For two straight days, spread 24 hours apart, Test matches in the new World Test Championship (WTC) cycle finished without a result. Two matches finished without a ball bowled. Two matches which had great excitement and thrilling finish in the offing, ended in a dud. The thunder was stolen by… rain (pun intended).
At Old Trafford in Manchester, England led by 61 runs and had Australia on the ropes at 214/5 in the second innings. The momentum was with the hosts in the crucial fourth Ashes Test with the series standing at 2-1. A win for England would have made it 2-2 and forced a decider. Just the kind of excitement ardent cricket enthusiasts yarn for. The kind of cliffhanger that can “save” or be used to promote the longest format.
Instead, no play was possible with relentless rain playing spoilsport. With that, Australia retained the Ashes for a fourth consecutive time with the draw.
7,000 kilometres away, the stakes were lesser. West Indies were 76/2 and needed 289 runs to chase down a 365-run target. With little support on offer for the bowlers, the chances of bowling the hosts out were slim and the task of chasing the total out a possibility that was riddled with potential for self-inflicted damage. A draw seemed to be the most likely and reasoned conclusion.
In the grand scheme of things, India were 1-0 up in the two-match series and with the washout, clinched the series and maintained their unbeaten record against the Windies in the Caribbean since 2002. The only thing affected by the draw was India’s position at the top of the WTC standings. But with early days into the WTC cycle, there’s no reason to be concerned.
Except it brought about a key question. Should Test matches be flexible to adapt to the variables such as weather. It can be in the form of bendable start-end time. Higher punishment for over-rate breaches. And maybe most viable could be introduction of reserve days.
Reserve days are possible for WTC finals if the 90 overs each day are not bowled with rain affecting the progress of a contest. During the recent WTC final between India and Australia, ICC had clarified that the reserve day would be used only if the contest is affected by weather and not the poor over rate by both teams.
“The Reserve Day was included in the Playing Conditions as a contingency to recover lost playing time in the event of rain or bad light disrupting play…,” said the statement.
“There is a small chance of showers in London on Sunday afternoon (the fifth day) and a total of one hour of lost time can be made up on Sunday by extending the scheduled close of play. If more than an hour’s playing time is lost, then the Reserve Day will be triggered and will consist solely of the time that has been lost to rain or bad light,” ICC statement added.
With Test cricket suffering in popularity to T20 cricket, no results due to a washout hurts the popularity of the format even further. How do you ensure a result though?
“It doesn’t get dark here in England until 10pm in the summer, why can’t we just play until we bowl the overs?” asked Joe Root after Day 4 of the fourth Test with play called off due to bad light. “There are so many different ways of trying to find opportunities to get as much play in as possible.
“At every opportunity at every stage, you should be looking to find ways to get the Test on. We batted in worse conditions at Edgbaston, but that is cricket. You just want consistency in those conditions.”
Ben Stokes, though, believes the solution does not lie in extending a Test to a sixth day. “This is a tough way to not be able to get the urn back but I probably wouldn’t be on the side of saying there should be reserve days. Test cricket is five days,” Stokes told Sky Sports after the draw.
“I understand there being a reserve day for the World Test Championship final as you want a winner at the end of that, but I don’t see there being a day for a reserve day in a Test series.
“It was a frustrating day when the weather dictates the outcome of a game. It’s a shame. The draw was not fault of our own. We did literally everything we could and the weather didn’t help us. It’s a tough pill to swallow knowing that’s the reason we sit here with a draw.”
The discussion is equivalent to Wimbledon’s curfew conundrum. With 11pm local time as curfew, squeezing matches into a packed schedule is a challenge. Play starts at 1:30 pm and from then on, it is a race against time to get matches done as per schedule. Seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic urged the organisers to start early.
In the same vein, why not start Test matches early? Instead of 11am start, begin an hour or two earlier. It will mean recovery of time and overs lost through the five days.
Additionally, be better prepared for adverse weather. It was known well in advance that fourth and fifth days could be affected by poor weather. Yet, no course correction was done. In such a situation, starting early and finishing late, if 90 overs quota was not met, made absolute sense. Throw in the lights for good measure.
Another way to be better prepared may well be cutting down on the time spent in the pavillion. Have quicker pitch and field inspections after it stops raining and then bring the players out.
Evidently, cricket and its rulemakers need to strike a balance between tradition and adaptability with Test cricket. Finding ways to ensure more cricket is played without compromising the essence of the game is a challenge that needs addressing. Failing which, the unpredictability of Test cricket will be lost to the unpredictability of the weather — among other things.
from Firstpost Sports Latest News https://ift.tt/PS3nezs
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