Play has been abandoned for the day
And what a day it’s been. Thanks for your company, apologies for the English weather. See you in the morning for more frustration.
“Good morning Rob,” says Adam Roberts. “Not about cricket, but your remark, ‘Following live sport at 35,000 feet is a unique experience’ reminded me of the time I was on an American Airlines flight from Barbados to Miami during the World Cup semi-final. When we landed the captain announced that Germany had beaten Brazil 7-1. A few of us exchanged glances and I said to my young companion ‘ He’s American, he must have got that wrong’.”
I suspect a few people were saying the same thing last night.
It’s now raining. That might be it for the day, whatever day this is.
“MS Dhoni’s retirement is heartbreaking,” writes Matt Dony. “I mean, obviously he’s an enormously talented player, but I think we can all agree that the main thing he brought to the party was the ability to make me feel like a superstar. Having an unusual name, which happens to be a perfect homophone for that of an elite cricketer, I never tired of listening to commentary praising his play. I could live vicariously through his experience. ‘Dhoni is judging this run-chase masterfully.’ Why, thank you very much. I do my best. I’m going to miss that. Stupid as it may be.”
“Dhoni completed the set in white-ball cricket – World T20, World Cup and Champions Trophy,” says Digvijay Yadav. “I’d have thought the former and the latter were more nail-biting than the 50 over final. Those two went - to borrow from Ravi Shastri - right down to the wire. Whereas I thought, post the initial hiccup, the 2011 final was in the bag midway through India’s innings.”
Yeah, on reflection it looks like they had it under control from about the 12th over. I can’t remember whether I felt that way at the time, possibly not.
Ambassador, with all these inspections you really are spoiling us. There will be another at 5.15pm.
The umpires have decided the outfield is still too wet. The light isn’t great, either, so there is no prospect of play at the moment.
“Hi Rob,” says Graham Smart. “I spent three months in 2011 on a beach in Goa, watching pretty much every day of the World Cup in a bar at one end of a three-kilometre stretch of sandy paradise. After India won, we had fireworks on the beach and as midnight ticked over it became my birthday, so we had some more. Glorious.”
That sounds, well, glorious. By contrast, I passed out after about three drinks that night. (Insert your own joke here.) I’ve never been so tired in my professional life – Andy Bull was at the tournament so I liveblogged at least 90 overs of most matches. It was great fun, especially England’s bizarro progress to the quarter-finals, but utterly exhausting.
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“Hi Rob,” says Kishalay Bannerjee. “Just heard the news of MS Dhoni’s retirement, and would like to share an anecdote about that World Cup final innings. As luck would have it, my family and I were travelling back from Kerala to Kolkata that day, and thus missed most of India’s chase.
“I remember the pilot giving the passengers regular updates on the score, with the entire flight silent after the dismissals of Sehwag and Tendulkar. People began to hope after Kohli and Gambhir’s partnership, but Kohli’s dismissal (in the middle of the in-flight meal) brought about another wave of tension. I remember disembarking at Kolkata with about ten overs left, and convincing my parents to stay and watch the match on the big screens at the airport itself, as I was convinced the match would end before we got home.
“I still get goosebumps remembering the cheers across the airport when Dhoni hit the winning runs, surrounded by Indian travellers, both domestic and international, living in the country or part of the diaspora, but all sharing that moment of pure joy with complete strangers. As a 14-year-old, it was the most surreal experience of my life.”
That’s a lovely email. Following live sport at 35,000 feet is a unique experience. I was halfway to Perth when England beat Colombia on penalties at the 2018 football World Cup, and nobody gave a hoot!
“Afternoon Rob,” says Damian Clarke. “I really, really, really, really, really, really, really am bored. So thanks, will do.”
Sky are showing highlights of MS Dhoni’s finest hour, the 2011 World Cup final. If you’re very, very, very, very, very, very, very bored, you can revisit our liveblog from that day.
“Anyone suggesting a sixth day clearly hasn’t seen the weather forecast,” says Barry Etheridge. “We’d be lucky to get it finished on the 16th day!”
