Rain, foreign controversy and then home!

21/08 – Monday,

As I walked into the breakfast room everyone was talking about the ball tampering row to which I had no comment. Dravid had left Colombo during the night and the rest of the Indians were leaving at about 4pm that afternoon. Most of the Sri Lankan players had left and gone back to their homes but Tom Moody and Trevor Penny, the coaches were having breakfast before they too moved out. I had some tv work to do for the ICC. They are using umpires and referees in 30 second tv slots to explain some of the rules and regulations in the Code of Conduct booklet that everyone is governed by. A very good idea but it meant getting a shirt and tie on in 30 degree heat. I haven’t seen the finished article but I thought it went OK! Ranjan Madugalle was also there to do his bit and we ended up having a chat about all things cricket and in particular what happened at the Oval.

The rest of the day was all about packing and paying bills, returning the phone which the home board supply to all referees for official use and saying farewells to those people I’ve had dealings with during the past 2 weeks. My flight was scheduled to leave at 2.30am so after watching a bit of TV in the hotel the car arrived to take me to the airport at midnight. Sri Lanka ’s airport is fabulous, they have obviously spent a lot of money in upgrading it over the last couple of years and parts of it look brand new.
The flight did indeed take off on time and the 4 hours it took to get to Dubai was spent trying get some sleep. The 7 hour flight home was again highlighted by a good adventure movie. This time it was a Michael Douglas film called ‘The Sentinel’ and it was all about a spy in the US secret service. He eventually gets his man but there were a lot of twists along the way. We made it back to Birmingham almost on time and the great thing about coming back to the UK during summer time is that you don’t need a coat to protect you against the weather. It’s always nice to come home and today was beautiful flying through the fluffy clouds seeing the green fields below. Home sweet home!!

20/08 – Sunday, today was a new game.

Unfortunately nothing had changed with the weather. We didn’t rush to the ground this morning; the teams had told me that they were not going to travel until we’d given them an update on the conditions. We arrived at the ground at about 9.30am and the condition of the outfield was unchanged, it might even have been a little worse. With yesterday’s words of the groundsman still sounding in our ears about the amount of time the outfield needs to dry, it was decided that we would come back at 12.30 for another look. As I was leaving the field, Tony Greig who was there commentating for Ten Sports called over to me and asked me if there was any truth in the rumour, emanating from India that the series was about to be cancelled! I told him that I’d heard nothing and I was able to confirm this after I had talked to the Indian team manager who said that he was unaware of any decision like this.
There was some good news three hours later. We had had some sunshine and the outfield was drying but it still needed a little more time. No sooner had we decided that a game would be possible at 4pm than another black cloud appeared on the horizon! Another day had to be abandoned.

Back at the hotel a little over an hour later I had a call in my room from the Indian manager saying that the Sri Lankan board are now discussing with the BCCI about cancelling the series because of the awful weather. They would make an announcement at about 6.30pm. I phoned Duleep Mendis (SL CEO) and he confirmed that this is happening. There was great excitement that this series may be put out of its misery.

6.30pm came and went with no news. I tried Mendis’ phone and it was switched off. There were lots of Indian journalists in our hotel waiting for news. I was not being consulted at all which was upsetting; eventually we all heard that an announcement was due from the Sri Lankan board at 7.30pm. It had been agreed that this series was to be cancelled and rescheduled at some time in the not too distant future. Relief for everyone - players officials, media, supporters- who were all getting very tired of this awful weather. Billy and I had a very quick supper together before he ran off to pack and I went back to my room to watch some of the England Test. Little did we know what was about to kick off!

Ball tampering is an emotive phrase within cricket and to see what was unfolding at the Oval was both disappointing and intriguing.
I sat for 2 hours watching the television coverage which was being beamed live from the UK and listening to Gower, Botham, Hussain, Lloyd, Raja and Atherton all give their views on the position of the match, most of which were that Darrell Hair was wrong. Whatever you say about the decision the fact is that if they saw evidence of tampering they had to act. If they saw evidence of tampering then they followed the laws of the game to the letter and as I write, although the game has been forfeited for the first time in history we still don’t know the outcome of the charges that have been brought against Inzamam-ul-Haq over this matter.

19/08 – Saturday, More rain.

Another depressing picture greeted me as I pulled back the curtains this morning- the game today was not going to re-start on time!
After breakfast the PCT left the hotel at the normal time (8.30am) for the 5 minute drive to the ground. About 150 young men had been drafted in from the local area to come and help deal with the draining. These kids got paid about 300 rupees for each day which is the equivalent of about US$3. They were given a free t-shirt and a hat and they all seemed very happy to be out there in all weathers helping as much as they could.
The large plastic sheets could cover not only the square but the whole of the outfield as well. If the covers were dry they could be cleared from the ground in 45 minutes but if the covers had water lying on them, as they did most mornings it would take 1 and a half hours to clear the field.
Eventually all the covers were off, Billy and Asoka checked the uncovered field. There were 2 areas of the outfield which concerned them. Both were on opposite sides of the pitch but both were extremely soggy. The grounds-man informed us that he thought it would take at least 3 hours of sunshine for them to dry properly. It was warm and humid but no direct sunshine was popping through the clouds which meant a long wait. After much deliberation it was agreed that the minimum that ICC rules would allow was that this match had to be abandoned. As if to celebrate this decision the heavens opened and we all got wet as we headed for our transport back to the hotel.
The rest of the day was taken up with some swimming in the pool – well if you can’t beat the weather!!! – and watching the Test from England where Pakistan were very much on top!