Fans angry after Twenty20 match abandoned

Players and umpires came in for fierce criticism last night after the abandonment of the Twenty20 international between England and Australia.
They were accused of forsaking the interests of a crowd of 19,500 at Old Trafford. Play was abandoned at 8pm without a ball being bowled because of a small area of dampness around the bowlers’ take-off area at the Brian Statham End. But Jim Cumbes, the Lancashire chief executive, was left seething at the decision made by the umpires, Nigel Llong and Peter Hartley, in conjunction with the captains, Paul Collingwood and Michael Clarke, believing that conditions were perfectly playable.
“I’m angry, bitterly disappointed,” Cumbes said. “I know the umpires have tough decisions to make, and I’m perfectly aware about the safety of players, but there comes a time when you’ve got to think about the people who have paid £50 to come in. Sometimes I think we’d rather play in front of empty stadiums.”
Twenty20 cricket was introduced with the aim of attracting crowds and Cumbes issued a reminder last night that the paying public should remain the priority in the shortest form of the game, even at international level. “I’m angry because we were told when we started playing Twenty20 cricket that you should be expected to play in conditions you wouldn’t normally play first-class cricket in,” Cumbes said. “In my view, if that had been Lancashire versus Yorkshire on a Friday night, we’d have been playing. If we can’t do that at international level, let’s not play it at international level.”

Last night’s washout — which followed the abandonment of the first match at Old Trafford on Friday after seven balls of England’s reply to Australia’s completed innings — was the latest embarrassment in a summer when England matches have been blighted by the weather, despite huge investment in new drainage systems. In May, a one-day international between England and West Indies was abandoned at Headingley Carnegie, where work on the £600,000 drainage system had not been completed. There was also criticism when the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston was affected by rain after Warwickshire opted to delay their drainage work. Now the ECB is to hold an inquiry into the abandonment of last night’s match.
The outfield at Old Trafford was relaid last winter with new drainage, but the affected area was not covered by the system because Lancashire are to turn their square 180 degrees at the end of next season. On their final inspection at 7.45pm, the umpires and captains trod gingerly on the soggy area, about two metres square — which had been liberally sprinkled with sawdust — before calling the match off. Rain had fallen heavily in the afternoon, but later gave way to evening sunshine.
“The new drainage system is fine,” Cumbes said. “That area is not part of the new state-of-the-art drainage system, but it has had new drains put in. The reason for that is because the square is going to be turned at the end of 2010 and we’d only have to take those drains up again. There was no water [on that area], it was just soft.” Both captains expressed their sympathy with the spectators, who will be given the consolation of full refunds.
“It was a brave call for the umpires to make and I sympathise with everyone that has turned up,” Collingwood said. “I spoke to Michael [Clarke] and we agreed that if you were asking your bowlers to run in at 100 per cent, it was going to be pretty dangerous.”
Clarke disagreed with Cumbes’s view that different parameters should be applied to Twenty20 cricket. “It is disappointing when you have a beautiful day like that and you can’t get a game of cricket,” he said. “But the decision made is the right decision. You’re representing your country and you don’t just want to be bowling some full tosses so the crowd get a spectacle.”

Source:The times