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!

Two washouts in a row

As I said in my previous post, I started my season late. So when I received the letter of posting for the month of August, I was very happy. There were four games for which I had been posted. But I had to regret one of the game as there were two games on the same weekend. But I still had three games for the month.

On August 21, it was game between BSNL Chennai Telephones v Dorairaj. It was a Division 4 game. It was to be played in CLRI grounds. It was the same ground where I did my first game for TNCA. It was way back in July 2009. It rained heavily on August 20 night. In the morning when I woke up, my mom asked me if there will be any game that day. I told her that irrespective of whether the game happens or not, I will have to go to the ground, as umpires are the final decision makers. Until unless the assessment of the ground is made on that day, we could not decide if the game would be played or not. So even before I went to the ground, it was doubtful if we will have a game or not.

I reached the ground around 08:40 AM. The mat was not on the pitch. I could see lot of puddles of water on the ground. One of the team member from BSNL approached me and asked if there would be any game today. I gave him the politically correct answer, which was, "I have to wait till my colleague arrives and then we will make an assessment". Everyone was very sure that there was no scope for game but then there were certain procedures that had to be adopted. Such decisions could not be made by one umpire. It is always a joint decision. I saw that the scorer had arrived. He was so sure that the game would not happen that he brought only the score sheet. In fact everyone there were hoping that the game would not happen. It was a festival day (Krishna Jayanti). People wanted to retire to their home and celebrate the festival.

While I was waiting for my colleague to arrive, the scorer and myself were discussing the dismal performance of Indian team in the tour of England. My colleague Mr. Iyyapan arrived at around 09:00 AM. He was the same guy with whom I umpired in my first game, on the same ground. He went straight to the pitch. I rushed to accompany him. We saw that the pitch was wet. On one of the ends, the bowlers run up had puddle of water. There were lot of pockets of puddle on the boundary. So first inspection was done and the ground condition was definitely not suitable for us to start the game at 09:30 AM. Since it was not raining, we had to go by the assumption that the conditions could still improve and see the possibility of having a game. As per the rules, we can call off a game only when we are sure that there is no possibility of having a game for at least 3.5 hours duration. This means that if we see that the conditions are improving, then we had to wait till 1:45 PM to call the game off.

As the players saw us walking towards the boundary, they were eager to know what was our assessment. They were very sure that there will not be any game. But to their disappointment, we said that we will take that call only after our next inspection which was due at 10:30 AM. Deep in my heart I knew that there is no game possible, as the Sun was still not shining and there was no scope for the conditions to improve. But at the same time, deep in my heart, I wanted the game to happen. I had not travelled from Bangalore to Chennai to call off the game I was supposed to umpire. But the possibility were as dark as the clouds that I could see in the sky. Rather the possibilities were dark because the clouds in the sky were dark. I know my statements were not impressive :).

So the PCT (Playing control team) sat together. You must be wondering what is that. Apart from the two teams who are competing we have a third team on the ground, that is called PCT which comprises of umpires, scorers and referee, basically people who are responsible for conducting the game. Here the PCT was only two umpires and the scorer. So we had to spend more than an hour before the next inspection. I thought that it was good time to just browse through the playing conditions once again. In the meantime, I was also engaged in the discussion that were on different topics ranging from Anna Hazare's anti-corruption crusade to India's dismal performance in England. The other two were veterans with respect to their participation in TNCA leagues, so they were recalling certain incidents from their past. It was interesting to listen.

Meanwhile, the time passed and it was 10:30 AM, our next milestone for inspection. After this inspection, without throwing any surprise, we decided to call off the game. The assessment that we had to make here was, whether there was any improvement in the conditions after our previous inspection. Also we had to asses if there will be any sufficient improvement in the conditions during the course of the day to start the game at least by 1:45 PM. The answers to both the questions were "No". Let me take this opportunity to explain you why we decided to call off the game. We as an umpires can decide to call of the game when we find that the condition of the ground, weather or light are dangerous or unreasonable for the play to take place. We call it dangerous if the conditions pose risk to safety of any player or umpire. We call it unreasonable if although posing no risk to safety, it will not be sensible to play. Here obviously, with wet ground and pitch, it was definitely not sensible to play. Moreover, while running on this ground, there is definitely possibility of players or umpires slipping and getting injured. So we (umpires) made our observations in the score sheet and called the game off. So my second game of the season had to be called off. The irony was that I was also one of the decision makers call it off :(.

