IF West Indies skipper Chris Gayle was bemoaning Test cricket at the start of yesterday’s action at Riverside, heaven knows what he makes of it now. As it competes with the glitz and glamour of the Indian Premier League, this was not the five-day game’s greatest hour.

A dull, lifeless pitch combined with more than 6,000 empty seats to create an air of somnolence that IPL advocates would cite as a regular failing of the Test environment.

Excitement was in short supply throughout a placid opening day, but after the trials and tribulations of the winter, you won’t find too many England players complaining about that.

The fireworks can wait until the Australians arrive later this summer. For the moment, the important thing is that the foundations are laid.

So while Gayle left the field with a hangdog look yesterday evening, centurion Alastair Cook and night-watchman James Anderson bounced towards the pavilion after England established a position that should already be strong enough to guarantee a series victory and a return of the Wisden Trophy.

Closing on 302-2, the hosts completely dominated the opening’s day play with barely a moment’s cause for concern.

Some insipid West Indian bowling undoubtedly aided their cause, but in the authoritative Cook, who finished the day unbeaten on 126, and the artistic Ravi Bopara, England boasted batsmen who were both talented enough and patient enough to take maximum advantage of the treats on offer.

The pair added 213 for the second wicket, with the majority of their runs coming in a string of calm ones and twos that harked back to an era before the crash, bang, wallop of Twenty20.

Bopara might have warmed up for the current series in the IPL, but yesterday’s innings owed more to his schooling in Chelmsford than his spell with Kings XI Punjab.

When he left India at the end of last month, the 24-yearold was effectively on trial for England’s troublesome number three spot in the Ashes.

Two innings later, and he has made the position his own.

Both innings have been centuries, and with his final winter knock in the Caribbean also having taken him past three figures, he has become only the fifth England batsman to score a hundred in three successive Test innings.

Yesterday’s 108 contained just one chance – a sharp legside glance on 51 that wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin dropped – and combined composed assurance on the front foot with a willingness to work the spinners from the crease.

In compiling it, Bopara further silenced the critics who claimed he lacks the composure needed to bat at three, and killed off any chance of either Ian Bell or Michael Vaughan being recalled to face Australia. His talent has never been in doubt, now he has proved he has the temperament to go with it.

His latest century, which included a brief flourish of 14 runs off three balls as he raced through the not-so-nervous- 90s, ended when he missed an in-swinger from Lionel Baker, but as he had already batted for almost four hours at that stage, he could be forgiven a slight indiscretion.

Bopara’s hundred came after Alastair Cook recorded one of his own, as England boasted two centurions in an innings for the second time in the space of three Tests at Riverside.

Back in 2005, however, the opponents were Bangladesh, and while the West Indies attack was so toothless yesterday that two spinners were bowling in tandem before the lunch break, England’s performance was much more noteworthy than their similarly dominant display four years ago.

Cook’s innings, his ninth Test century, recalled the commanding efforts that accompanied his arrival into the Test ranks.

It might have lacked fluency, but the Essex opener exuded composure throughout, and looked certain to pass three figures well before he drove Gayle to long on to pass the landmark.

His only escape came on 20, when an inside-edge off Baker flew within inches of his own stumps, and while Australia’s seamers will seek to exploit his limited foot movement, he will be starting the Ashes in a confident mood.

Andrew Strauss will be similarly bullish, even though he was the only batsman to lose his wicket during the opening five-and-a-half hours of yesterday’s play.

The England skipper had compiled a patient 26 before he was dismissed, and while his departure was somewhat unexpected, the identity of the bowler at the other end was thoroughly predictable.

Gayle might be an occasional off-spinner, but from the moment he took the ball midway through the morning session, the acrimony that had accompanied his recent debate with Strauss over the merits of Test cricket made the next part of the script all but inevitable.

Sure enough, as soon as the England captain attempted to paddle his opposite number to the leg side, he merely succeeded in gloving a catch to Ramdin.

The wicket proved a rare high point for Gayle, though, as the rest of the day saw him embroiled in an increasingly unsuccessful attempt to maintain the morale of a team that looks desperate to return to the Caribbean.

While the weather forecast for the next two days does not look good, there is still plenty of time for things to turn embarrassing.

Yesterday’s embarrassment was shared between Durham and the England and Wales Cricket Board, with a crowd of around 4,500 representing a desperately poor turn out for Test cricket’s return to the North-East.

There are plenty of mitigating factors – the weather, the high ticket prices, the timing of the match at a crucial stage of the football season – but Durham’s case for securing more high-profile matches in the future has still been seriously undermined by yesterday’s attendance.

Perhaps, like Gayle, the North-East’s cricket fans are also starting to grow disillusioned with some of Test cricket’s less-inspiring fare.

Scoreboard

England v West Indies At Riverside

England Won Toss

England First Innings Close

A J Strauss c Ramdin b Gayle ...........26

(gloved leg-side catch to wicketkeeper, 66b, 4 fours)

A N Cook not out ................................126

(262b, 14 fours) R S Bopara b Baker ............................108

(missed one that nipped back into offstump, 205b, 13 fours, 1 six)

J M Anderson not out ......................... 4

(16bs, 1 four) Extras (b9 lb3 w6 nb20 pens 0) ..38

Total 2 wkts (90 overs).................302

Fall: 1-69 2-282

To Bat: K P Pietersen, P D Collingwood, M J Prior, T T Bresnan, S C J Broad, G P Swann, G Onions.

Bowling: Taylor 14-1-42-0. Edwards 14-0-58- 0. Baker 19-3-60-1. Gayle 12-2-28-1. Benn 22- 6-78-0. Simmons 9-0-24-0.