What an absorbing day of cricket...

What an absorbing day of cricket it was. At the end of the day, it was cricket that was the winner. The match is not over, but I was overwhelmed by today's play. I am talking about the final test between Australia and South Africa. The second day started with an anticipation if there will be a fairy tale in store for the day with this being Punter's last test. But soon we all realized that fairy tales, after all, are fairy tales.

After 12 wickets fell on day 1, and the no. 1 South Africa being bundled out for 225 (thanks to Faf, and his two partnerships with the lower order, else it would have been even lower), apart from Ponting's innings every cricket lover was interested to know how South Africa was going to prevent its no. 1 spot. South Africa already had a good start taking 2 of the Australian wickets on day 1. South African pace battery pressed on the accelerator and induced the Australian downfall. By the end of 17th over, Australia was 45/6. Then some gritty innings from Mathew Wade saved the face of Australia and they finished their innings at a meager 163, good 62 runs short of the Proteas. All this happened before Tea.

With just one session to go and 3 full days left, one would have expected South Africa to build on their lead gradually without losing any wicket. But South Africa had other intentions. Not that they did not want to build on the lead, but the way they approached the game was a surprise, at least to me. Alviro Petersen started from the word go and scored a quick 23 off just 20 balls before being caught and bold by Jhonson's athletic effort. I thought now that they have lost a wicket, they will slow down, but it was not the case. Hashim Amla came and went even harder than Alviro. He was scoring at a strike rate of 135+. On the other end Greame Smith was also scoring at a good rate, around 80+. Their partnership added 178 before Smith got out at 84 with Lyon taking a brilliant catch. He was very unfortunate not to get a 100.

Then came Kallis. He was not as belligerent as his team mates. It was understandable, as the day was about to end and he did not want SA to lose any further wicket and lose the advantage. His tentative approach certainly gave the Aussies a much needed chance to come back in the game but Lyon grassed a sitter. Both the wickets that Australia took in the 2nd innings were a result of brilliant catches, and Australia should have realized by then that it was not going to be a easy way out. Kallis rubbed salt on the wound by scoring three brilliant boundaries in one over and unfortunately the bowler at the receiving end was Starc on whose bowling Lyon dropped Kallis.

Last 20 minutes of the day also did not pass without a drama. The drama was surrounding Amla's century. When Smith got out, Amla was on 92 and at least 6 overs were remaining and Amla scored a 4 in the same over taking his tally to 96. After that Amla did not get enough strike. Smith got out in 33rd over. Kallis played the complete 34th over and took a single on the last ball. Then he played the complete 35th over. Amla faced the first ball of 36th over and as he had been doing throughout the innings, did not waste it and took a single. The remaining over was played by Kallis and again he took a single on the last ball. Again, the 37th over was played by Kallis with three glorious 4s. There could have been two full overs bowled in the time that was left for the day's play, but Clarke deliberately slowed it down with Amla getting a bit nervous. Amla had full 6 balls for him in the 38th over, facing the first ball. He played the first ball without a run. Then, in the second ball, he was nearly caught with the ball falling short of the fielder at mid-off, in an attempt to go over him. Kallis walked down to him to calm him down. Amla played another dot ball before scoring a single on the 4th ball, taking him to 98. Now the question was will Kallis take a single and give back the strike to Amla. Clarke also judged the situation well and brought all the fielders in to prevent the single, but Kallis managed to score a single. Now Amla was facing the final ball of the day with two runs for his well deserved century. It was short delivery and Amla swiveled and controlled the pull, only to pick up a single in the deep, which took him to 99. Now he will face the strike tomorrow. With this the day and the drama ended.

South Africa amassed 206 runs (in 32 overs) in the final session. Yes, we are talking about test cricket. South Africa has a lead of 292 with 8 wickets in hand. When both Smith and Amla were going ruthless, a 300+ lead was imminent but Smith's wicket slowed things a bit, but nevertheless, Proteas are in commanding position at the end of day 2. For sure, whatever South Africa will set Australia as target, Australia will have lot of time to chase. The only question is, how much?

