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...