My next game was on August 28, i.e. today. It was supposed to be played between Vepery CC and Gandhi CC. It was a division 5 game to be played in PSHS grounds. Last Wednesday, I got a call from TNCA that the venue was changed to St. Patrcik's school. I assumed that it would be because of the ground condition, it had been raining all the week and PSHS was not the best ground in terms of its ability to drain the water. I arrived yesterday morning from Bangalore. Unfortunately, I had to work from home and I was not very happy about that as lot of my planned work for yesterday were affected by this. Even in terms of work, it was not significant, but I could not leave my home, as it could be that I will be required to login at any time. In a way it was good that I had time to relax, which was a rarity in the past few weeks. Ok, coming back to this game. It had rained heavily the previous night i.e. Friday and I saw lots of water in the streets. When I was walking towards my home I already knew somehow what was in store for me with respect to the game. But I thought that if it did not rain the whole day on Saturday, i.e. yesterday, there could be a game possible. So I waited till the evening, there was no rain. So I was hopeful that I will have a game. I knew that the ground was in Adayar but I did not know how to reach this ground, so I thought that I will give a call to TNCA office for the directions. This was surprisingly one of the very few good decision (of course off field) that I made in the recent times :). I was informed that all the games this weekend were cancelled because of the inclement weather. Though I was happy about my decision to call, but I was disappointed that there was no game for me even this weekend.

After two games in a row being washed out, my tally for the season after two months still remain 1. In September I will not be able to umpire on two weekends, so by end of September as well, my tally is not going to see any marked improvement. If I had been living in Chennai, I would not have been this disappointed. The reason being that if I was in Chennai, I could easily do games on both Saturday and Sunday. But since I travel to Chennai from Bangalore, umpiring on Saturday is ruled out. That leaves me only with Sunday and that too if is washed out like this, then my effort of travelling goes waste. Anyway, somethings are not in my control and I do not need to worry much about it. Lot of time is left in the season and because of these washouts, anyway these games will be replayed in future. So I will have enough games :).

So dear friends, that is the story till today. I know I have to still complete my previous post. I think I will complete it in sometime next week. So keep reading.

Happy Ramzan and Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!

Season began for me, finally

The season began for me, finally on August 14. But the cricket season in Tamil Nadu had begun almost a month back. It was my first game of this season. I was anxious. It is the case for me in every game. But this was different. This season is very important for me. I really want to do well. This game had to give me that confidence. I always believe that fear of failure is a hindrance to success. Unfortunately these days I fear for failure. Thus a good start to the season was what I wanted.

This was a game between Comrades CC and Puraslavakkam CC. It was a Division 4 game. It was in St. Bede's 'A' ground. So far I had umpired only in St. Bede's 'B' ground. No big difference between the two. I mentioned here just for the sake of mentioning it :). My colleague for the day was S.N. Sukumar, a veteran in the field of umpiring.

The laws of cricket were changed slightly with effect from October 1, 2010. This being the IVth edition of 2000 code, will now apply in this season in TNCA leagues as well. One change was with respect to the toss, where the captain winning the toss has to convey his decision immediately. The toss happened at 9:20 AM. Ideally the toss should have happened between 9:00 AM and 9:15 AM for the game starting at 9:30 AM, but here we had to delay the toss. For the toss to happen we must have the team's nomination, which was delayed. This is quiet common in our league. Hence we had to go for the toss with a delay. The Comrades team won the toss and elected to field. The captain was a proud man. It seems this team has close to 100% record when it comes to winning the toss. The opponent captain was relieved that the fete of the game was not to be decided by the spin of the coin.

The game started at 09:30 AM (as scheduled). The game started from my partner's end. So I was deprived of calling 'Play' to start the match. Nothing significant about it, only that I like to do that. In the very first over, there was some action. The ball pitched and rose, hit the glove of the batsman and lobbed to the second slip, the fielder who was also the captain, dived full stretch and reached the ball but could not hold on to it. I like these kind of attempts. In spite of this brave effort, no wicket fell.

The next over was from my end. The bowler was a bit rusty to begin with and I felt that even I was a bit rusty. The ball went wide of the batsman, it was high, well above the waist height. My both hands rose to call wide, but the batsman touched the ball. Thankfully I did not call. Then I realized that it was above waist height as well, which meant that it qualified to be an unfair delivery. Immediately, I dropped one of my hand, and called it a No Ball. Then I cautioned the bowler. It was his first ball of the match and he had to be cautioned.