Your contribution to Indian cricket has been immense, @msdhoni. Winning the 2011 World Cup together has been the best moment of my life. Wishing you and your family all the very best for your 2nd innings. pic.twitter.com/5lRYyPFXcp
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) August 15, 2020
There will be another inspection at 4.15pm. It’s not raining, but the outfield is wetter than this simile.
There are strong rumours that MS Dhoni has retired from international cricket. He’s 39 years old so it’s wouldn’t exactly be a surprise, but it would still be a seismic day. Dhoni is one of the most iconic cricketers of all time, and arguably the greatest finisher of the lot. His matchwinning innings in the 2011 World Cup - when he promoted himself up the order, risking a lifetime of infamy if it went wrong, because it was the right thing to do - was utterly immense. He will be remembered as the man who conquered the world with a resting heart rate.
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The umpires are inspecting as I type. On Sky Sports, Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton are giving them, and the sport generally, a serve for the lack of cricket in this game.
“Hello,” writes Hussain Kureshi. “Some feel that this match is beginning to remind them of the 1987 tour. And I think of my uncle’s book, Imran’s Summer of Fulfilment.
“My uncle passed away early this year. I remember him making me read through his manuscript when I was 14 years old. The world has changed; my uncle used to teach me how to go on the front foot while playing in his garden in Dedham, near Colchester. Imran Khan is the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mike Gatting is the Chairman of MCC and so on.
“Cricket was my childhood passion and a shout out to cricket lovers and respect and RIP to Khadim. As a GP he was loved by his patients; as an uncle by his nephews; and as a cricketing enthusiast, and freelance writer, he was loved by his readers.”
RIP Khadim.
“Given the summer it is and the effort made by Pakistan,” says Andrew Hurley, “why not play a sixth day?”
I like that idea in principle but it would mean a really short turnaround before the next Test. And you know what cricket is like with changes to the playing regulations.
Wickets are falling all over the place in the Bob Willis Trophy. Tanya Aldred has the latest.
Thanks Adam, afternoon folks. This is all a bit 1987, but with luck we might get some play after tea. To wit, there will be an inspection at 3.30pm.
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And that, my friends, is me done. Thanks for your company on this rainy Saturday. For the second birthday in a row, I’ll reflect on this as time nicely spent. Enjoy the afternoon with Rob Smyth, who I hand the baton over to now. Chat tomorrow!
The umpires are having their first look. So, more good news via my press box colleagues watching on. The rule of thumb after a long delay is at least an hour to clean the ground up, assuming no further rain that is. A big assumption.
Light rain still falling at Southampton as they cut back on Sky. “But more promising signs,” reports Ian Ward. I didn’t expect that! “Encouraging news, but we are not there yet.” To be clear, all the covers remain on and it’ll take a long time to get the show on the road but let’s not quibble at this stage of a long rain delay.
A lot of chat on twitter about this coaching clinic earlier on Sky with Mark Wood being very good. All of the players during this Test summer have been superb in terms of the time and access they have given broadcasters in the bubble.
🏏🤳 KIDS COACHING CLINIC 🏏🤳
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) August 15, 2020
💬I better watch my back; this lad is going to take my place! Some of these bouncers are lethal💬
Watch this morning's brilliant fast bowling coaching clinic with @MAWood33, @WardyShorts and @Athersmike, in full, here 👇
Let’s keep Tanya company too. She’s working exceptionally hard keeping her eye on nine Bob Willis games at the same time. And get this: Surrey, ten minutes down the road from where I type, are 34/4 at Arundel Castle with Jason Roy walking in. [Eyes emoji, eyes emoji, eyes emoji].
“Loving Winnie’s Mad Max 2/Escape From New York hair stylings,” says Robert Wilson, having seen my insta story from a couple of posts ago. “What a diamond. Absolutely the way to go.” No matter how often her hair is brushed down, it is always bouncing back into a comfortable Mohawk. I hope this lasts FOREVER.
I have a message back from Chris Rogers, who sheds a bit more light (sorry) on the situation. It’s to do with the sightscreen. As he explains, when they first started using the pink ball (in those early Sheffield Shield trials) it was with a black sightscreen when they didn’t realise that pink is seen as a dark colour by those with that particular type of colourblindness - thus the problem. Now, to the best of both of our recollections, the sightscreen in day-night Tests are white.
