There is something fundamentally wrong this season. We are in the month of June and so far not a single match has been played without rain threats. And today when German Rain Gods were on our side (at least it appeared so), and we were hoping for a full match under the blue sky, it turned out that the German Rain Gods had outsourced their job of hating cricket to the soccer gods and those who are responsible for creating a chaos in German organization.
Otherwise, how likely it is that a German mixes up his/her calender, that too, a German bureaucrat? That is what happened on Sunday last. The officer responsible for assignment of the ground at the seepark double booked the ground and before we could start our proceedings there were more than 16 teams competing for a strange version of a soccer tournament.
We, the people of the sub-continent, are not known for our managerial abilities to handle organizational problems. We had a living proof of that on the field today.
As soon as we arrived at the ground we knew that cricket would be impossible. The soccer people had occupied the ground before us. There was no way we could take off nearly 100 people off the field. And it was not their fault as well that the ground was double booked.
But we tried anyways. With same arguments again and again. It is obvious that if an argument does not work once, it wont work again, if the situation has not changed.
The visiting team was another bunch of people who just wanted to just take advantage of the situation and go home with the points, without playing the game.
Common sense suggests that today it was due to some factors not in any way in our direct control, that the ground was not available for cricket. This to me is similar to a whole day of rain scenario. I understand that if it rains whole day without any ball bowled, the points would be split. It did not rain today but the ground was not available for uncontrollable factors, with no fault of ours. It would have been our fault if our teams was not prepared, in any form, to host the opposition.
So common sense says that the points should be split.
The opposition and some strange person acting as an umpire, just could not even follow a common sense argument. How can one argue with such bunch on logical grounds.
After much deliberation as was expected, both teams made written statements to be sent to league administration.
From our side, we offered a shorter match (25 overs) which the visitors declined. With that option out, we argued for declaring the match abandoned. The opposition, while refusing to play a shorter game, maintained that the match should be awarded to them.
The league administration that will look into our statements, is a joke to begin with. Every new situation is reinforcing this impression.
There are no proper rules for adjusting scores for rain affected matches. There are no rules to account for situation like that of Sunday last, when a game is to be abandoned for factor not in direct control. The formula used to calculate the net run rate makes no sense. And so on... I wonder if there is a human who really knows the exact set of rules and regulations of the league. I am sure we will keep discovering new shortcomings of the league with every match.
It is time some really concerned people get involved in the organization of the league. When the chief coordinator refuses to take any calls on Sundays and still want every decision to be made via him, you can just imagine.
All and all not a good day of cricket.
Arvind
PS: Raghav suggested the title of the blog. Thanks Raghav.