Guys, this is the battle for number 1 spot. Australia has to win this game to regain their glory and South Africa just needs a draw. But the way, SA has approached the second innings, I doubt that they will settle with anything less than a victory. It is a pity that SA-AUS series are just three match series. Out of the last 9 series between them 8 have produced results, Australia winning 7 out of them. Only the last series was a drawn one and it was a 2 match series with a result of 1-1. The last time each of these team won the series against each other, it was on the opponent's soil and here SA has a very good chance of repeating the same. I do not want to jump to any conclusion, but one thing that I am sure of is that, for the next three days, you are definitely going to witness a very good battle. If you are a cricket lover, do not miss it.

My game number 50

Wishing you and your family a very happy new year!

Amidst the euphoria and anticipation of Sachin Tendulkar's 100 th century, I quietly completed my 50 th one day game as an umpire on January 8, 2012. It was so quiet that even I did not realize that when I was doing my game. It was only when I tried to work with some statistics for this post, that I realized it. At the same moment, I realized how much pressure Sachin must be feeling now. Going in any game without having any expectation apart from just enjoying the game in hand, makes you give the best for the game. Since I did not associate any milestone with my game, for me it was just another game and I enjoyed it thoroughly. More so, because I was doing a game after a gap of two months.

My journey as an umpire started in 2008 when I cleared the examination held by Belgium Cricket Federation. I started it just as pastime. But then it turned out to be a passion. I cleared the examination conducted by Tamil Nadu Cricket Association in 2009. In 2011, I passed the BCCI Level 1 examination. When I started, I never thought that I will come this far. Though it has been a slow progress, but I must admit that it has been a steady progress. I did 17 games in 2008 with BCF, 4 games in 2009 with TNCA, 14 games in 2010 with BCF and 14 games in 2011 with TNCA. With the circumstances that I had been in, I believe this is a good number. The season 2011-12 has not yet ended, so I will have few more games on grab.

My last game was on October 23, 2011. After that till December first week, almost all games were washed out because of excessive rains. In December, I was a bit busy with my work so I did not do any game. I even declined the posting on January 7, 2012. Had I known it would be my 50 th game, may be I would have accepted it :). So, finally after a gap of 2 months, I did a game.

It was a division 4 game, between Magnet Cricket Club and Madras United Club. It was held at CLRI grounds. My colleague for the day was K. Manoharan. He is a Division 2 player and also my batch mate as an umpire. We passed our TNCA and BCCI exams in the same year i.e. 2009 and 2011 respectively. It was nice to see him as my colleague. We were doing a game together for the first time. It was a bright sunny day and no sign of any dark cloud, so I was confident that the game was on.

Magnet CC won the toss and elected to field first. The bowling started from my end and I had the chance of calling 'Play'. On the third ball itself, a chance went begging. The opening batsman nicked the ball to the first slip and the slip fielder was late to react and dropped the catch. Then the batsman started scoring freely and there was no chance till the 16 th over. I was at the square leg and the very first ball, the batsman stretched forward to reach for the ball and in the process, dragged his back foot outside the crease and missed the ball. The keeper collected the ball and whipped the bails off in a flash and appealed to me. It was a close call but I had no hesitation in giving him out and my index finger came back into action :).

Madras United Club then lost another wicket in the same over and then they kept loosing wickets on regular intervals, but at the same time they were scoring freely. In spite of losing wickets on regular basis, their inning spanned till the 50 th over, but they could not completely play the 50 overs. They were all out for 262 in 49.3 overs. The innings ended 5 minutes before the scheduled time for lunch (1300 hours). It was a very competitive score. I thought that either the game was going down the wire or it would be a one sided game. But it was neither of the two.

Nevertheless, Magnet CC did not have the best of the start that they would have desired for. They lost their opener in the very first over. The batsman who came as one down was in a murderous mood. He was swinging at anything and everything, but unfortunately for him, he did not connect most of the time. In the 6 th over, when I was at bowler's end, this batsman missed the ball in one such swing and the ball hit the pad. As expected there was a huge appeal and without any hesitation, I gave him out. But the surprising part was that the batsman started walking as soon as it hit his pad. It was for the first time I saw someone walking for a LBW :). Here again, Magnet CC started losing wickets on regular interval. Though their scoring rate was better than their opponent throughout their inning, but loss of wickets were not helping their cause. Finally, their innings folded in the 35 th over at a score of 147. The match ended at 1603, more than an hour before the scheduled finish of the game (1715 hours).

