Ben Stokes set out to revive Test cricket, but Ash's schedule didn't help him. or Greater Manchester, that no tests were ordered in the north of England in 2027. And we ended it with a creeping suspicion that perhaps it would be better for everyone if all five in four years were planned on the Isle of Wight.
No one is to blame for the Stygian darkness, which is considered the height of summer in this corner of the kingdom. Yet here at Old Trafford there have been moments when, peering through the sheer curtains of the drizzling rain, you have wondered if cricket is not its own worst enemy. One fleeting window of hope, the only dry time that helped bring the gripping Ashes series to a decisive decision in England's favour, came shortly after noon. The game will resume soon, a message came through the public address system. But not before there was a 40-minute lunch break.
Even Phil Tufnell, a veteran of many wet days with England, couldn't hide his disappointment at the Special Test match. «Let's skip lunch today, guys,» he muttered. «Get yourself a boiled egg and a tomato, and let's continue.»
Ben Stokes and his players recognized the need to increase baseball's militancy, realizing that the coming deluge could derail the Trial. For three and a half days they turned on the afterburner, scoring the highest score in England in a home ash test since 1985. They did everything in their power to achieve a positive result. And yet, in a truly pathetic disappointment, they were thwarted. Yes, it was a natural disaster, but it also had a lot to do with the game's management's extreme inflexibility in adapting to circumstances.
With the Ashes on the line, it was a case where every over, indeed, every ball mattered. So why keep the traditional start time of 11:00? Why not move it to 10:30, as happened at the World Testing Championship final in the Oval just six weeks ago? Why not earlier?
In Manchester at the end of July, the sun rises around 5:10 and sets at 21:20. On this very pitch, on 28 July 1971, the one-day match between Lancashire and Gloucestershire ended almost at 9pm without floodlights. When David Lloyd, the home team's first batsman, raised the issue of light fading to officials, referee Arthur Jepson pointed to the sky and asked, «What's that over there?» «Moon,» Lloyd replied, bewildered. Well, how far do you want to look? Jepson snorted.
Apparently, then common sense prevailed. Fast forward 52 years and there is no such room for compromise, no such willingness to adapt to the time-honored rhythms of the English cricket day. On the fourth day, everyone drifted until 2:45 pm, watching the showers. But as soon as there was a break for a couple of hours of play, the players were called back to the cage for afternoon tea. And indeed, the fog has returned: not enough to stop playing, but too strong to start again. It seems that you can refuse an Englishman his victory on Ashes, but do not even think about depriving him of cakes and sandwiches without a crust.
This made even the even-tempered Joe Root, who had just pulled out Centurion Marnus Labouchan, scream. “It doesn’t get dark until 10pm here in England in the summer, so why don’t we just play until we win the overs?” he asked. “At every opportunity, at every stage, you must look for ways to test. We played in the worst conditions in Edgbaston. You just need consistency.”
Good luck finding some consistent theme from cricket administrators, a breed defined primarily by their intransigence. One of the key questions that arises from this grim disappointment is why no backup day was scheduled for a Trial of this magnitude. For both WTC Finals to date, the International Cricket Council has ensured that Day 6 remains on hold so that a tie can be prevented. Why not use this device that detects Ashes?
In order not to be interpreted as a bitter English lament, it was worth remembering what is at stake here. England's series-leveling victory promised to turn the fifth test at the Oval into a truly seismic climax, a spectacle that would delight spectators in both hemispheres. How often does cricket have a chance to enjoy such a global exposure? Instead, this week we are waiting for dead rubber. There is an argument that England can still get a Pyrrhic victory by pinning Australia 2-2, but that smacks of desperation. Stokes and head coach Brandon McCallum have made it their mantra that they are not interested in parity.
Only in cricket could so little be done to avoid this wettest of squibs. At the 2019 Masters, a looming thunderstorm in Georgia convinced organizers to send players out at dawn from two launch pads. Result? That shortly after 14:00 Tiger Woods won his fifth green jacket in sporting history for the ages.
Unfortunately, English cricket lacks its equivalent. And the bureaucrats must take their share of the blame. The England and Wales Cricket Board didn't show any love for the series, cracking the jewel in the crown that is the Ashes in a 45-day window from June to July, only for the Hundreds franchises to colonize all of August in their crispy uniforms. Because the ICC mandated a minimum three-day break between Tests, there was ultimately no extra time to complete this match. What a useless call. And how gloomy and discouraging this precious rite of summer ends.
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