“What keeps you up at night is the weather or terror attacks,” a senior member of the Cricket World Cup staff told me a few weeks before the tournament. “Everything has been so well planned. If there are no security issues and the weather is right it should be brilliant.”
When the World Cup has flourished, it has been brilliant. Take the game at Taunton on Wednesday, which was nearly a classic of the 50-over genre; pound for pound the most entertaining of the tournament so far. The problem is, it fell between two days when not a ball was sent down in anger, taking the total to four washouts since Friday.
At 3pm on Thursday match officials and groundstaff accepted the inevitable at Trent Bridge, India and New Zealand split the two points on offer and concern escalated around the competition. No, there is nothing anybody can do about it. Sure, reserve days are logistically impossible. And no, it doesn’t always rain like this in June.
Australian rainfall in March, when the last World Cup was held, exceeds that of the UK in June. It rains more in England in July and August. That data set can make a variety of arguments, but dumb luck is the prevailing theme. This time last year brought an early-summer heatwave.
Nevertheless, suddenly the very premise of England hosting this tournament is being questioned by frustrated fans. In 1999, when the World Cup was last played in the country, reserve days were part of the offering. They also helped eliminate England.
Amid all the noise, the teams affected have to get on with it. “It’s always tough mentally on a day like this when you come down prepared to play and it doesn’t happen,” said Gary Stead, the Black Caps’ coach, while noting the impracticality of adding reserve days to the schedule. “It’s out of our control. We’ve got to move on quickly.”
Having rolled through India in a warm-up game before the tournament proper, it is reductive to suggest that New Zealand got away with one by not having to play Virat Kohli’s side. “We would have loved to have played India today,” Stead continued. “They’re hot, and we feel as though we’re playing reasonably well, so it would have been a really nice matchup.”
Having already defeated Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the least fancied teams in the tournament, New Zealand do remain undefeated with seven points in the bank and a huge net run rate. Two wins from their remaining five fixtures should be enough to see them progress to a semi‑final; three will make it certain. In the short term, on Wednesday at Edgbaston they have the chance to eliminate South Africa as they did in 2015.
As for India, the next trip is to Manchester on Sunday for the most watched game of any four-year cricket cycle: the Pakistan group game. If that one is rained off, the tournament organisers really will have nightmares.
