Drainage of the ground. Weather watch in the lead up to a game. Taking care of a wet outfield. Players’ safety on the field after heavy rainfall.
These are some of the basic things that are checked at venues before an international game – and not just before a Test match – that have become the norm, but are “sometimes taken for granted”. Afghanistan head coach Jonathan Trott hopes the one-off Test against New Zealand that was abandoned without a ball bowled in Greater Noida is “a good learning case”.
What might have peeved the players from both sides is that the entire match wasn’t washed out; the first two days of the match didn’t see any rain during the hours of play, but both days didn’t have any action either – not even the toss – because of a very wet outfield that had put players’ safety under threat.
“We’re disappointed. We’d geared ourselves up, and we’d trained really well,” Trott said in particular about the first two days….
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