'Weather' or not?

Scenario: An extremely important fixture, a lot at stake for not just the teams playing but also for other teams in the tournament. A stadium packed to capacity. Huge expectations from every player in both teams. Excitement at its peak. And suddenly after a few overs are bowled, it rains. And it rains so heavily that the game is ultimately called off.

How many times have we seen this happen? How many times have we, as viewers and they, as players, faced disappointment due to a game affected by rain? It happens much too frequently for comfort. In fact, in the past fortnight, two games had to be called off due to rain, both being T20s for which scores of people must have spent their valuable time and money. And when there is a T20 World Cup that is starting in a week’s time, such abandoned matches are a huge cause of concern for people planning to watch matches at the stadium.

The people in Sri Lanka will wonder if it is indeed logical to take time out of their busy schedule and go and watch a match that might just be washed out. Even for television viewers, it is highly frustrating to forego some other work for the sake of watching a match and that match never reaches a conclusion. At a time when cricket is being promoted in the form of T20s, such washed out matches adversely affect the viewership of the game.

So what can be done about this?

It is not right to hold anyone responsible for scheduling matches on days when it rains as it is impossible to predict the weather for an entire year. And then, even weather forecasts can be deemed inaccurate on any given day. And unlike football matches, a cricket match cannot continue if the pitch and the ball get wet.

A possible solution might be playing in stadiums which have roofs. As playing under lights is quite popular in day night matches, roofed stadiums can host matches which are entirely played under lights. Of course, there are pro’s and con’s in playing under a roof and there are a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration for implementing it, but it could be a possible alternative to the open stadiums under which cricket is played today.

And if something can indeed be done to avoid the weather having a decisive impact on the outcome of the match, the players and the viewers would only have to worry about the happenings in the game rather than the very occurrence of it.