Tackling cricket’s rain monster
The joke about England is that the two surest ways to bring in rain is to either put up three long sticks, each at both ends of a 22-yard patch, in the centre of a circular ground, or just draw a net in the middle of an utterly green lawn. In both cases, the skies are sure to open up.
It is quite another matter, though, that the joke has proved time and again how real it is and that England's sport terrorist is not a man in a mask but the rain, which keeps coming down at it without one. Who can forget the number of hours, matches and man-days washed away, both at Wimbledon as also in cricket grounds all around the country. None other than Rafael Nadal will tell you how frustrated he got when his now infamous and ill-tempered match against that man Soderling at Wimbledon in 2008 stretched for an entire four days due to rain interruptions.
And such has been the quantum of time loss that the doggedly traditional organisers of the Wimbledon Tennis tournament have now been forced to erect a plastic raincoat over Centre Court at costs that would defy imagination.
Back in the arena of cricket, the highest spend has been on installing drainage facilities at its premier stadiums, be it Lord's, The Oval or the Trent Bridge Ground. Of course the game is far, far away from playing under a rain dome but the ground beneath has been sorted out as far as the puddle monster is concerned.
As Derek Brewer, chief executive of the Trent Bridge Cricket ground said: "The County has spent 600,000 pounds on laying a state-of-the-art drainage system here." The job, of course, started after the 2007 Test match against India at this ground, which hit a deep puddle around the ropes, forcing the match to be abandoned. Today, "it takes just one hour to soak in one and a half inch of rain," he points out.
The entire system is computerised and has its control buttons in the groundsman's office. During the installing of the system the entire green turf was peeled off to insert gravel as its second surface, as that has high soaking capabilities as compared to clay on which natural growth otherwise happens in England.
Other than this, a close look will tell you how the entire outfield has been vertically slit like cake pieces for speedy drainage "besides keeping the entire arena porous enough to drain but at the same time not dry the outfield," says Brewer. Just the other day, it rained one and a half inch before Bangladesh were to play India. "It took us just an hour to bring the teams in and kick off the match," Brewer pointed out with pride.
As for the non-penetrable and tarpaulin pitch hood that you see on your screens just before a match is about to start in the T20 World Cup, it cost the authorities 100,000 pounds.
Unlike China, where the Olympics obsessed Communists tried their ultimate form of power curbs by blowing away the clouds with awesome technology amounting to flying in fighter planes with massive blowers in the sky and giving contraceptive pills to abort laden clouds, the English have shown a more grounded behaviour. At Lord's where rain puddles have been given a place of pride ever since the Marylebone Cricket Club acquired the ground in 1814, a tradition defying drainage system was finally put in place in 2002 at a cost of 1.25 million pounds, making it the best rain fighter in the world thus far.
And as grand as every little movement at Lord's becomes at the drop of, well, a hat, the drainage-laying too came with media moments. As work started in the Christmas 2002, the original turf was peeled off to rid it of the infamous London clay, which makes it impossible for water to drain away.
The green patches were then sliced up and sold off to fans and the entire money thus raised (38,000 pounds) donated to the MCC Foundation for funding youth sport in have-not British pockets.
The contractors had to dig as deep as 800mm to lay a network of pipes, steel water canons and gravel, not to mention the acupuncturing of the entire field to get the rain job done as quickly as possible. The one at Trent, done up by local contractor Steven Pask, is similar in design to Lord's though a level lower in hi-tech skill, despite the fact that it took nine months to be completed.
Of course, Oval is the poorest of cousins when it comes to drainage facilities, though the ECB has not been partisan to them and have given a Trent-like 600,000 pound grant for a verti-drain system. However, Yorkshire cricket's boss Stewart Regan has on many earlier occasions insisted that Oval is as fit as Lord's, but for the over a million pounds Rolls Royce drainage system, which makes the Home of Cricket unique in the world.
It is quite another matter, though, that the joke has proved time and again how real it is and that England's sport terrorist is not a man in a mask but the rain, which keeps coming down at it without one. Who can forget the number of hours, matches and man-days washed away, both at Wimbledon as also in cricket grounds all around the country. None other than Rafael Nadal will tell you how frustrated he got when his now infamous and ill-tempered match against that man Soderling at Wimbledon in 2008 stretched for an entire four days due to rain interruptions.
And such has been the quantum of time loss that the doggedly traditional organisers of the Wimbledon Tennis tournament have now been forced to erect a plastic raincoat over Centre Court at costs that would defy imagination.
Back in the arena of cricket, the highest spend has been on installing drainage facilities at its premier stadiums, be it Lord's, The Oval or the Trent Bridge Ground. Of course the game is far, far away from playing under a rain dome but the ground beneath has been sorted out as far as the puddle monster is concerned.
As Derek Brewer, chief executive of the Trent Bridge Cricket ground said: "The County has spent 600,000 pounds on laying a state-of-the-art drainage system here." The job, of course, started after the 2007 Test match against India at this ground, which hit a deep puddle around the ropes, forcing the match to be abandoned. Today, "it takes just one hour to soak in one and a half inch of rain," he points out.
The entire system is computerised and has its control buttons in the groundsman's office. During the installing of the system the entire green turf was peeled off to insert gravel as its second surface, as that has high soaking capabilities as compared to clay on which natural growth otherwise happens in England.
Other than this, a close look will tell you how the entire outfield has been vertically slit like cake pieces for speedy drainage "besides keeping the entire arena porous enough to drain but at the same time not dry the outfield," says Brewer. Just the other day, it rained one and a half inch before Bangladesh were to play India. "It took us just an hour to bring the teams in and kick off the match," Brewer pointed out with pride.
As for the non-penetrable and tarpaulin pitch hood that you see on your screens just before a match is about to start in the T20 World Cup, it cost the authorities 100,000 pounds.
Unlike China, where the Olympics obsessed Communists tried their ultimate form of power curbs by blowing away the clouds with awesome technology amounting to flying in fighter planes with massive blowers in the sky and giving contraceptive pills to abort laden clouds, the English have shown a more grounded behaviour. At Lord's where rain puddles have been given a place of pride ever since the Marylebone Cricket Club acquired the ground in 1814, a tradition defying drainage system was finally put in place in 2002 at a cost of 1.25 million pounds, making it the best rain fighter in the world thus far.
And as grand as every little movement at Lord's becomes at the drop of, well, a hat, the drainage-laying too came with media moments. As work started in the Christmas 2002, the original turf was peeled off to rid it of the infamous London clay, which makes it impossible for water to drain away.
The green patches were then sliced up and sold off to fans and the entire money thus raised (38,000 pounds) donated to the MCC Foundation for funding youth sport in have-not British pockets.
The contractors had to dig as deep as 800mm to lay a network of pipes, steel water canons and gravel, not to mention the acupuncturing of the entire field to get the rain job done as quickly as possible. The one at Trent, done up by local contractor Steven Pask, is similar in design to Lord's though a level lower in hi-tech skill, despite the fact that it took nine months to be completed.
Of course, Oval is the poorest of cousins when it comes to drainage facilities, though the ECB has not been partisan to them and have given a Trent-like 600,000 pound grant for a verti-drain system. However, Yorkshire cricket's boss Stewart Regan has on many earlier occasions insisted that Oval is as fit as Lord's, but for the over a million pounds Rolls Royce drainage system, which makes the Home of Cricket unique in the world.
Publish June 11, 2009, Sunday Pioneer, http://www.dailypioneer.com/182150/Tackling-cricket’s-rain-monster.html
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