Cancelled, Abandoned, Abandoned, Cancelled

The wicket is the strip of light brown underneath the lake......

Last weekend was wet in the South of England and I don’t think there were many games played. It had rained heavily overnight but had stopped raining Saturday morning, so my first job was to check if it was even possible to play on the wicket and ground, or if it was already too wet.

When inspecting the ground as the home team captain, there are a few important things to keep in mind. First, you have to inspect the wicket, especially on an uncovered pitch. While doing this, the most important thing to consider is ‘can you get a decent team out?’. If you are struggling for numbers, or are only making it up to 11 by calling in really weak players you may want to notice just how soft and unsuitable the wicket is to play on. Conversely, if you can field a strong team, then this probably means that the sun and breeze will dry it out nicely before the start of play. Then you need to be sure that the outfield and especially the bowler run ups are safe to play on. When doing this it is important to consider the quality of the opposition; if they are unbeaten at the top of the table you may find that the run ups are far too wet and slippery to use safely.

So after checking that I had a decent team and the opposition were bottom half of the table the ground was ok to play I did not call the game off. This was somewhat frustrating as there was a lot of rain forecast for the afternoon but it was not raining at the time and forecasts can be wrong so there was no reason to yet call the game off.

So, how did the game go? Yeah, rained off after 14 overs or so, a frustrating day all round. Any interesting incidents? Well, a contentious caught behind was given. I say contentious, to be more precise, everyone on the ground including the umpire thought there was a good nick, the batter disagreed. There are two ways for the batter to handle this:

The ‘cricket approved way’ – fixed the umpire with a hard stare for just a second then slowly walk off slowly shaking your head.

The ‘don’t teach this to the kids ‘way. Audibly disagree with the umpire’s decision and walk of muttering semi verbalised swearwords.

Now, I do not mention this to make fun of or chastise the batsman in question (OK, maybe just a little bit). But because it illustrates two important points about being a cricketer.

Point the first

Being a batsman is psychologically really hard. You play once a week, and probably look forward to the game. As a bat you can go out to play, and it a matter of minutes, if not seconds, wham, that’s it, game over, no second chances. This can be tough, especially if you are given out in a way you perceive as unfair.

Point the second

People involved in cricket have an idea about the game, its image and their own behaviour that they often do not live up too. ‘It’s not cricket', 'fair play' and being respectful to your opponents are nice ideals but are often observed in the breach. This is not just a ‘village cricket’ thing either, but seems to be a culture throughout the game. I have seen in low league games men swearing at opponents – including children. It is also nepotistic; I have seen captains and coaches pick players based on not if they deserve to be picked but if they are a mate, or the child of a friend, rather than on merit. Such selfishness extends throughout the game. The MCC claims for itself the right to be the holders and guardians of the ‘spirit of the game’. Their claims to this were tested in the last Ashes series when Jonny Bairstow was controversially run out by Australia. Shortly afterwards, the Australian team has to walk through the ‘Long Room’, full of MCC members. A chance for them to show the world the culture of the MCC. Did they behaviour with dignity and gravitas, making the Australian team wilt under a silent condemnation all the more powerful for being unspoken? Or did they behaviour like a group of entitled children who had just heard the world ‘no’ for the first time in their lives?  

The MCC, a complete bunch of utter members 

Don’t get me wrong, I have met a lot of lovely people through cricket. But in my somewhat short time in being involved with the game, I have come across far to much behaviour that I would describe as ‘not cricket’.

New Feature

Which I am going to call ‘Sijo watch’. This season Sijo has taken over captaining the 2s and has won five out of five – fair play to him. So far though, in every game he has not yet had a chance to bat, with a month and a half of the season gone. So, each week, I will be reporting on how close Sijo actually gets to wielding the willow.

Winton Round Up

It rained

Div 6A Round Up

It rained some more