It would be a cliche, but as I had mentioned in my previous posts, every game offers a new experience. In this case it was for the first time that I saw that both teams were very disciplined in their bowling efforts. Both teams were always ahead in their over rates (15 overs/hour), that too without any interference from us (umpires). It was very sunny day and thus we had to allow for drinks in between the game in addition to the regular drinks break. The regular drinks break also lasted its full 5 minutes each time. But it did not impact the over rate in any way. It was a very nice feeling. I wish every team does the same.

The game was played in good spirit and that is what an umpire desire for. So my game number 50 went on smooth. The year has begun well and I hope to do as many games as possible this year.

Another short game

I have two apologies to make, one for coming up with this write up one week late, the second one for not coming up with an interesting title.

Finally I had a game this season outside St. Bede's 'A' ground that completed. This was in A.M. Jain college 'A' ground on October 9, 2011. I had umpired in this ground once before when I just started umpiring with TNCA. It was a special game. If I remember correctly, I gave 4 or 5 LBW decisions in that game.

I reached the ground around 8:40 AM. The ground was not in a good shape. The ground was uneven. Moreover, the ground had lot of patches of grass and these were very long. Around the boundary, there was more grass and these were really long. In fact they were so long that we were not even able to see the cone that was place to mark the boundary. We had to ask the groundsman to elevate those cones, so that we could clearly identify the boundary.

The game was between TVS MSC and Prem CC. My colleague for the day was C. Jayachandran. I was umpiring with him for the first time. As other colleagues of mine in the past, even he has been umpiring for a long time. The sun was shining hard already at 9:00 AM. So, I was wondering how the day is going to be in terms of heat. Anyway, I was here and there was no looking back. I was in fact happy to have a game and that too outside St. Bede's 'A' ground :).

As the title of the post suggests, this was a short game, not as short as my last game but still short. The game lasted till half an hour after lunch. TVS MSC won the toss and elected to field. It was very slow and steady start from them. They were 27/1 in 12 overs. Their rate of scoring did not improve at all but wicket started falling in regular intervals. Soon they were all out for 90 in the 37th over, one hour before the scheduled lunch time (1:00 PM).

The total to get was less than what was set in the last game, still my assessment was that Prem CC will not go for the kill and bat the session before the lunch and consolidate. My anticipation was correct and they batted the 49 minutes left and score 42 for the loss of a wicket after 13 overs. Though they lost their second wicket immediately after the lunch, but that did not deter them. The batsmen showed some urgency in finishing the game and they reached the target in 23rd over and the game ended at 2:20 PM.

From umpiring perspective this game was not very challenging. There were only couple of appeals but they were not very difficult ones. With the scoring rate in the first innings being low, it was already uninteresting and as expected, in second innings there was no surprise, as the target was chased very easily. But as an umpire we do have to go through these kind of situations without any biases.

Having said that the game had its own interesting phases. Reaching milestones is everyone's ambition in a game. Batting milestones is very difficult in a low scoring games but at the same time bowling milestones are sometimes easy, rather bowling milestones result in low targets. Even here in this game, Prabhu from Prem CC got 5 wickets to bowl out TVS MSC, but there was phase where it was not sure if he would reach that milestone. By the end of 23rd over, he had taken 4 wickets and the team had lost 6 wickets. So out of the remaining 4 wickets he had to take only 1 wicket. Another wicket fell in 26th over but it was not Prabhu who took it. So that left him with only 3 more chances. After bowling 27th over Prabhu had to retire because he was not feeling well. He was out for 14 minutes. He had to spend 14 minutes before he could bowl again. In 32nd over the 8th wicket fell, later in 34th over the 9th wicket fell. That left Prabhu with only one chance. Luckily Prabhu became just eligible for bowling and he came to bowl the 37th over. He finally took the final wicket, that also took his tally to 5 wickets. I think this would have been a good lesson for Prabhu. He could have missed his milestone. Not that it is the most important thing in a match, but in this match he had the opportunity and he should have grabbed it in the beginning and not left it till the end.

There was another interesting phase in this low scoring game. It came too late in the game but it was nerve wrecking (it is definitely exaggeration) for John who was the batsman at crease towards the end of the game. As I said, reaching a batting milestone in low scoring game is very difficult, even for Sehwags and Gilchrists. John was batting at 44 and the team needed 10 runs to win. On the last ball of 21st John was on strike and he played a lofted shot over mid wicket. The ball pitched into the grass around the boundary and it was not very clear if it pitched inside the boundary or outside. Since I was standing at square leg, I was in a better position to judge if it was inside the boundary or not. In my opinion, it had pitched inside and thus I signalled it as 4 runs to my colleague and he signalled it to the scorer.

