10.34am: Hello and welcome to - what exactly? Suddenly the stuff on the pitch, with England needing six wickets to seal the hollowest of victories all seems largely irrelevant. Terrible, terrible news overnight that Pakistan players may have been involved in alleged spot-fixing.
This is of course a matter of sporting principle, but it is also to do with context. this isn't some pointless ODI in Dubai: it's a Lord's Test for Chrissakes. I feel like I've been forced spend three days watching someone giving Nelson Mandela a Chinese burn, or jabbing the Queen in the eye.
Very interested to hear your thoughts today. And we will of course have all latest from around the ground from David Hopps as soon as any further news breaks.
10.44am: To date the word is play will start on time as usual. Pakistan have crept in to Lord's and skipped the warm-up. Feelings are already running high. These are mine for what they're worth:
1. These are just allegations so far. Nothing has been proved.
2. Still, this Test Match now seems entirely irrelevant. I feel for Jonathan Trott and Stuart Broad, but if it is proven the match - and maybe the series - should be expunged. Just my view, but I'd feel much, much better if it was.
3. Mohammed Amir: innocent until proven. But if so... what a tragedy.
4. You can say the bowlers were clearly trying to get England's batsmen out, and that this is just a side issue, but it doesn't work like that. You can't switch your focus on and off. This is a chronic condition.
10.47am: James Walsh on the sadness: "I missed yesterday's play because I was at a wedding, so woke up this morning looking forward to working my way through yesterday's OBO in its entirety before eating sausages. Instead I see headlines about 'match-fixing' and my day is ruins. Not that it is actually match-fixing, but still. Oh, cricket." Oh indeed.
10.51am: Michael Vaughan on Twitter: ""Anger is my thought at the moment.. I don't see how they can get out of this one ... it's just a great shame why this has to happen. Very sad." Pakistan have failed to appear at Lord's. No warm-up, just a last-minute creeping in. It's not an admission of guilt exactly, but it's certainly not a denial and it's all just extremely sad.
10.53am: Nasser Hussain on Sky Sports News: ": "Part of me says you've got to make a statement, and say: 'Right, ban for life'. If you come down tough maybe it says to everyone, 'Don't get involved, that's the end of your career'. But another part of me says, 'Should you give a person another chance?'. Let's give all these guys the benefit of doubt that they deserve." I would ban anyone with any previous form on this sort of thing for life. Someone like Amir: you've got to give him another chance.
10.55am: David Mayo writes: "You can't expunge it. It would be nice if you could, but how far back do you go? This test? This series? The recent Australia series over here? The series in Australia, where there were murmurs of match fixing? Every match for the last two and a half years? Without any hard information about every incident, you're just guessing. And the historical precedent, I believe, is to let the result stand." Yes you can. If this is proven - ie you have hard information - then expunge it. And any other game where dishonesty is proven (not just suspected) then take it out of the record books. Seems very clear to me.
10.56am: The umpires are out on the field, looking a little rueful. I think everyone just wants this over and done with now. Pakistan's bowlers, remember, still have to bat.
10.58am: Robert Scott writes, and he's right: "The ECB should refund all ticket money for today's test. It is no longer a cricket match and even if it does start it will be over quickly. There is no way the Pakistan team(or England) can focus on cricket. The ECB, PCB and ICC have no balls of their own. If proven guilty there should be life bans on the players concerned. But it wont happen; they will get a ban and then get re-instated in 12 months. That is the history. The whole summer series looks tarnished : For instance how about the 11 dropped catches at Edgbaston? Most if them easy."
10.59am: Ravi laments, and I'm sure many of you will agree: "The last two days have been among my favourite two days ever of test cricket. Today I feel as if there's no point. Should I watch the F1 instead? What a way to take away any joy I've taken in all this..." Well, not perhaps F1 if you want a proper sport, but I know what you mean. Finn will open the bowling.
