England in the West Indies

[An Tarbh]

Rain has already stopped play, not sure what these showers will do for the condition of the outfield which is pretty shabby to say the least by the looks of things.

 

[An Tarbh]

this is descending into an absolute farce, we'd be better off going back to the Recreation Ground at this rate.

 

[An Tarbh]

and off they go, sand stops play.

 

[An Tarbh]

play is abandoned for the day now. It's absolutely crazy that this situation has been allowed to develop. They relaid the pitch after the test with Australia last year so surely they should have been able to sort this out before now.

 

[munross]

Haha this has to be the first time that this has happend,or has it happen before?

Time for some grass farming lol

 

[An Tarbh]

certainly nothing springs to mind over the state of the outfield. They had the farce in 98 but that was over the pitch. Nothing else springs to mind

 

[An Tarbh]

good lord they haven't even told the fans that play is off for the day.

 

[An Tarbh]

not many options open here, they're saying it will take 3 days to move all the tv equipment to the Recreation Ground in the capital.

Back to back test matches in Barabdos is also a possibility but Michael Holding was saying it takes much longer for them to prepare a pitch in the West Indies than it does in England, so they may need to change the itinerary of the rest of the tour to accommodate that.

 

[munross]

Beach Test Cricket FTW.Still can't understand how they couldn't have known that the outfield would be as beachy as this...!

 

[An Tarbh]

this isn't intended as a pun but they seem to have stuck their heads in the sand over this, surely they knew in the buildup to this test that the outfield would be a serious problem. You've got to say the local cricket board have really screwed up monumentally, they should have had a contingency plan for the Recreation Ground knowing how bad the conditions really were.

 

[An Tarbh]

apparently the ground staff told the board in November that the ground wouldn't be ready for the test match. For the board to allow that to happen if it is true then they really should be taken to task.

 

[An Tarbh]

so there's a possibility of moving to St John and getting underway again on Sunday, although that strikes me as too soon in terms of getting everything ready, it really would require a herculean effort considering the amount of TV equipment that has to be moved as well as getting a pitch ready for test match cricket, obviously it's not going to be up to the highest standards but it can't be a dirt track either.

 

[An Tarbh]

apparently according to the Press Association this match will restart on Sunday. Now surely you can't restart a test match at another venue. It's a different pitch, today should be struck off the record and they have to start afresh on Sunday or whenever they do. The same teams shouldn't even have to be picked.

 

[An Tarbh]

given the short turnaround there'll be no referrals in the test on Sunday, so it looks like there'll be no hawkeye in the coverage then, it'll be just like watching cricket on the BBC

 

[Cymro]

Hahaha what a shambles! West Indies should be punished for this as well as the umpires who allowed this test to even start!

 

[An Tarbh]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Cymro @ Feb 13 2009, 11:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Hahaha what a shambles! West Indies should be punished for this as well as the umpires who allowed this test to even start![/b]

well they already tried their hardest last week to prove what idiots they truly were but the ICC obviously weren't buying it.

There's talk of the venue losing test status. Now if only there wasn't a prison at the ARG they wouldn't be in this mess.

 

[An Tarbh]

The match referee has declared the venue fit for test cricket, although Gayle seems to have reservations about the pitch and the outfield. As long as we don't get a repeat of those farcical scenes the other day it should be fine. Although there was one picture and it looked like there was a lot of sand in the outfield.

 

[An Tarbh]

start delayed due to a wet outfield of all things but they've got a drying agent on it and it should be ready to go only 45 minutes after the scheduled start.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

To quote Han Solo, "I got a bad feeling about this."

 

[An Tarbh]

well unfortunately since I was travelling back to Paris I didn't see anything but 301-3 after day 1 isn't bad at all. Any problems with the pitch or outfield?