England cricket board was forced to defend the scheduling of their ongoing tour of Sri Lanka. Their opening warm-up game was affected by rain while the second was washed out.
Then the first ODI was forced to be abandoned due to rain while the second and third ODIs were rain-reduced affairs as well. Anticipating criticism over the schedule, England board stated they had no choice but to play during this period.
“In respect of touring Sri Lanka at this time of year: The Future Tours Programme is congested involving 13 boards whose schedules all interconnect, so there are unfortunately a number of tours that have to take place outside prime match-staging periods,” the board said.
“After hosting England, Sri Lanka spend the rest of the 18-19 season touring New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. They play their first match in New Zealand on Dec 8, which left very little wriggle room given our final Test in Sri Lanka finishes on Nov 29.”
A cursory look at matches in Sri Lanka over the October-November stretch would have made it clear that day-night cricket is next to impossible during this time, as it almost always rains at night during what is termed the inter-monsoonal period.
The 2002-03 Champions Trophy was shared between India and Sri Lanka as rain washed out the final twice. It was held in September.
Two ODIs and a T20 were rained off during New Zealand’s tour to the country in October-November 2012. Rain again affected all three ODIs during New Zealand’s next tour to the country in November 2013, with one game called off.
Hosting matches during the day when it is generally clear and having reserve days for all matches is one way to tackle the issue if limited overs matches have to played in Sri Lanka in October-November. But it wasn’t done this time and both teams are being forced to play a stop-start series.