After the drama in the first two overs, the openers steadied the innings and reached 39 in 10 overs. In the 10th over, there was a loud appeal from the bowler and the fielders for LBW. In my opinion, the impact was at the leg and was going down the leg. The height was also a factor. So I said 'Not Out'. The bowler was not happy. So my first decision for the day and the season was made. In the 11th over, I was at square leg. The batsman stretched for the ball and missed the ball completely. In the process he dragged his foot outside the popping crease. The wicket-
keeper removed the bails. The batsman dragged his bat into the crease. There was an appeal to me. It was close, but in my opinion, the batsman was too late and thus I gave him "Out". Needless to say, the batsman was not happy. Just two balls later, the new batsman was completely beaten and was bowled by the bowler. So all of a sudden Purasalavakkam was 39/2.

It was 22nd over and there was no wicket that fell after the 11th over. So Comrades were desperate to get a wicket. There was a huge appeal to me for caught behind. I turned it down, as I did not hear any noise or saw any deflection. At this point of time I do not remember the incident exactly, so cannot give you any details. The very next over they got their man and finally a breakthrough.

In 28th over, there was a big shout from closing in fielder for an LBW, but immediately to my relief, the bowler said that the batsman had hit the bowl. Actually, the bowler blocked my view and I could not really see what happened. Anyway, since I was in doubt, I would have given 'Not Out'. Thankfully it did not come to my decision :). The drinks was taken at the end of 30 overs. Comrades were doing excellent in terms of over rate, but only that they were not able to take wickets. On the last ball of 34th over, there was another appeal for LBW. In this case the ball pitched outside the leg and the impact was on the leg. But as soon as the ball pitches outside leg, we (umpires) do not have to worry. It is 'Not Out'. After that, the Purasalavakkam lost patience and the wickets started falling in regular intervals but it was too late for the Comrades and the game still went into the 50th over and the last wicket fell on the first ball of that over. The score was 261. Time was 1250. The innings ended 10 minutes before the scheduled time. So the game would end at least 10 minutes before the scheduled time :).

The highlight of the innings was that the captain of the Purasalavakkam, Ravindran scored a century. The opening bowler Hari took 5 wickets.

The second innings started at 1335 after the lunch break. This time the game started from my end, hence I had the opportunity to call 'Play'. Just 20 minutes into the game the captain of fielding side was injured and wanted to leave the field. Now the substitute who comes in his place cannot captain the side, so we checked who among the nominated player would be deputising. Once confirmed, we went ahead with the game.

Just in the 7th over of the innings, I had lapse of concentration and another instance of my rustiness was evident. It was the last ball of the over. The ball was short pitched and went above the shoulder height of the batsman. As per our league rules, one for the over is allowed. I was a bit confused if I had to call a No ball or not. Then I just ended up warning the bowler. That warning was unnecessary as it was the last ball of the over. It created some sort of confusion in the player's mind. But the damage was already done.

First wicket fell in the 8th over, the next one fell in the 10th. After one hour, at first drinks the Comrades were 37/2 in 13 overs. Purasalavakkam were 2 overs short. In the 15th over, the non-striker who was also the opening batsman, came to me and asked if he could retire as he was feeling feverish. I told him that he could, but his return would be with the consent of the opposing captain. Since we cannot judge his illness, we had no say in his return. This would not to come under the wholly acceptable reasons. I consulted with my colleague as well. Even he said the same thing. So the batsman decided to stay back. Sometimes we have to take such hard stance. In the very next over, he was dismissed and he would be a relieved man.

In the 18th over, I was standing at square leg. The batsman was captain of the Comrades. He played away from the body, there was a sound that I could hear, obviously I could not see what hit what. But I could judge that the batsman was playing away from the body and his bat was in air, so the sound could be only bat hitting the ball. Needless to say, there was an appeal and the umpire at bowler's end gave him out. The batsman stood at his place in disbelief. I did not understand why. Sometimes the players do this. But it does not make any sense when it is very obvious that the batsman was out.

After that 18th over dismissal, no wicket fell for a while. In the 23rd over there was a bowling change. The batsman went for full blooded sweep from outside the off stump. The ball turned viciously towards the batsman and brushed his pad and was neatly collected by the wicket-keeper. There was a huge appeal from the bowler, keeper and the slip fielder. I turned it down. In my opinion, it did not touch the bat. Now it was turn for the bowler to gaze in disbelief. When the second drinks was taken, the score was 92/4 in 26 overs. So Purasalavakkam was now 4 overs short.

