Communication breakdown
Day 3
Talk about famous last words! I can hear the rain beating a tattoo on my bedroom window as I wake. This was not how it was supposed to be. I had blithely assumed that a full day’s play was in prospect. Instead, with the rain still falling as I arrive at the County Ground, it is clear that we are in for a substantial delay. Parliament may or may not be prorogued again. The cricket certainly has been.
The first pitch inspection is at 11, by which time it has stopped raining, but the outfield looks distinctly soggy. The two, sometimes all three umpires, Messrs Bailey, Wharf and Banton, prod, poke and suck their teeth as they patrol the used pitches and the more obviously wet patches of outfield. They speak to Head Groundsman Simon Lee but, as far as I can see, no-one else. Another inspection at 12 is the eventual PA announcement. Nothing added by way of explanation or prognosis, of course. By 12, it is drizzling again, so the umpires decree an early lunch at 12.40, and a third inspection after that. In the Press Box, Paul Edwards shakes his head sadly and suggests that the ground is so wet, judging by the employment of the verti-drainer, that we may not get any play at all.
Rob Bailey and Alex Wharf
If that is on the cards, the umpires aren’t saying. Out they troop again at 2.30, just as another shower unloads on the County Ground. An early tea, at 3, is decreed, after which we are promised more news. Looking at the rainfall radar, I reckon that’s just about it for the showers, but with no sun and little wind to dry the damp patches, hopes of any play are looking increasingly forlorn. By the time the umps are out there again, the rain has stopped and the sun is trying to break through. There are no visible wet patches. If this were a T20 game, play would be under way by now. The crowd, still numbering over a thousand, I would guess, are growing increasingly restive, and slow hand=claps break out sporadically around the ground.
“The umpires have had a look and there will be a further inspection at 4.30” announces Mark Tyler on the PA. There has been no perceptible change in conditions, nor is any such change likely, especially with the light beginning already to fade. ‘This is just window-dressing to appease the crowd’, I tweet, and so it proves. Only the two main umpires bother to appear for what turns out to be the most cursory of final inspections, and play is duly abandoned for the day, to the understandable fury of the hundreds of spectators who have stuck it out in the hope - the justifiable hope, given the absence of rain and the interminable inspections - that we would eventually get some play in what is an absolutely crucial game.
Now, whether the umpires are right or wrong in their judgement of the fitness of the ground for play it is not for me to say. What I can say is that it is an absolute disgrace that no explanation was given to the spectators at any stage as to what the problems were that were preventing play, and what the prospects of a change for the better might be. They have been treated like mushrooms - kept in the dark and had large amounts of manure dropped on them. Why on earth is not Mark Tyler, or someone like him, allowed to interview the umpires after each inspection to ask about issues and prognosis. What is so secret about it, for heaven’s sake? The umpires presumably have good grounds for saying that the playing area isn’t fit, so why not be open and honest about the situation? Cricket followers are a knowledgeable lot. If they know why apparently playable conditions have been deemed unfit, they’ll (a) be able to decide whether to stay or go home and (b) won’t take it out on the umpires. But no: ‘never apologise, never explain’ appears to be the policy. County cricket’s loyal supporters deserve better.
In a packed press conference afterwards, I ask the Somerset Director of Cricket, Andy Hurry, what he thinks about this lamentable failure of communications. “Not for me to say” is his initial response, although I eventually get him to concede that honesty and openness is always the best policy.
He also says - predictably but entirely understandably given the glorious uncertainty of cricket - that Somerset have not given up hope of a famous victory. Oh well, we can still dream!
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