West Indies side which lost a three-day game in June 1900 and the following year South Africa arrived in July when the game remarkably ended in a tie.

In July 1902 Australia played at New Road for the first time and with a line-up full of batting greats won by 174 runs. And so it went on over the years with touring sides usually playing mid-summer.

However, the 1929 South Africans set a precedent that was to last until 2001 when Australia were again the visitors.

Since then the cricket format has changed so much, with 20-over, 50-over and floodlit games and so on plus a dual division County Championship, that although overseas sides have still come to New Road it hasn’t been their first stop.

So the traditional opening fixture against Worcestershire CCC has to be cherished and that’s exactly what Jack’s book does.

Some fascinating stories emerge. For example, when Don Bradman visited New Road for the first time in 1930 (he was one of eight debutants in the Australian side) his innings of 236 contained 28 fours but no sixes. Too risky a shot.

Then in 1932 the Nawab of Pataudi played in the Worcestershire side against his home country of India and scored 83.

A remarkable cricketer, the Nawab went on to play three Tests for England, scoring one century, in the 1930s before returning home to captain India after the Second World War – and lead his touring side onto the New Road pitch in 1946.

And so it goes on. The book’s narrative littered with the deeds of the good and the great.

There has been talk of Worcestershire CCC leaving its iconic ground with the cathedral backdrop because of flooding but surely heaven and possibly a good deal of earth must be moved to prevent that. Otherwise this book will just be a golden legacy of what once was.

The First Square by Jack Randall (Pensax Publishing) costs £16 and is available from jack12randall@icloud.com.

A proportion of profits from each sale will go to St Richard’s Hospice.