In the 33rd over there were two appeals for LBW. Both met the same result. First one, I turned down, as the impact was outside the off stump and the batsman was offering a shot. The other one was turned down as well, as in my opinion, the ball was going down the leg. The first decision resulted in disappointment. Second one was accepted gracefully. Impact outside off stump is always difficult for the fielders to digest. In most of the cases, the players are not clear about the law.

35th over of Comrades's innings was the highlight of the day. The ball was short pitched, the batsman, top scorer of the innings, went for the pull, the bowl took the top edge of the bat and went high in the sky towards the short fine-leg. The only fielder who could go for that catch was the wicket-keeper and rightly so, he did. He had to cover a lot of distance. By the time, the ball came down, it looked highly impossible for the keeper to reach the ball. But at this point of time, something happened, that I have never seen in this league. The keeper dived full stretch and importantly, even held on to that catch. It was a stunner and called for applause even from the opponents and he did get that as well. Even I could not stop myself from clapping for that effort.

The innings of Comrades finally folded in 36th over and the final score was 140 all out. Purasalwakkam had won the game by 121 runs. The luck that favoured Comrades in the toss did not continue till the end. For me, more importantly, the game ended at 1626, more than 45 minutes before the scheduled finish time. It is always a nice feeling when the game ends a bit early than scheduled :). Thankfully on that day I did not have to travel back to Bangalore. So I did not have to rush back to home. But on days when I have to travel back, early finish does come handy. But today also it was useful as my sisters were waiting at home to tie Rakhi, on the occasion of Rakshabandhan. Now at least they did not have to wait long.

Finally I am able to finish this. I will try to keep the updates regular. Also I will make an attempt to make this interesting read. Any sort of feedback is welcome.

Scoreboard:http://www.tnca.in/LiveSite/DisplayScorecard.aspx?matchCode=8161&TrophyCode=11

I was hit by the cricket ball

After reading the title, wondering what is the big deal :-). I accept. Not a big deal for you. Neither it is for me now, but when I was hit, it was indeed painful. Very very painful. And I have been hit twice.

Both the occasions when I was umpiring. So umpiring is not as safe as it looks on the TV screen. We as umpires do not have to face the likes of Brett Lee or Shane Bond to be hit. But that does not prevent us from being hit either. It is not that I have been hit only twice, but these two occasions were really painful.

The first occasion was when I was in Belgium last year, 2010. It was around the beginning of the season. The match was between Antwerp Indians CC v Belgium Development side (U-19). It was AICC batting, first innings of the game. The batsman (if I remember correctly) was Sehul Javeri. He was hitting the ball all round the park. It was very evident that BDS would have to chase some very big score. Sehul hit a perfect straight drive. This occasion I was at the bowling end. The ball was coming straight towards me. It was at my face height. It was coming really fast. This was not the first time that I was in such a situation. The only thing that I had to do was to get away from the line of the ball. On a normal day, I would have done so. As I had mentioned in one of my previous post, I have been struggling with my knee for more than a year now. June 2010 was the time when I was just recovering from my injury. At that point of time, to make rapid movements from one position to other was a huge problem for me. In umpiring, one has to do that a lot. Without any doubt last season, I had been struggling to move around. In this situation, when the ball was coming towards me, to prevent myself from being hit, I had to move away, but my knee did not help. The ball was very close and the only thing that I could do was to raise my hand to prevent myself from being it on the face. All this happened in span of couple of seconds. It was well in time and the ball hit my elbow (right at the joint) and it was a nasty blow. The next moment, I was on the ground with excruciating pain. Luckily, ice cubes were available with the home team (AICC) and I rubbed the point of injury with ice for about 5 minutes. I felt some relief. Later, I wrapped up few pieces for ice in my handkerchief. Then resumed my umpiring with the handkerchief tied around my elbow. I continued like that till the ice melted. The pain was still there but bearable and did not impact my umpiring much, though I had two injuries to manage now (one on my knee and another on my elbow). But somehow I managed both and the game as well. Luckily, I did not have any fracture, there was no swelling, but I had to live with the pain for another couple of weeks.