Now John reached 48 and the team needed 6 runs. 50 for him was still possible. The bowler was bowling from my end. John was at the non strike. The other batsman blocked 2 bowls and then he said aloud that he was going to block the full over. He did the same and 22nd over ended with the team still needing 6 runs to win and John needing 2.

23rd over began with John on strike. Either John was desperate or he wanted to reach 50 with a big hit. It was a new bowler. John decided to go after him. He swung the bat and missed it completely. The next ball as well he swung the bat and missed it completely. Now common sense prevailed and he decided that he will take a single. 3 ball left in the over and the team needed 5 runs and John needed 1 for his 50. The other batsman on strike knew that he had to give back John strike. 4th ball, there was no run taken. 5th ball the bowler strayed towards the leg and batsman somehow got a bat to that and the bowl raced to the fine leg boundary and now both the batsmen on crease were in distress. The scores were tied and the team needed only 1 run and John was stranded at non striker end. The striker was cursing himself. Last ball of the 23rd over, the bowler again strayed, I guess some other time, the batsman would not have chased it, but to endure that it was not a wide, the batsman touched it hoping that it would not cause any issue. But the drama was not over. Even this time the ball went towards the fine leg boundary. There was no fielder, but the ball was travelling with lesser speed compared to the previous delivery. Now everyone on the field knew the situation. Every one was watching the ball to see if it crosses the boundary or not. No price for guessing, the batsmen did not run. It was worth watching the striker's face. At this point of time, the grass at the boundary came as an rescue for both the batsmen on the crease. The ball stopped just before the boundary and the over number 23rd ended with some heart beats.

It was the 24th over, the bowler was bowling from my end. It was a bowling change and John was on strike. 1 needed for his 50 and 1 needed for his team to win. The bowler was bowling for the first time in the game so he was rusty. He bowled the ball and the ball was wide of the off stump and John chased it and missed it. It was too close to be called a wide. The batsman watched me after missing the delivery, the bowler turned back to see what my decision was. On any other similar moment, I would have called this a wide. But this situation was exceptional. I chose not be the hero of the moment and thus did not call it a wide. The agony on the face of John turned into relief. The status quo was maintained. John was now desperate. The second ball was bowled and John played he shot too early and the ball took the top edge of the bat and skied high. The ball went to mid off where there was a fielder, who comfortably took his position to get the catch. John was running towards my end to complete the run watching the fielder, the non striker ran towards the wicket keeper end watching the ball travel to the fielder. The fielder somehow messed it up and dropped a dolly and John reach his well deserved 50 but not before some exciting moments.

Though the game was short, but the last phase of the game gave it some life. My next game is on Oct 16. I am back to St Bede again, but this time it is 'B' ground. I will let you know what happened there. Till then happy waiting.

Shortest game

After so many rain affected schedule this season, I was able to umpire a game today. This is the third game (out of 7 postings) this season that I was able to umpire. This was also the third game in the same ground, St Bede's 'A'. So, I guess I can say that if I am posted in this ground, I can expect for sure that the game will be completed :).

Apart from the fact that I was able to umpire full game on this ground (without getting affected by rain), there is one more thing that I would like to mention about the games that I umpired here. All the three games finished before the scheduled time of close (5:15 PM). Today's game was the shortest of them and if my memory is good then, I think this is the shortest one day game (50 overs) that I have ever umpired. When I say shortest, it is in terms of the time duration. There is one game that comes to mind that finished just after the lunch, but this one wound up even before lunch, 12:46 PM to be precise (Scheduled lunch time 1:00 PM).

When I arrived in Chennai on Saturday morning, I heard that it had rained heavily on Thursday. I saw little evidence of anything like that. I am not saying that it was not true, but what I mean is the water had dried. So I knew that if does not rain on Saturday, I will have a game for sure on Sunday. I know you must be bored of reading similar statements in my previous posts. Even I am bored of writing this time and again. As I hoped, it did not rain on Saturday and I went to the ground today hoping to have a full game.