“Hey Adam, how’s it going?” JP, we’re into hour five of rain, so I’ve been better. However, it’s been a lovely morning in the inbox, so no complaints. “I can’t see this different ball dye debate going anywhere (and it hasn’t, in years). Why not simply make the use of exclusively spinners and other slow bowlers mandatory for the duration of any light meter fail? It would all even out in time, and could be seen as the equivalent of a formula one safety car - yes, everyone unfairly catches up, but the best car/driver still invariably (too invariably some might say) wins in the end. Better than no cricket, anyway.”
Good in theory but, as we saw at Old Trafford last week, it can actually hurt the fielding team, as it did when Joe Root and Dom Bess were bowling when they otherwise wouldn’t have been, Pakistan squeezing an extra 20-odd runs in.
“Hi Adam.” Hi, Euan Lawson. “Yes, I’m also colour blind and can confirm the red ball can be a bit of a nightmare. However, not all red-green colour blindness is the same - some people lack the cones that see in the mostly green part of the visual spectrum and some lack the red with variations in severity. For me, I don’t really see pinks - they are just rather grey. Red balls against a dark green background are desperately hard to see. There is some evidence that red-green cricketers are under-represented at the highest levels of the game and have lower batting averages. There is also an argument that colour-blind cricketers may do better with close fielding rather than being parked at cow corner. However, it’s clearly not necessarily a massive handicap. WH Ponsford is the go-to example with the 6th highest 1st class batting average in the history of the game. And wasn’t Botham colour blind? I’ve never had that confirmed. Perhaps someone knows. Links to studies and more on Ponsford here.”
Fantastic, I’ll take a look at that. Many thanks.
“Hi Adam.” Hi, Norvall Scott. “A quick aside - an Aussie I know, who knows the man himself, once told me that Chris Rogers’ colour blindness is such that if you threw a delivery up above the sidescreen - a high floater - he wouldn’t be able to pick it out of the crowd and it would stand a fair chance of getting him out. Not cool though, obviously.” I’ve sent him a text to get to the bottom of this - stand by!
“As another colour-blind person,” begins Sean Clayton, “I’d agree with James Lupton: for me, pink on green is easier to follow than dark red. The shade of the green background matters too: the pale green of a first-class ground is generally fine for spotting a dark red cherry. Much more of a problem at pub level, where tracking the ball in lush, damp ankle-length outfield grass is a trial.”
My recollection was that it also had to do with the green seam on the early versions of the pink ball. After the November 2015 Test, they reverted to a black seam.
“Hi Adam.” Will Unwin, OBO-author come OBO-emailer; this is lovely. “First, happy birthday.” Thanks, mate. “Second, I have been contemplating this for a while now ... which tailenders do you think had plenty of potential with the bat but never had the commitment or just could not produce it in the middle. I always loved how Steve Harmison connected with the ball when things were going well - Harmy could hit a booming lofted drive, I recall - but, ultimately, he struggled to do this regularly. I keep watching Jofra Archer and think to myself that man could have a fine Test average given time but is yet to get many runs for his country.
Do you have any examples of tailenders you wanted more from?”
Do I ever. Jason Gillespie, easy as it is to be a bit silly about his Test double, turned himself into an excellent defensive option at club, county and state level by the end. Another that I’ve mentioned before: when I was at the same club as Nathan Lyon the year before he made his Test debut (i.e. when he was still on the ground staff at Manuka!), he made a 50-ball 90-odd in the first XI. By the time this is all over for him, he must get himself a Test half-century. I insist on it.
“Hi again Adam.” David Wall, welcome back. “You can’t leave us with a mere description, aren’t you going to go full-TMS with pictures of the birthday cake? I’m assuming you didn’t eat it all in those few minutes you were away from your desk.
Many happy returns.”
Good point! I haven’t captured the art of popping a picture into the OBO but I’ve posted one into my insta story blowing the candles out with Winnie. How’s that?
