Scheduling goofup leaves series at 1-1

As a result of another scheduling screwup by the BCCI, the third match of the India-South Africa one-day series at Chennai was abandoned due to rain. Rains had recently played havoc with Tamil Nadu and thundershowers over the past couple of days meant that the ground was in no condition for a game to be held. Intermittent showers in the morning effectively scuppered any hope for a truncated game.

Given that the North-East monsoon brings rain to the-city-formerly-known-as-Madras and that historically, there is reasonably heavy rainfall in October and November, it was stupid of the BCCI to allot a game to the venue during this time of the year. Among the nine tests at the Chidambaram Stadium which have ended in draws, the only ones where an entire day's play was lost due to rain were the ones conducted in the last week of November, the last week of October and mid-October.

In 2003, the opening game between India and New Zealand, part of the TVS Cup one-day triangular, was washed out halfway through the Indian innings. The washout was dangerous to both sides because the third side was Australia. Obviously India and New Zealand were banking on notching up as many wins as possible against the other rather in a bid to make it to the final where Australia would invariably waiting for them.

Last year, India were left chasing 229 to get against Australia in the last innings to square the series after Kumble had bowled beautifully on the first and fourth days amidst the first of Gillespie's many "pain in the arse" acts with the bat. Sehwag's blitz in the last over of the fourth day, bowled by McGrath, left India with 210 runs to get with ten wickets in hand on a decent wicket which was always going to help the bowlers on the final day. That the game ended in a draw, with no play on day five, really pained me because Australia effectively got out of jail. I then wrote about Duckworth-Lewis rules for test matches or changing the format of test matches in order to ensure the maximum possible play.

Perhaps, as I wondered about last year, the scheduling system needs to revert to tradition, which would mean games in Madras during Pongal, matches in Calcutta around the end of the year etc.

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