Every game presents a new situation and this one was no different. It was almost 9:15 AM and there was no sign of my colleague. The match starts at 9:30 AM and the toss had to be done before 9:15 AM. Not that I could not have done the toss alone, but at toss, we need to communicate certain things to the captains and those things needs to be first agreed between us. So I was in a situation where I had to go for a toss without speaking to my colleague. I went for the toss and clarified certain things with respect to the boundaries. My colleague (T. Ranga Mannar) arrived at 9:25 AM. He was stuck because of some cycle race being organized in the neighborhood on occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi today.

Both of us walked into the ground and I took this opportunity to introduce myself and also told him about what I communicated to the captains. He was of a different opinion about what I had spoken to the captains on the boundaries, but then the communication had already been made and he kindly agreed to stick by whatever I had said. In spite of my colleague arriving late, the game started as scheduled at 9:30 AM.

Match Summary is as follows:

It was game between Youth Centre CC and Nelson SC, division 5 game. YCCC won the toss and elected to bat. They scored 101/10 in 29.5 overs. Nelson CC chased the score in just 11.3 overs scoring 107 at the loss of 3 wickets. YCCC innings ended at 11:45 AM and the game concluded at 12:46 PM.

As I said, every match has its own situations and mostly it is different from anything that we would have seen in the past. Thus every match has a learnings for us to take. Even though today's match was the shortest, it had its own share of incidents. In the 6th over, the bowler was bowling from my end. The batsman hit a straight shot and the bowler fielded comfortably. Though the batsman was comfortably in, the bowler threw the ball on the stumps at the wicket-keeper end. The ball hit the batsman on his knees. The bowler apologised, but it was a needless throw. Now this is not something unusual. We have seen such aggression many a time on TV. One of the team member from the batting side, outside the ground, shouted at the bowler for his act. This invoked reactions from the fielders in the ground. I had to pitch in on time and later even my colleague intervened, to ask the fielders to concentrate on the game and not get engaged in things outside the field of play.

After some time when the batsmen were taking a single, in an attempt to runout the batsman, the fielder threw the ball at the wicket-keeper's end. The ball hit the batsman while he was completing his run. I think no marks for guessing that it was a fuel added to the exiting fire. Before any reaction from the batsman, I cautioned the fielder to be careful. After the end of the over, the fielder went and apologised to the batsman and batsman accepted it gracefully. In the same innings, there was another instance when the same fielder, again in an attempt to runout the batsman, threw the ball to the wicket-keeper. The ball was again nowhere close to the wicket and this time, to my relief, it closely missed the batsman. Every fielder on the field was furious. The closing filder shouted at this guy and warned him of a potential confrontation, this could trigger. I spoke to the captain immediately to ensure that the fielder was more careful when throwing the ball at wicktes. The capatin apologised and assured that it would not happen again.

In the 12th over, there was a very confident appeal for LBW from the bowler and the closing fielders. I took 4 or 5 seconds extra to answer the appeal. I replayed the event in my mind and saw that the ball had clearly hit the pad and had it not hit the pad, it would have hit the stumps. In replaying the event, I also realized that I had heard the faint nick. Soon after that, instead of saying 'Not Out', I said it was a bat. Then later I realized my mistake and said, 'Not Out'. I had to answer the appeal first, and then if necessary, explan. One of the fielder, commented 'Sir, please give the decision soon'. I said, I had to give the right decision even though with a delay. The bowler was not convinced, but the closing fielders confirmed that indeed there was a bat. That additional seconds helped me to give the correct decision. I loved it. I was more confident after that decision.

Later in the second innings, in the 7th over, there was a huge appeal when I was at the bowler's end. First it was the bowler who appealed vociferously, then the wicket-keeper who caught the ball, came appealing and running on the pitch till the middle of the pitch. I was a bit confused now. I was not sure what the appeal was for. I thought that it was for LBW initially, but later the way the keeper charged towards me, I was not sure if they were appealing for a catch. But in any case, it was "Not Out". In my opinion, the ball was no way close to the bat and hence there was no possibility of the catch. As far as LBW was concerned, the impact was outside the off stump and the batsman was offering a shot, so he could not be ruled out. While walking back towards the run-up, the bowler asked me if it was the height that saved the batsman. Now I was convinced about what the appeal was for. I told him the reason, though it is not required for me to explain. The bowler seemed convinced. Once again, it was a correct decision from me. When the batsman came to the non-striker end, he said, it was a good decision as his bat was no way near the ball. The batsman was of the opinion that appeal was for catch. So my decision that it was not out for catch was also correct. Though it is not that we can go by his word, but I thought that his statement was genuine. I thanked him.