Sky Cricket is the best live TV cricket broadcast in the world. I think there’s a consensus around this. But what gets lost a bit is just how good their music selections are. Day in, day out, their producers nail it. I mention this because, when cutting back for a (grim) update, they skipped through the weather and ground report to this Metronomy banger from their perfect English Riviera album of 2011.
“All the best from KL,” writes Joel Eley. “A few weeks ago you made my mate Trizzy and his family feel good when you posted about his old man. So kudos and have a great day. Just wish there was cricket.” Of course - I hope they’re going well, Joel.
“Hi Adam,” begins Nick Kai Nielson with an email titled ‘fluorescent balls!’ - yes, I’ll read that. “A bit of idle ‘green-field’ thinking about red/pink balls. What would happen if they experimented with mixing in some fluorescent dye into that of the red ball. It must be dyed, no cow’s that colour? It should then be more visible under flood lighting.
I don’t think we need to worry too much about the pink ball. It occasionally cops a bad review but, again based on the comments from Test players who have used it quite a bit by now, they all tend to say give it the two thumbs up these days.
We’ve had play in six of the nine Bob Willis Cup fixtures. Follow that in another tab with Tanya Aldred as we work our way through to, well, whatever this becomes.
“Hi Adam.” Hi, James Lupton. “As a (basically) red/green colourblind person (see 12:24) I was surprised to read that the pink ball is harder for some cricketers to see than the red, as we tend to be very well tuned on tonal difference, and I would imagine it is a lot easier to spot the pink in the gloaming, just because it’s so much paler. Red is a crap colour to choose for danger because for us it just doesn’t leap out. When I were a lad, we used to have to use a white football at school and in the garden because the standard orange mitre ball of those days was the exact tone of fresh grass and would simply disappear, especially in bad light.”
Interesting, thanks for that. With an abundance of caution, I’ve checked how Chris Rogers identifies his colourblindness, and yes, he is also red/green. He missed a game in 2014 when they were still in the trial period. He’s also shortsighted.
“The issue of bad light and the advent of indoor multi-purpose stadiums might well force the issue,” says Digvijay Yadad. “CA said they want all (!!) tests to be day night Be interesting to see if they decide to play the Boxing Day test this year at the Marvel Stadium. Indoors and under lights. In front of no fans.”
Gosh, don’t even joke about it. As for Roberts’ take, well, he’s no longer at CA.
Well, that was lovely. It wasn’t a sandwich I was being called into the other room for, it was a chocolate and banana birthday cake they baked for me! Very lucky.
Sky have returned to Southampton as I have to my desk and the news is, well, exactly the same. It does feel like we’re edging towards a grim washout.
“No change here,” tweets George Dobell from Cricinfo. “The lightest drizzle imaginable. Forecast not especially encouraging. Fair chance we’ll get no play.”
Obviously, everyone wants cricket, not least my colleagues at the ground this week. But the next best thing... an early call from the umpires to make it a washout. From memory, the earliest I’ve had as a journalist was 1pm at Sydney during the sodden 2016 Test between Australia and the West Indies. Needless to say, we enjoyed that.
I’m going to grab a quick sandwich. Back with your emails and tweets shortly.
“Adam, Happy birthday my Beamish Boy!” Robert McLiam Wilson, my most learned friend. “Does anyone remember Paper Cricket? That thing you used to do during PRBs (Protracted Rain-Breaks)? Pre or early digital, all you needed was a pen, paper and some form of number randomiser, a dice, a blindly tapped calculator, or even just a numbered scale-line upon which you could drop things. You could simulate 4-innings Tests (I did whole series), or you could take the individual career choice, adding the near orgasmic excitement of average-calculation. My abiding memory is that it was delightfully easy to cheat and all my paper versions of Mike Gatting were better than actual Mike Gatting. Sometimes I still come across these scrawled and faded scorecards on the backs of important old documents - along with a selection of my prepubescent wit and wisdom (Did Lee Harvey Oswald snore? Did Napoleon smell funny? Boobs are great.). I mention it because I saw one this morning. Late eighties, low-scoring, and runs had clearly been calculated by how many pigeons I could see from my window. We used to make our own fun, you know.”
