PG Wodehouse in short story How that, umpire?, The heroine, a young American woman, tells her fiancée, an English cricketer, that a perfect cricket competition is one in which it rains all day while rival teams do their crossword puzzles.
The good crowd that turned up for the opening day of the second ‘Test’ between India A and New Zealand A cannot quite agree with the Wodehouse heroine. They arrived at the KSCA Stadium ahead of schedule on Thursday and stayed until the announcement, after 3.30 pm, the game had been called off for that day. That was after the last of several inspections of the day by the umpires.
No play was possible due to wet ground conditions. Ironically, there was not a drop of rain during the scheduled playing hours and there was indeed strong sunlight, but the damage was done by some overnight drizzle, and some early in the morning.
Late in the evening, when both the teams went out to practice, they were greeted with loud applause by fans, who also had some entertainment, watching some young selfie-seeking boys being chased away by security guards.
Umran fans bound
Those who didn’t take the field were given plenty of time for selfies and autographs by Umran Malik, who stunned the world with his superfast delivery in the IPL. It was a nice gesture from young Tej.
Surely Umran would have bowled, especially considering the green color of the wicket and the cloudy conditions. But he will have to wait another day.
Hopefully that day won’t be ideal for that American girl in the Wodehouse short story.