I'm not just mentioning it because it seems to have almost bitten SA in the butt a few times this season and it's a perennial issue for my beloved Natal Dolphins (who play at Kingsmead) but is Cricket being just a little bit precious about bad light and rain delays.
Looking at the cricinfo commentary, it says the light is good & the covers are off at 10.30. The umpires have decided to take a look at 10.45, and eventually decided play will resume at 11.15, a full 45 minutes later. This in my opinion is ludicrous, why haven't they made their call at 10.30, and why can't they start at 10.45 or when the groundstaff have finished readying the field?
Bad light is also something that has just taken on absurd proportions, it's coming to a stage where apparently umpires (and thus the 'elite' panel & the ICC) feel that cricket can only be played in bright sunshine without a cloud in the sky, oh no, wait, scratch that, I remember a farcical situation in NZ when the sun was shining brightly yet the players were off for bad light because a pylon shadow had brought the game to a grinding halt.
I was in Durban (not at the ground, but no more than a kilometer from) where Zaheer was poking his bat around after every ball and generally acting as if they were batting at midnight. I cannot believe that there was even the consideration that the light was bad, a little dull perhaps, but certainly not bad in any sense of the word. I'm not actually criticizing Zaheer here, he was just indulging in a little gamesmanship, I'm annoyed at the umpires for setting the light bar so low.
I think this is a very worrying trend and the ICC needs to instruct it's panel that they need to be far stricter & more efficient when it comes to light & rain delays.
Looking at the cricinfo commentary, it says the light is good & the covers are off at 10.30. The umpires have decided to take a look at 10.45, and eventually decided play will resume at 11.15, a full 45 minutes later. This in my opinion is ludicrous, why haven't they made their call at 10.30, and why can't they start at 10.45 or when the groundstaff have finished readying the field?
Bad light is also something that has just taken on absurd proportions, it's coming to a stage where apparently umpires (and thus the 'elite' panel & the ICC) feel that cricket can only be played in bright sunshine without a cloud in the sky, oh no, wait, scratch that, I remember a farcical situation in NZ when the sun was shining brightly yet the players were off for bad light because a pylon shadow had brought the game to a grinding halt.
I was in Durban (not at the ground, but no more than a kilometer from) where Zaheer was poking his bat around after every ball and generally acting as if they were batting at midnight. I cannot believe that there was even the consideration that the light was bad, a little dull perhaps, but certainly not bad in any sense of the word. I'm not actually criticizing Zaheer here, he was just indulging in a little gamesmanship, I'm annoyed at the umpires for setting the light bar so low.
I think this is a very worrying trend and the ICC needs to instruct it's panel that they need to be far stricter & more efficient when it comes to light & rain delays.
