WHEN THE BAD LIGHT DIMMED ON ENGLAND

JAMES WALLACE looks back to previous occasions when bad light scuppered England’s chances of forcing a positive result

- JAMES WALLACE

CRICKET perhaps more than any other sport is a hostage to the elements. That being accepted, the second Test between En gland and Pakistan at the Ageas Bowl was firm evidence of a game that had slipped into a meteorological ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ of its own making.

A total of 134.3 overs were played across all five days in Southampton, making it the most truncated Test match in England for 33 years.

The officials seemingly suffering from a strange condition known as ‘Umphausen-by-proxy’, exaggerating the darkness and drizzle, the reliance, insistence even on light meter readings above all else adding to the no-play malady. The players and pundits were forced to do some serious time-killing as hours of frustration turned into days of zero action, their hand-wringing in contrast to the ground-staff who were accused of being a bit more dilatory than military with the wringing job of their own.

Pink balls, more flexible playing hours or even floating ‘Independence Day’ style stadia rooves might yet prove to be the answer to cricket’s obsession with the elemental. In the meantime, you don’t have to go back far to see some memorable occasions whereby England have been scuppered by ‘bad’ light in Test cricket...

Second Test England v South Africa, Durban, 2004

England 139 and 570 -7 dec drew with South Africa 332 and 290-8