That is about the key moments for me in this game. The most ironic fact about the game was that it finished even before the lunch. In my previous game, when I called off the game, I was there at ground till 12:30 PM and today the game itself lasted only till 12:46 PM.

My next game would be on October 9, 2011. At this point of time, I do not know the details of the game. As usual, I will keep you updated after the game.

Washout saga continues

When I arrived this Friday in Chennai, in the back of my mind, I had the two washouts that I had. When I saw pools of water on the road and streets, it made me worry a bit. With two games lined up in the next two days, I was very sure that I would definitely have one game to umpire. Never I imagined that I will have two more washouts and that too on consecutive days.

The game was supposed to take place in CLRI grounds. As per the original plan, I was supposed to umpire at CPT-IP grounds, but since the ground was not available today, I was posted in CLRI. I did not think much about the ground, I was more interested in getting a game. But I knew the ground, so I could anticipate what to expect. This ground has already served as two first in my TNCA league career. This was the ground where I had my first game with TNCA as an umpire. This was also the ground where I had my first washout :). So I knew very well that if it rains then it will be difficult to conduct the game.

Yesterday, though I had to call off my game because it was cloudy and the situation would not have improved, but it did not rain the whole day. Even when I went to sleep around mid night yesterday, it did not rain. I cannot express my happiness that I felt when I went to sleep, here in writing. I went to sleep hoping that it would not rain.

When I woke up today, I did not see any signs of rain. But when I saw outside my house, it was all wet and I knew that it had rained sometime in the night but was not sure how much and for how long. So before going for my bath, I went to get the news paper for the day. I purchased the news paper and saw that the plan for the day was intact. So I came back and got ready for the game. But I knew for sure that it will definitely be a delayed start.

May be because I had this delayed start at the back of my mind, somehow I started a bit late from my house for the ground. This was definitely wrong my part. Irrespective of the situation, I had to be in the ground at least 45 minutes before the start of the game, which meant that I had to be there at 8:45 AM but I reached the ground only at 9:05 AM. I cursed myself for being late. When I reached the ground, I saw pools of water and my heart sulked. But the positive part was that the sun was shining.

I went and met my colleague of the day, C.P. Sridhar. He has played lot of professional cricket. He has been umpiring from 1989. He has wealth of experience as both player and an umpire. I checked with him if there was a possibility of a game. He said, we will take a call after our first inspection at 09:30 AM.

We did our first inspection at 09:30 AM. The pitched looked fine. With the way he sun was shining, we never had any doubt about pitch posing any problem, as it did the other day for me in CPT-IP ground. We saw that the bowler's run up at one end had a big pool of water. In the same end towards the boundary, there was a sizable area covered with water. This part of the ground did not have any grass. So we knew that if sun was out, then this part would definitely dry. We observed that near this part there was a big patch that was covered with grass and filled with water. The grass would not allow the water to be soaked. So we knew for sure that there was no way the play would start in another hour. While returning back to the pavilion, we observed on one of sides of the pitch around the 30 yard circle, there was again a big part of the ground that had grass and was filled with water. Anyone looking at these parts from a distance would never realize that these pockets of ground were water logged. Players were eagerly waiting for our verdict. They expected a cancellation. To their disappointment, we told them that we will take that call at 11:30 AM, the time for our next inspection.

We had only one person who was responsible for the maintenance of the ground. If we had pushed the water outside and spread it on nearby areas, we had a fair chance that this place would get dry. But then with just one person for maintaining the ground, it was too much for us to ask. So we did not have the man power to get the ground ready. We had to rely solely on the natural way (i.e. getting dry from sun shine). Now, these are very tricky decisions. We knew deep in the heart, even if the sun shines brightly, the water in the pockets where we had grass was not going to get dry. But we cannot decide upfront as sun was still shining. If it was cloudy, we could have taken a call to cancel the game around 10:30 AM itself, as we did in case of my first washout, in the same ground. But the sun made all the difference. Not that I was unhappy about the situation. I wanted to have a game and was ready to explore every possibility of having a game. In this case, that is why we decided that we will give sun some time to influence the ground situation and thus decided for an inspection after 2 hours.