The next incident was this year in February back in India. It was a game between Twentieth Century CC and Minerva CC. The game was played in Chennai Medical College ground. This was the most uneven ground that I had come across. But we had no other choice but to play the game. The fielders were having tough time fielding the ball, as the ball would suddenly jump in front of them. The maximum damage would be done when the fielder is at the boundary. He would be all set to field the ball and then all of a sudden the ball would take an unprecedented turn or bounce (because of the unevenness of the ground) and will cross the boundary. On one such occasion, the ball crossed the boundary. I was umpiring at the bowling end. I have the habit of scoring as well when I am umpiring. On this occasion, as the ball crossed the boundary, I signalled 4 to the scorer and then I was busy recording the 4 on my card. My attention was completely towards the card. The fielder threw the ball towards the bowler. The ball pitched in front of the bowler, the bowler was ready to collect. At this point of time, the ball took a vicious turn and bounced high and by the time I realized what happened, I was down on the ground. The ball had hit my left jaw joint. The pain was unbearable. More than the pain, I was worried about any possible fracture of the jaw. My jaw had already been fractured once in the past (not while playing or umpiring) and I was still bearing the scar (figuratively) of that. So I did not want another one. With all these thoughts in mind, I was releived to know that one of the team had ice with them. I touched my jaw and there was very little swelling, which gave me a hope that there was no fracture. I tried to open my mouth wide open and I was able to do it with no severe pain. This was another positive. But I had to rub the jaw with ice to prevent the injury from worsening. I did it for a while and then, like previous incident, I wrapped some ice in the handkerchief and held it against my jaw with the left hand and resumed the game. So with one hand on my jaw, I began umpiring as well. I am not sure, if I was being foolish or being brave (in my opinion, neither of them), but I wanted to carry on with the game. In my assessment (as in previous incident as well), the injury was not severe enough for me to leave the field. I was able to manage the game, without any problem. The game got over but like before, I had to bear this pain for another week or two. In this case it was even more painful as whenever I had to eat something, I had to bear this pain.

That completes the narration of the two painful incidents that I had. Wondering why I had to come up with this now, as both the incidents are not recent one. The answer is very simple, I am making an honest attempt to keep my blog alive. With season coming to an end, I will not have any games in the recent future. That would mean that I will not have any game that I could discuss in this blog. The result, another break in my writing. So I thought, I will come up with some incidents from my past.

Hope it was not a painful reading. :) Will try to come up with something less painful (if you are lucky, more interesting) next time. :)

Game 9 this season

As promised in my previous post, here I am with a write up on my game on May 1, 2011. I know it is more than a week late, but anyway, it is better than not coming up with one. Sorry for the choice of the title. I could not come up with anything better.

May 1 is normally a holiday. It was even Sunday this time. I was not fortunate to have a day off. I had to stand in this 50 overs game, that too on a very hot day.

This was an interesting game as it was between the top two teams of the Division 4A. It was game between TSRMSC and Jupiter SC. TSRMSC was at the top of the table having won all 10 games so far. Jupiter SC had just lost 1 game out of 10 played. So, that meant that if TSRMSC won this game, they would be the champions. But if Jupiter SC won this game, then there would be a play off between the same two teams to decide the champion. So that means we umpires had a tough game ahead.

My colleague for the day was Mr K. Raghuram. He too qualified as an umpire in 2009 with me. This season, since I was not in India for most part of the season, this was only my 9th game. But this guy had already done 50+ games this season and overall he has done some 75 games in just two seasons. He has already been rewarded for his dedication. He has done two Division 1 games (3 days game) so far and he is expected to get Division 1 games in the beginning of the next season. So here was a guy from whom, I can draw some inspiration and work really hard to beat his count :-).

Now let me come back to the game :). The venue for the game was IIT Stadium. TSRMSC won the toss and elected to field. This was a surprise choice, as I have never seen any team in these leagues electing to field first. This meant that they had tremendous confidence in their bowling attack. I hoped that their bowling does come good and we had a shorter game. Remember, the heat was already too much at 9:30 in the morning.

The game started at 9:30 AM and the very first over offered an opportunity to the fielding team. But the fielder at first slip missed a sharp catch. Jupiter started their batting with aggression and were around 7 per over till wicket fell in each of the 5th and 6th over. Jupiter were 41/2 then. Then steadily their run rate started dipping.

It was just 10 overs and we were all sweating profusely. Though the first water break was scheduled only at 10:30 AM, we were allowing the teams to have water during the over breaks. More the frequency of such break, it would mean that there could be a delay in finishing the game. At the same time, lesser such breaks would mean that we would not have enough players in good conditions till the end of the game. So, we as an umpires had to strike that balance.

