Rain, rain, go away...

Hmm. A friend and I were full of intention to head to Lord's for the final day's play this morning, only to scrap the plan when we awoke to filthy rain and a miserable forecast. I still can't decide whether I'm gutted or relieved to have missed out on an exciting day's play capped by a frustrating, rain-induced premature finish to the test match with England needing that final wicket to win.

I'm sure I'm not the only club cricketer in the UK getting fed up with this abject summer (and isn't the rain always worse at the weekend?!). As I watch Oxford's dreaming spires disappear slowly beneath the waves of flooding, it seems rather ironic (don't you think, Alanis?) that the British should be so accomplished at inventing sports that can't be played in the rain.

Watching the rain fall

Ok, so the international players at Lords had to watch the rain falling today, but there's something altogether more disconcerting about having to watch it rain when you are a club player. On one of our two days off, or even for both our days off for those that are keen and able still, club players want to either play or use their time to do something else.

A little insight into my life. Tomorrow my wife has the car and I live a distance away from my home ground that many players would consider "a bit far to go" for an away game. My route to the game tomorrow involves the District line, the Bakerloo line and the Metropolitan line. With cricket bag of course. And what are the chances of getting the phonecall to say that the game is off before I leave tomorrow? Pretty near zero if past history is anything to go by.

Ba humbug. Let it be sunny or let it rain like it's never rained before. Ok, maybe not that hard, just enough for me to get the call before 11 tomorrow....

Monsoon

There's a lot of criticism around for the Bangladesh Board as they decided to schedule a Test Series during the monsoon season there. It does seem like common sense that the series against India would have been better placed in the dry season but it's not anything to get too het up about.

With the draw already favourite overnight, Paul Allott and John Emburey have just been trying to convince themselves on Sky that there could still be a result despite a rescheduled start of 2pm on the final day and India requiring 12 wickets, not to mention the fact that they'll have to get some quick runs having finished of the Bangladesh 1st innings!

It will be a boring draw like England v West Indies and if games are to be played at times of the season that used to be considered unsuitable, we'd better get used to this as spectators - especially given the prevailing attitude from the umpires where they consider slightly imperfect light to be dangerous.

I can only see two possible solutions:
1. Using a 6th day if necessary much like some ODIs have a spare day that can be used if weather intervenes
2. In a decade or two we could see cricket stadiums with roofs that can come over in the case of bad weather - I don't like that idea much given how much the atmosphere changes how much the ball swings etc so a 6th spare day it is!