Two days before the much-anticipated India vs Pakistan fixutre, the ICC had reasons to be worried. Manchester received heavy showers, the pitch was under the hover cover, while the rest of the square was covered by sheets. Not entirely promising, this World Cup has already seen four washouts, and the ICC would desperately hope they get a game on Sunday. (Complete coverage of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019)
Few hours later, sun peaked and then things started looking much brighter. The groundstaff swung into action, ensuring no water slips through and alters the pitch. It has rained every day this week in Manchester and yet, the pitch looked bare and dry, which is great work done by the curator and the support staff.
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The forecast is quite positive on Sunday, there are light showers expected towards late afternoon. As per the weather forecasting website, Accuweather, a light shower is predicted between 12 PM local time and 1 PM local time in Manchester on Sunday. The match begins at 10:30 AM local time, hence, we might see an on-time start.
Also, as per Accuweather, conditions will be overcast right through the day and there will be brief spells of shower as the day progresses.
The ICC has been under fire for not having reserve days for the marquee event. However, Chief Executive David Richardson made it clear that having something like that in the group stages would have been a logistical nightmare.
“This is extremely unseasonal weather. In the last couple of days, we have experienced more than twice the average monthly rainfall for June which is usually the third driest month in the UK. In 2018, there was just 2 mm of rain in June but the last 24 hours alone has seen around 100 mm rainfall in the south-east of England.
“When a match is affected by weather conditions, the venue team works closely with match officials and ground staff to ensure that we have the best possible opportunity to play cricket, even if it is a reduced overs game,” Richardson had said on Tuesday.
First Published:
Jun 15, 2019 10:06 IST
Source: HindustanTimes