Now we had to kill the time somehow. I suggested for a coffee break, to which my colleague readily agreed. We went to Hot Chips in front of the ground on the other side of the road. Since I did not have any thing in the breakfast, I decided to use this opportunity. I ate pongal and had a cup of hot coffee. My colleague had a cup of Tea. He had plenty to speak. One good thing about these unscheduled breaks are, we get to know about the colleague or some players a lot. Most of the times, when these people have been in the system for a long time, they will have several interesting anecdotes and they share them happily as well. So I heard lot of stories.

We came back to the ground in an hour or so. We still had one more hour before our next inspection. Again the chit chat and stories continued. In the meantime, quiet a few players approached us to check what were we up to. Will we call off the game or wait till 01:45 PM? So, several questions, several remarks. Several suggestions, but we have to be unbiased, unperturbed by the remarks that we receive, not getting influenced, we have take our decisions based on what we see and what we feel. The sun was getting brighter every minute. So that was making it more difficult for to decide. It meant that the waiting period will increase.

We went for our next inspection at 11:30 AM. The water had dried a bit on places where there was no grass. But places where we had grass, we could not see enough improvement. Also at bowler's run up area, we still had water but lesser than that we saw at 09:30 AM. We decided that we will have one more inspection at 12:30 PM. Players were not happy. But as I said, we had to go by our judgement. Since Sun was out, we had to see every possibilty, before calling the game off. We went for our next inspection at 12:30 PM. There was no significant improvement. We had to decide now finally. If we had to start the game today, then it has to be done latest by 1:45 PM and for that we have to take a call now. Because we need to give the groundsman also some time to prepare the pitch, do the markings, etc. So we decided based on the current conditions that it will not improve by 1:45 PM which is the cut off time for the game to start. So we finally called off the game.

You must be thinking, all this story just to say that the game was called off. What else to do? You cannot blog with just one or two lines, isn't it? :)

I do not have any game next week. I have office work the next weekend, so I cannot go to Chennai. May be I will do a game in the first weekend of October (of course if rain permits :)). Till then happy waiting :). In the meantime I will try to update the post on my second game.

YAWO

YAWO - Yet Another Washout :(

It was another washout today. Out of the 5 games I was posted this season, this is the third game that has been washed out by rain. After my return from Belgium, I have always been saying that only my cricket life is on track. Now, even that seems to be going off the track :). I know this is too early for me to say this. But it is really frustrating.

This time I had planned two games this weekend. Thus I arrived in Chennai on Friday (yesterday) itself. When I reached Chennai, I saw pools of water on streets and road. I was very worried to see that. I just hoped that it does not rain. Yesterday, the whole day it did not rain. I was relieved that I will have a match this weekend. The whole day it did not rain.

Finally my hope was shattered. At 9:30 PM, it began to rain. I was returning from my friend's place and caught in the middle of my journey. Luckily, there was a flyover on my way home, so I had a shelter to prevent myself from getting wet. I was lucky in this respect but my luck for the game the next day was definitely not going my way. I stayed under the flyover for more than an hour and throughout this period, it was raining cats and dogs. I saw the water on road flowing into the drainage on the side of the road. Along with it, I saw my game on Saturday as well going down the drain. The rain stopped for a while but it drizzled for some time during my journey and I made the best of this opportunity and reached home without getting much wet. But as soon as I reached home, it started to rain again. With every moment the possibility of having a game the next day was getting dark. Rain was not in my control, so I decided to do something that was in my control. Thus I went to sleep hoping that the rain would stop and I would have a game to umpire.

The next day i.e. today when I woke up, it was not raining. That itself was a relief. But I was not sure if the ground would be ready. Again whatever had to happen had already happened. I got ready but before starting, I thought it was a good idea to check if there would be a game. I called the TNCA person who is responsible for posting (Mr Ramji). Ramji sir was also not sure, he asked me to check in the news paper. I checked in the news paper and the news paper did not mention anything about the cancellation. So it meant that I had to go to the ground. But having seen the rain the last night, I was not very hopeful for a game to happen.

Today's game was supposed to be played between Nelson CC and St. Mary's CC, a division 5 game. The venue for the game was CPT-IP matting ground. I had never been there, so I was not familiar with the ground. So I could not anticipate the condition beforehand. As I had no other choice, I started for the game.