Beautiful. Reminds me of an off-the-ball essay Daniel Norcross wrote for the Nightwatchman, recalling his dice cricket youth. Worth the price of the book.
“A follow-up, if you will!” Of course, Abhijato Sensarma. “The problem with playing as much with the red ball as possible is this - who decides when it is time to shift? The umpires have been notorious with their light-reading metres for the past few years by now. If it is left up to them (as it should be in the proposal you make) to decide when to switch, either team can call it unfair depending on the context of the match. Strategising becomes hellish too - when to declare, and who to send in to bat when? This seems more complicated than helpful to the game. For the sake of discussion, if I were to pick up my own proposal of playing the fourth session with the pink ball - (a) both teams would know what to expect when, and (b) as a consequence, batting orders and declaration strategies and will be made with more foresight. Makes for more consistent cricket.”
A good point about the inevitable whingeing that would follow umpires making the decisions. I suppose your fourth-session proposal is no more radical than mine...
“Hi Adam.” G’day, Graeme Thorn. “Has there been any consultation regarding how easy the pink ball is to see for players who are red/green colourblind? I imagine that the darkness of the shiny red cherry gives them enough differentiation
which would disappear when the pink is used.”
Good question. The answer is yes, some players can’t see it safely. The best example of this was Chris Rogers, who retired the summer before it would have been a problem for him as a Test player. From memory, Gary Ballance is in a similar boat.
“Happy Birthday, Adam!” Cheers, Joe Roberts! “Not sure I’ve seen anyone address what happens with the red ball in terms of its age. Say you’re 30 overs in, light comes into play, and so you bowl 10 overs with the pink ball, then switch back to the red ball. You’ve now played 40 overs of cricket, but the red ball is only 30 overs old. When does the new ball become available? Are you now switching to a similarly aged ball, which will undoubtedly annoy the bowlers and fielders who have shined a ball to their preferences? Thanks for your company on this gloomy day.”
Yep, this is a gremlin, no doubt. When debating this on twitter a few weeks ago, where we landed on this is that the red ball taken the next morning would be a different one to that used when exchanged the night before, to reflect the overs bowled with it. Annoying for bowlers (although not necessarily, it’s often bowlers who are trying to get it changed) but so it is whenever the ball is out of shape.
Another update from Ali Martin at the ground: they have turned the lights off and the players have returned to the hotel. We are a long, long way from play.
An update from Sky at the ground. it’s still raining and dark and dreadful. I’m sorry.
“Morning Adam, checking in from Cameroon.” Great to have you with us, as always, Anna Halford. “Sadly, I am in the office, but on the other hand I have everything perfectly set up for constructive cricket-following while maintaining a convincing front of actually working: second screen with OBO, TMS overseas, and the BBC county coverage. I would normally be following Essex v. Sussex, but since it’s raining in Hove I am moonlighting with Yorkshire v. Derbyshire, with Yorks having a bit of a rocky start. Happy birthday - hopefully the weather gods will think you deserve some play as a present. Or if not you, then at least the rest of us.”
You’re set up nicely, and thanks for the best wishes. I see on Tanya Aldred’s county blog that Nick Gubbins is out of Middlesex’s Bob Willis Trophy fixture down at Canterbury because he has been in contact with somebody who has tested positive for Covid-19. Gubbins, of course, made over 250 runs in their win over Surrey.
“Afternoon, Adam.” Hello, Digvijay Yadav. “Good to have you back with us. I don’t know if you saw Bayern’s evisceration of Barcelona last night? Made up for the rain delays yesterday. Made me think whether everything being recorded and stored for posterity is a good idea after all. On the one hand, future generations can see the majesty of Messi, Federer etc., on the other they’ll also be able to see the humiliations. P.S. Really enjoy your videos with Michael Vaughan.”
Thanks for the note. I was juggling a teething baby during her witching hour as the football played out last night, but did follow Scott Murray’s MBM.
“Hi Adam.” Hello there, Trevor Tutu. “Happy birthday from wet, cold, windy Cape Town. It’s also my sister Thandi’s birthday. We managed to make her cook breakfast, and I’m not sure that was completely fair. There you are supervising the OBO, so there must be a masochistic/long suffering streak in people of 15th August.”
