Welsh Fire were denied a shot at a place in the women's Hundred final as their eliminator against Northern Superchargers was abandoned due to bad weather at the Kia Oval on Saturday; Nasser Hussain and James Anderson called for the need for more flexibility.
Saturday 26 August 2023 18:17, UK
Do playing conditions in English domestic cricket need to become more flexible?
A familiar topic of debate returned to the fore on Saturday as Welsh Fire missed out on a spot in the women's Hundred final after seeing their eliminator against Northern Superchargers abandoned 75 balls into their already-truncated innings.
Tammy Beaumont's side were 104-2 when the players were forced to leave the field due to an incoming storm, the match eventually being abandoned in order to allow for time for the subsequent men's eliminator.
It meant Northern Superchargers would advance automatically by way of finishing second in the table, above third-placed Fire.
Nasser Hussain, James Anderson, Alex Hartley and Kate Cross believe playing conditions might need to be addressed in light of the regular threat of poor weather conditions.
"When we've gone through three-and-a-half weeks we want to finish it properly. There needs to be some flexibility in playing conditions, in the middle of a storm, they can see what's coming over and they stop for a strategic timeout, I'm not stopping for a strategic timeout in a storm. I'm even staying on or getting off in the pavilion.
"The crowd have waited patiently for a delayed start, the batting side are getting in some rhythm, you can see a storm coming, either stay on or go off.
"We get a lot of weather and rain in England in our game, I think we need to move on and get a bit more flexible with playing conditions.
"It's nothing to do with the umpires, they have to go with the laws of the game and the playing conditions specific to the competition, so this competition will have different playing conditions to the Blast, different from international cricket, that has to be set by the ECB.
"What happens is when you get to the knockout stages you say 'we've got a different set of playing conditions and that they are we will do everything to get those two games on'.
"I think it would be ludicrous if the men get the full game after this is called off, in an eliminator, when you've been through the whole thing and you've got a final waiting. I'd say to the ECB, get 25 balls in of this run chase if you can and make up time later."
"There is that (flexibility) and then something that doesn't get associated often with cricket which is common sense.
"We do shoot ourselves in the foot a lot. We know what the forecast is, to watch that strategic timeout and watch them stand there for five minutes while this weather came over and with the ground staff waiting with the covers was just ludicrous really.
"I think we need to use a bit of common sense."
"There's an allocation of time, that warm-up period, that rest period, maybe you could eat into that a little bit more.
"We'd be playing right now, if we had an extra half hour we'd be playing, we'd have a game, we'd have got a proper result.
"That's frustrating for me because there's time that can be eaten into.
"We started losing balls pretty quickly today, there's a big allotted amount of time I think you can eat into personally."
"I think it gets so complicated if you start buying into each other's time (the men and women's games), if it was a standalone fixture it wouldn't get spoken about, it's because there's a men's game after it.
"It just happens, as cricketers you understand weather has an effect on a game.
"We bowed out of a World Cup this way a couple of years ago and it's devastating but that's the rules.
"Maybe more will be spoken about it now because it's happened a few times."
Watch The Hundred live on Sky Sports or stream with NOW for £26 a month for 12 months.