With some difficulty in finding the ground, I reached the ground at 09:00 AM. The outfield was fairly even and looked dry. But there were pockets of outfield where there was no water but it was very slippery and could definitely be considered dangerous. Then I went near the pitch, the pitch at the ends was very wet. The run up was also wet and soft. So it was very clear that the match could not start at scheduled time of 09:30 AM. Then I went and met my colleague for the day, P. Raju, who had already come. I had not umpired with him but I was with him during the BCCI Level 1 course (I will tell you more about this in one of my post in future). He has been playing profession cricket for a long time. He stopped playing only last year. He had started umpiring in 1997 itself. Though he was of the same age as mine, his exposure to cricket was much more than what I had. Then we went together for our first inspection. We decided that we will not start the game at the scheduled time. We informed the captains about this and told them that our next inspection would be at 10:00 AM.

To pass our time, we went to a tea shop near by. We had a cup of tea. Then returned back to the ground around 09:45 AM. It was still cloudy with very little sign of sun shine. So there was no scope for the conditions to improve. We went for another inspection at 10:00 AM. We concluded that the situation did not improve. It was still wet at bowler's run up and the pitch was still wet. We decided that we will do the next inspection at 11:00 AM. But we were skeptical about any improvement in the conditions.

Around 10:30, the sun started shining, but it was not with any great intensity. Still, it gave some hope that the we will have a game. So we patiently waited till 11:00 AM. We had decided among ourself that we will take a stock of the situation and if we found that the conditions have not improved, then we will call the game off and not wait till 1:45 PM which was the official time to call the game off. We went to the pitch and found that the situation was no different from what we saw at 10:00 AM. We were pretty convinced that even if the sun came out, the pitch was not going to get dry enough for a game to happen. The bowler's run up was still damp. So with a heavy heart, I had to call another game off. So we recorded our observations on the score sheet and called the game off.

Rain had again played a spoil sport. My plan of umpiring two games this weekend did not happen. While leaving the ground, I just hoped that my other game this weekend did get affected by rain.

To know what happened with my next game, keep reading...

Another game, at last

Out of the three games that I agreed, two were washed out by rain. This weekend (Sep 4), I had a game and at last, I was able to umpire. It was bright sunny day to begin with and there was no change in that state throughout the day. So finally after two washouts, I had a complete game.

This was game between Egmore RC and Perambur Club, a division 3 game. My colleague for the game was K. Kuberan. He is from year 2000 batch. He is also a cricket coach. He was coaching a division 1 team for 4 years. Both of us had reached the ground around 8:40 am. That gave us few time to catch up with each other.

It was the same ground where I did my firt game of the season. The ground was familiar. This time while choosing my end I chose the end opposite to the end that I chose last time. Again there is a lot of science as well involved in selecting ends, but I think if I start discussing that, it will be a complete post in itself. So I skip that for now.

At 9:01 AM, I went for the toss with the captains. This was the earlies time that I went for toss in any game. There is one more thing that I have to tell. It is rarely in my past games that both the umpires went together for toss in my games. Whenever only one umpire went, it had always been me who went for the toss. The law has changed in this regard now. Earlier it was not mandatory for the umpires to attend the toss. But now it is mandatory for one umpire to be present. Now do not ask me, why on TV, we do not see the umpires coming for toss. That is because, the tournament generally follows playing conditions, where match refree accompanies the captains for the toss.

Egmore RC won the toss and elected to bat first. Since the toss was done pretty early, everyone had plenty of time before the scheduled start. The game started on time. The bowling bagn from my colleague's end. The first ball was a wide. The very next ball, the batsman missed the ball, it hit his pad and there was a huge appeal and he was given out. So Egmore were 1/1 in 1 ball, not start that they would have hoped for. The first two overs were full of extras, as far as I remember only one run was scored of bat. To add to these extras, the bails were falling because of the wind at my colleague's end. Extras and this delay mean that it took 15 minutes to complete the 2 overs.

With the contributions from the bowler and with some good stroke making, the Egmore reached 45 at the end of 5 overs. This was enough a motivation for the captain of Perambur to make a bowling change. And the change brought immediate result. The very first ball, not the best ball, wide outside the off, pulled by the batsman, went high in the air to fine leg and the fielder made no mistake resulting in another wicket.

Will update the details of the game in few days...Happy waiting!