Happy birthday to Thandi! Who else do we share it with? Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lawrence. Princess Anne! It’s VJ Day too, of course. Well, 75 years since VJ Day.
“Bring on the pink ball,” says John Bartholomew. “No spectators to protest this time, but in normal times, the failure to deliver the amount of play in the day that has been paid for is daylight robbery – perhaps not quite the right phrase in this instance. It is particularly sad for people who have bought tickets months in advance, perhaps for just one day, perhaps with an eleven year old at their first cricket match. There really is no justification for this – a half price refund if less than 25 overs are bowled is an insult. My solution is as follows: All test match tickets are now paid for electronically – at least I assume this to be tha case. There should be an automatic pro rata refund for overs not bowled in any given day. For example a ticket costing £90, would include an automatic electronic refund of £6 if only 84 overs are bowled. This solution would also address slow over rates.”
Creative! On rates, I always find it fascinating how easily First Class teams get their overs in. I was calling Middlesex v Hampshire at Radlett last week and it was genuinely hot on each of the four days. Yet, each afternoon, both teams met their allocation of overs inside the permitted period of time. Funny that. Speaking of county cricket, we do have some play around the country. Follow it with Tanya.
“Hi Adam.” David Wall, good morning. “Didn’t Stuart Broad discuss (and ruthlessly dismiss as though it was an out-of-form batter) your idea about switching to a (suitably aged) pink ball when it gets too dark to use the red one? His point was that it would be enormously unfair on the batting side at the point of the change because the two balls can behave so differently. I’m not sure I find that such a problem, after all, teams are always affected by changes in conditions (e.g. batting early or late in the day in the sub-continent when the dew forms on the pitch very quickly and heavily, changes in cloud cover, etc). But perhaps more of a worry is you might get days, and matches, where the light changes so often that you’ve forever having to switch between the red and pink ball, perhaps as often as every 5 overs. It would become farcical.”
He might’ve, I didn’t see that. And he’s right about it being much tougher. But then again, isn’t this the entire argument against day-night Test cricket in a nutshell, that it is tougher for batsmen under lights? Thankfully, I think anyway, we moved beyond that in the space of the first 12 months or so. Much the same way that there’s an acceptance that bowling in Australia can be hellish for seamers, right? And on point two, once the ball is changed to pink, that would need to be it.
“Morning Adam.” Hello, Andrew Cosgrove. “The forecast I’ve seen is rain this morning, then a downpour at lunch, followed by more rain this afternoon. There will be plenty of time to discuss bad light all day. With regards red balls and pink balls, you said ‘but we are dealing with that via the change in ball colour’. But I think what a lot of people don’t appreciate is that it’s not just a case of the colour of the ball, it’s not possible to reproduce the dye and lacquer of the red ball in a different colour, so the pink ball is fundamentally different. They’re just not nearly as good. This is why I think changing the ball when the light is bad won’t work, and is arguably less of a working option than just swtiching permanently to the pink ball (which I think would be a bad idea too).”
My sense from talking to the players about this is that they felt that way in 2015 but not quite as much now. Basically, there’s an acceptance that the pink ball has improved and is closer to the red. But as I said at the end of my post, this isn’t a perfect fix, but if looking for a way to keep play going under lights, this’ll do that.
“Happy Birthday Adam.” Thank you, Brian Withington. “I like your pink ball substitution proposition but I’d let the batsmen decide when it was time to use it after the umpires offer the option. And we can’t let the moment pass without (once again) referencing the late great Peter Cook’s reference to the ‘pink oboe’ during the judge’s summary after the Jeremy Thorpe trial. Priceless.”
I could come at that. It’s an interesting part of the discussion around bad light that the batsmen are no longer consulted. The only real discretion seems to be when fielding teams can continue bowling provided they only use their spinners.
An unpleasant weather forecast via Guardian occasional Chris Stocks, on twitter. “BBC Weather’s Tomasz Schafernaker: ‘It’s not changing for the next few days. On the radar further drizzle is upstream heading straight for Southampton. The weather is stagnant and not moving - I’ve got no good news!’” Uh oh.
