And now for the weather in your area...

The cricket season is coming to the end of its glorious run, and already football’s hyperbolic ‘thump thump thump’ is starting to take over as the Premiership and Champions League start up again. Whilst I love football, I do resent it for intruding into the mental space I’ve laid out for cricket in my internal seasons of sport. But that is for another time.

Yet again this season of cricket has been severely hit by the weather. Now I’m not here to talk about Test or County cricket, the grounds where they are played have great drainage (at Lords and Cardiff truly spectacular drainage) and modern covers. No, what I’m talking about is the amateur game. The one that you or I play.

This is now the 3rd year in a row we’ve had terrible weather. As in the other years we’ve had a really nice April (before the league programme starts), and then only a single decent month out of May, June, July and August. Followed, in all likelihood, by a glorious September just as the season ends. In all around half of the games I have been scheduled to play in this season have been lost to the weather. Cricketers are willing to accept a cancellation rate of a third in a bad year, but half? That’s ridiculous. I find it difficult to explain the frustration that accompanies having your match called off. Often you’ve looked forward to it all week. You may have been plotting the strokes you were going to play, the structure of overs you would bowl. If you’re captain you’ve been ruminating on who will open the bowling, the batting line-up, the fielding positions you may use. I’ve even been known to not get drunk on a Friday if I have a big match the next day. Then all of a sudden it’s taken away. As I said, frustrating.

Now this just looks like a bit of a bitch and a moan about our stupid British weather. But the fact is these past 3 years have been the wettest summers that I can remember and have resulted in the most cricket being called off that I, and much older lags that I play with, can remember. And this creates a problematic question. Is this a permanent climate alteration, or just a 3 year unfortunate weather pattern? If this is a climate alteration then I think the national summer game may be in trouble.

How long will we be able to sustain the game if only half the fixtures are completed? Will youngsters learning the game want to continue if they are regularly frustrated by not being able to play? What about all those people across the country that give up their time to help out their clubs with ground preparation and all the behind the scenes work, only for a match to not happen. Or those players who put off things in their lives, such as partners, kids, work, DIY to keep their Saturdays free for cricket only for the match not to materialise?

Improved grounds would be a way of improving this, but not that many clubs can afford covers, let alone an intricate and expensive drainage system for their square and a way of quickly drying the outfield. And it’s not like the appetite and willingness to be involved isn’t there, it is in spades. It’s just how long will that appetite exist if the weather regularly puts paid to half a season.

(Props to danchelo for the topic tip)