would it be too sensible to suggest that to achieve this, then games should start 5 minutes earlier (when the light is good) rather than finish 5 minutes late (when there is greater chance of poor light)?
I would have thought that calculating the D/L stuff as the Lancs scorer mentions would have been a simple click of a switch on a computer these days and hardly an excuse for needing a longer tea break.
The attitude of the umpires is disgraceful. No consideration for the paying public; no will to get CC games completed; the light has to be like Midday in Malaga before they will deign to grace the field.
Maybe the powers that be should introduce some umpires who can uphold the laws of the game but have never been professional players. That might jolt the present lot out of their complacency.
If the poor dears really can't do their jobs properly in the time allowed then appoint three of them per game and let them rotate.
Can someone explain why they did away with light meters? Weren't they a useful objective scientific tool that took some of the subjectivity out of the issue?
("The meter read 20 when we came off - it's now improved to 15 so we're going to play again. If it drops back to 20 we'll come off again." "We came off yesterday when it was 20, it's 20 now so we're going off again...")
Surely this isn't too hard to operate and at least we'd get consistency.
thought you just said you did'nt like cricket stats Steve so why all the interest in light meter numerical readings?
At this rate they will soon be getting rid of Hawkeye and the 3rd umpire for close decisions and allowing the umpires to take control of these issues once again - whatever is the game coming to...
Absolutely. Hoist by my own petard..
I just thought a simple hand held light meter was a useful and visible tool that players and spectators could readilly understand. I used to like the visible light bulb displays which they used to have too - I notice they've done away with them too.
why do 40 over sunday games start so late. finishing at 7.25 is daft. by the time i get home, 90 mins drive, i get bother for being late to take mrs marsker to the pub. why not start at 12.00 and use the mid day light.
Perhaps Mrs Marsker should go to the pub without you...?
I get complaints about not being there for Sunday lunch - which is considered a crime in our household. Perhaps we should have atwo hour interval so that folks could nip home and keep their spouses happy.
I've got an idea. Let's allow the batsmen to wear pads, gloves, and helmets, so that they're safe, and then stop going off for bad light forever.
Surely 'bad light stopped play' should be a throwback to the days when the only protection a batsman had, apart from his eyesight and skill, was a pair of pads and some cotton gloves with spikey green rubber on the back.
I've an even better idea ... there's a new invention called electric lights ... why don't we get some put up at Headingley ... & then convince the ECB that they should be allowed in championship games ..... Derby did this in 2005 (well that's when I saw them in use) ... then some 1diot decided that lights could only be used when everybody had them ..... plain stupid imho
dpressed is, as so often, right on target. I had the good luck to see two days of the Lord's Ashes Test, and was impressed when it began to get dark around 4:45 PM to see the lights come on (slowly, bulb by bulb, hundreds of them it seemed, so they didn't bring the Undergound to a halt). Of course, then it started to rain.
I don't really see what the big deal is. Around here, you can watch high school football, middle school baseball, or whatever, under lights. Surely any major-league professional sport pretty much anywhere in the world ought to be able to do as well as that?
it sounds simple doesn't it but then you have to get past local by-laws, planning committees, residents action groups all of whom seem to crawl out of the gutter when you look to stick up at least 4 great big lots of floodlights in a residential area where most grounds are based.
I am surprised npower with all their cricketing connections and sponsorship have not driven this more forcefully as surely they would be the ones to benefit most financially.
Then theres the health & Safety executive to get past on the off chance of high winds in the area.
Mind you, it might appeal to the far East betting groups who like to try and intervene and get the floodlights to fail so they can win a big bet
Because they have been there for years so the locals are unable to moan about them. Plus they presumably don't need to be as high or bright for rugby as they are for cricket.