An idea in from Abhijato Sensarma. “I have seen you be an advocate for using the pink ball under bad light for at least a year now, and I think there is merit to the idea. As I’ve done in the past too, I would like to complement this by saying that a day in Test cricket should be divided into four sessions of 23 overs each instead of three sessions of 30 each. This will allow players to be more refreshed and on top of their game, especially in strenuous weather like the Indian and Australian summers. If we use the pink ball under the lights like you suggest (or even throughout the match), we would be getting more live cricket without burning out the players or kicking up frequent controversies about bad light.”
Interesting. So, we use the pink ball in the final 23 under your plan. I’d counter by saying that the objective is to play as many overs as possible with the red ball - the red ball, for mine, makes for better cricket. So, I wouldn’t be hard-and-fast about when the ball needs to change every day. Just that it could change, as required.
Perhaps my favourite rainy OBO discussion was during the World Cup last year as India and New Zealand were washed out at Trent Bridge. For reasons that I won’t bore you with, I spent the first hour posting from a gutter out the front shielding my screen from drizzle before getting into the press box, where we spent the next four hours talking about one topic and one topic only: umbrellas in the sky.
Now, I don’t want to repeat that - it was done then and done well - but I am obliged to post this email from Michael Keane, who informs me that there has been progress since the last time we talked (indeed, from today’s paper!), with the Irish on the front foot. I’ll hand over to him. And this doesn’t even require drones!
“I’ve just been reading about the world’s biggest sports air dome, built by a Slovenian company in the west of Ireland. Every summer we ask, when will we be able to play cricket in the rain? ‘We can put a man on the moon and yet...’ as his odiousness used to say. So if we’re not going to have crowds anyway, surely we can just have a big cricket super dome. Sounds like they constructed it in a week or something!” Thanks for this. For related chat, here’s that OBO from last June.
The weather is horrible. Sky just gave us a wideshot and it was very dark, raining and altogether awful. Ali tells me that Broad and Anderson have packed it in for now and have walked back to their hotel rooms. As Ian Ward put it: “yuk.”
I’ve recruited some Willie J Healey fans. Good to see. And there’s a link to cricket, I neglected to mention. Felix White, who hosts the brilliant Tailenders with Jimmy Anderson and Greg James, has WJH on his Yala! label. “I hadn’t heard of him before but when I listened I heard George Harrison,” writes Colin Hind. “I mean that as a compliment. Great song and arrangement.” Yep, his debut album was out last week and it’s quite something. Here’s another of his lovely tracks to get your teeth into.
“Thanks for the video link,” adds Damien Clarke. “I’m liking that. May I suggest a suitable one for anyone getting jittery about the prospect of limited play today?” Nice one. I’ll pop it on.
“Morning from the playground in Didsbury @collinsadam, where I’m sure you’d be if you weren’t putting a shift in today.” All ahead of me, Guy Hornsby! “How ironic that it’s glorious in Manchester this weekend. I’d say this Test could be s draw but with these attacks, anything feels possible, eh. Oh cricket.” Wouldn’t have it any other way.
Let’s open the inbox. Alisdair Macdonald Gould is off the mark first, saying nice things. Thank you. “How many candles?” 36 of them. The best gift was a card from baby Winnie (six months yesterday, blimey) with her footprints in paint.
“Birthday greetings, Adam.” Thank you, Spencer Robinson. “I’m on day 13 of a two-week hotel quarantine in Penang. I’m awaiting a beautiful sunset ... and keeping everything crossed for some fascinating cricket to get me through these final few hours of what has been a seemingly interminable lockdown.”
I really hope we can give you that. The forecast isn’t that bad - I promise. Then again, it wasn’t that bad either yesterday. Light will again be our main challenge.
I shouldn’t be that surprised that some people have taken great offence at me describing the 15th of August as the opening day of last year’s Ashes Test. Yes, I know the 14th was a washout - I was there. Chill out. The first day was, therefore, day two. Not too difficult to comprehend an otherwise pleasant reflection, was it?
Peter Haining has done me a good turn here, finding the mighty overseas TMS link before I have to google it myself! You’re a good egg - thank you. Here it is.