Meanwhile, another wicket fell in 11th over. Jupiter were now 58/3, you can see the run rate has already come down. This fall of wicket was something special. This kind of incident happened for the first time in my umpiring career (still premature to call it a career :)). The bowler was bowling from my end, left arm bowler, bowling round the wicket, coming diagonal. It was right hand batsman. The ball pitched outside the off stump, the batsman lunged forward to reach the ball, the ball turned away from him, caressing the edge of the bat, the keeper took the catch and as soon as he completed it, he whipped off the bails in a flash, the batsman in the process of lunging, dragged his back foot outside the crease. In the excitement, all of them appealed to the striker's end umpire and the umpire had no hesitation in giving the batsman out. Then I went to my colleague and told him that it was a legal catch as well, which meant that catch takes precedence when compared to stumping. So it had to be recorded as caught behind and not stumping. My colleague agreed and we asked the scorer to record it as caught behind.

After couple of overs, of the same bowler, the batsman tried to go for a slog sweep, he missed it completely. The ball rose and hit the helmet of the batsman and fell short of the man in gully. The fielder dived but could not get it. The captain was disappointed with the fielder's effort. The captain asked me if the ball had hit the bat, to which I responded in negative. The captain was disappointed with my response. I do not know if he was sure that the batsman had hit, why he had to ask me :). Anyway, everyone thought that it had hit the bat during the sweep, but somehow I was not convinced. Thankfully the catch was not taken, so no damage done (to me :), of course).

Another couple of overs, there was a huge appeal from the fielders and a mild appeal from the bowler from my end for LBW. I turned it down as the ball was high and there was no way it could have hit the stumps. When I could see the the bails below the level of ball, and the ball is rising, it could not have been out. As the bowler was walking back to his run up, his captain told him that the appeal should have been full hearted, only then he could get a better result (I think the previous incident contributed to this remark). This is not the first time I have heard such comments from the players. They completely forget that we do not base our decisions solely on how confident the bowler is (sometimes that also contributes), but we base our decisions on the facts that we see. They always has this notion of louder and longer their appeal is, better is their chances of getting a decision in their favor, which is not the case. Anyway, the decision was made and game progressed without any issue.

Another wicket fell in the 19th over and then there was a drought of wickets for another 18 overs. These 18 overs, with no wickets falling and the heat having its impact, we were all getting drained. It was very much visible in the body language of the fielding team. In the 30th over, the bowler (was bowling spin) bowled a ball well above the waist high, it was really high but still below the shoulder level. I immediately called it no ball, which was a correct decision. It was my next step which increased the temperature on the ground further. I gave first warning for unfair delivery. The captain was of the opinion that it was a slow bowler, hence the warning was not valid. My colleague confirmed that it demanded a warning but the captain of the fielding team was not impressed. Neither were we with his on field behavior. The wicket keeper even went to the extent of telling my colleague to go and check the rule book. The players always have their own interpretation of the rules. The rule does talk about the slow bowl being bowled above shoulder high as dangerous and not when it is bowled above waist high. So it is the speed of the bowl that counts and not the nature of the bowler. If the bowler is bowling spin, does not mean that he is necessarily bowling slow.

Finally the relief came for the fielding team in 39th over when they were able to break the 5th wicket partnership. The innings lasted full 50 overs but the batsmen in hurry to score quick lost their wickets and the final score of Jupiter read 214/10 at the end of 50 overs. My hope at the toss that the first innings would end soon did not happen and we had to spend full 3 hours 40 mins in the scorching heat.

The next innings started at scheduled time of 1:45 PM. TSRMSC being at the top of the table, I expected a fight from them in this innings, which would mean that the innings would last for full 50 overs. I prepared myself mentally to stand in the heat for next three hours. But it was not and auspicious start for TSRMSC, they lost their first wicket in the 2nd over when the batsman was adjudged LBW. The batsman was visibly upset, not that he was justified. He stayed there in crease for quiet sometime. Thereafter TSRMSC started losing wickets at regular interval. At the end of 11th over they were 30/5. The bowler was on hatrick at the end of this over but could not get that in his next over. The heat was taking a toll and water was coming in the field almost at the end of every over. The fall of wickets continued and I could not see any real fight from the batting side. The innings finally folded in 30th over. TSRMSC scored just 87. The match ended more than an hour before the scheduled time. This was a relief for everyone except the losing team, of course.

This means that TSRMSC and Jupiter SC will have another game to decide the champion in their zone. Not sure who will umpire that game. For now, this game was over and it was a relief for me. I had to leave the same night for Bangalore, so this would give me some time to relax before I start for my travel. The cricket season 2010-11 is coming to an end. I am not sure, how many more games I will get. But I will try my best to keep you all updated. Till then have a nice time.