An updated pic form the ground, and another update from Ali Martin now that he’s in the ground at Southampton. “Right, am now set up in the A̶d̶v̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶H̶a̶i̶r̶ ̶S̶t̶u̶d̶i̶o̶ Shane Warne Stand and can confirm that yes, both bad light and mizzle mean we’re probably better off spending the morning watching yesterday’s warm and fuzzy video of Younis and Yasir on loop.”
Not the start to the day we wanted in Southampton, it's drizzling and the covers are on... 🌧
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) August 15, 2020
In better news, we've got our coaching clinic & @MAWood33 will be offering his advice too! 👍#ENGvPAK 🏴🇵🇰
📺 Watch live 👉 https://t.co/3V5xD5O02D
📱 Blog 👉 https://t.co/Ohqb5x5fuT
Bad light (always) stops play. Okay, I know it doesn’t, but it certainly has felt that way at times in this truncated Test summer. Jimmy Anderson was talking to the press last night and was fairly grumpy about how it all played out yesterday.
Let me put to you a solution I’ve been tossing around for a couple of years. I preface this by saying that I know the OBO can be a tough crowd when it comes to fairly radical reform. But hear me out, in the spirit of trying to find a better way.
Now, we know that Test cricket can be played under floodlights. We’ve done it plenty of times since November 2015 during the first day-night match. We have a pink ball (a couple of them) that does the trick in a safe enough fashion.
But is it desirable to play with a pink ball all the time? I would argue, no. The best Test cricket is with a red ball in the daylight. By best, I mean when the ball behaves in a way that gives us the contests that we crave. There’s no need to ditch the red.
However. And it’s a big however. Why not both? Why not use the red ball all day long until the point where the assessment has been made that it is too dangerous to continue? And let’s not debate that point, by the way: I trust fielders at point and square let who tell us how hard a dark ball is to pick up under floodlights.
I digress. What do we do when the red ball is no longer safe? Well, change it up. For the overs that remain between then and the close, give the fielding team a choice of pink balls of comparable age. Maybe they use it for four overs, perhaps 14. Whatever it takes to get those overs in. Then the next day, back to the red.
This isn’t completely perfect and, of course, it would mean a trickier time for batsmen having to adjust in the very final stanza of the day. But isn’t cricket always about adjusting to changing conditions? Sure, we don’t want safety to be one of them, but we are dealing with that via the change in ball colour, albeit briefly.
How have I gone? Drop me a line. Let’s have a constructive chat while it rains.
“I’m two miles from the ground and I have my windscreen wipers on.” The words of our man, Ali Martin, who called to relay the likelihood that it’s going to be another one of those mornings. Sorry. But it doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. You can do so by emailing or tweeting. Or find me on AOL or ICQ or MSN Messenger. Is Friendster still a thing? Will you find my own journal entries on MySpace?
Speaking of our team of Guardian cricket writers, while we wait for play, you might enjoy an interview on Geoff Lemon and my Final Word podcast that we’ve re-booted for the weekend: our long discussion with Vic Marks in 2017. We sat down with him at his Perth hotel a few hours after Australia had retained the Ashes. But this chat wasn’t about that Test, rather, his lovely lifelong journey in the game.
Preamble
Welcome to the third day of this second Test between England and Pakistan. The tourists are set to resume at 223/9 after just 40.2 overs were possible yesterday; not many more than the day before - we’ve essentially lost a day. But not to worry, this pitch is gives the impression that it will spit and seam (and probably spin) throughout, so there should be more than enough time to get a result by Monday.
The most interesting portion of the morning session is bound to be the interrogation Mohammad Abbas gives the England’s openers. On the evidence of what we’ve seen, it’s hard to imagine a surface better suited his classy brand medium pace. Rory Burns and Dom Sibley will need to bat exceptionally.
For my part, I can’t help but think of this day twelve months ago. Then, it was the first morning of the Lord’s Ashes Test, a stunning day played in front of a packed house. I know, because it was my birthday and I was steering the good ship OBO through the first half of it. Despite the fact that the weather is grim and the crowds are non-existent, it’s lovely to be with you again for this iteration of August 15!
