***Official*** West Indies in England

[superkingdave]

I don't know where you are from, but I am from about 10 miles away from Headingley and I have never known a sustained period of such sustained heavy rain as we have had over the past 2 weeks. It would be ridiculous to expect any sort of drainage system to be able to cope with the levels we have had.

To be fair the chief exec was saying it was fine last night and it was the downpours overnight & this morning that did for them. He also said problems associated with the delay in completion of the drainage system and talked about the drainage system bedding in and improving. I think he was torn between trying to blame the 'freak conditions' and promising 'this won't happen for the ashes' Either you can't promise that, or the drainage system isn't working properly yet. though Hoggy was apparently saying on tms that some of the pipes are connected yet.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Yeah that's fair enough. I haven't actually been to Headingley this season so I'm not up to date with all of the regeneration, but I'll take your word for it. How heavy was the rain this morning? Because in Ilkley it was going torrential for a good 3 hours.

 

[zaremba]

Apparently John Hampshire said that but for the new drainage system the outfield would have been under water.

Of course, the truth doesn't always make for a good media story, so what we'll read in the papers tomorrow will all be the usual horse shjt - "shambles", "disgrace", "ashes test in jeopardy" etc.

 

[superkingdave]

Yeah that's fair enough. I haven't actually been to Headingley this season so I'm not up to date with all of the regeneration, but I'll take your word for it. How heavy was the rain this morning? Because in Ilkley it was going torrential for a good 3 hours.

Was pretty heavy for a couple of hours, just seemed like a good downpour though nothing massive but it could have been localised i suppose as i hung around Leeds citty centre till midday.

Have to say i did suspect their could be problems with the outfield at headingly this year, they did not lay the turf on the outfield into april (i believe it was grown elsewhere) as you could see on the webcam at the time they played Lancs in preseason friendlies at OT it was still brown. They fitted a new drainage sytem at Old Trafford over the off season (and at several other grounds) but the work was done at the end of last season so everything was complete and they were able to monitor it over the winter rains and get it working properly.

 

[aussie]

Horses for courses, IMHO....

I can see this being the line-up for the Bangladesh visit. But I take your point for the tour of Australia. On that tour, I believe Nash should be at six, Bravo at seven, and Ramdin at eight.

Seen, well fair enough shotta..

 

[pasag]

Horses for courses, IMHO....

I can see this being the line-up for the Bangladesh visit. But I take your point for the tour of Australia. On that tour, I believe Nash should be at six, Bravo at seven, and Ramdin at eight.

Nash is going to be a massive story when WI tours here.

 

[shivfan]

I don't know where you are from, but I am from about 10 miles away from Headingley and I have never known a sustained period of such sustained heavy rain as we have had over the past 2 weeks. It would be ridiculous to expect any sort of drainage system to be able to cope with the levels we have had.

Maybe the ECB should get some advice from the people who built the new stadium at Sabina Park....

The drainage there is so good that it doesn't matter hw hard the rain is - and in the Caribbean, it can rain hard! - the ground can be properly drained, and fit to play very quickly. There was one Test where the WI players were in their hotel, and it was raining hard, so they decided not to go to the ground. But the rain stopped, the water drained off, and the umpires had to send an urgent message to the hotel to tell the WI players to hurry up and come to the ground!

Was that the Test against India? I find it hard to believe that England doesn't have a ground that has that kind of drainage....

 

[zaremba]

I find it hard to believe that England doesn't have a ground that has that kind of drainage....

Lord's has got pretty amazing drainage these days.

 

[rivera213]

Yeah but in fairness, that is pretty much the only 1.

There are some grounds which are prone to flooding and no amount of money spent on drainage will work.

Worcestershire for example.

I don't think people can blame Headingly for a piss down as insane as they received. Come the Ashes, I'm sure it'll be the 2nd most reliable ground to Lord's in that regard.

There was a comparison of Headingly to Viv's Stadium in the Sun today as expected. Gotta love our media!

 

[superkingdave]

Yeah but in fairness, that is pretty much the only 1.

There are some grounds which are prone to flooding and no amount of money spent on drainage will work.

Worcestershire for example.

I don't think people can blame Headingly for a piss down as insane as they received. Come the Ashes, I'm sure it'll be the 2nd most reliable ground to Lord's in that regard.

There was a comparison of Headingly to Viv's Stadium in the Sun today as expected. Gotta love our media!

The thing i don't understand is one the one hand people are saying you can't blame Headingley given the downpour...then on the other hand they are saying it'll all be fine for the Ashes.

There were several(6 iirc) grounds fitted with essentially the same drainage system over the winter(essentially a poor man's lords system). The difference is Headingley didn't get theirs done on time so the system isn't working properly yet.


I mean we have guys trying to defend Headingly by saying things like "You couldn't have played a game anywhere in the world and i don't accept the drainage system has not function properly" then next sentence saying "The reality is that drainage systems take time to be in and within two to three months of installation we will see the benefits of it....When we get into june we are confident we will have drainage working to full effect". You can't have it both ways.

I also found this comment from Stuart Regan laughable "Had we not done this drainage project this match would not have taken place at all... it would have been called off hours ago." Newsflash Stewart...the match didn't take place at all, and if it been called off hours before, we could have all gone home and not wasted a whole day hanging around.

I wasn't really that dissapointed cos i had a good day in the pub and now have free tickets to another couple of games despite getting my money back, but I never one to miss a chance to laugh at Yorkshire.

 

[zaremba]

I mean we have guys trying to defend Headingly by saying things like "You couldn't have played a game anywhere in the world and i don't accept the drainage system has not function properly" then next sentence saying "The reality is that drainage systems take time to be in and within two to three months of installation we will see the benefits of it....When we get into june we are confident we will have drainage working to full effect". You can't have it both ways.

1. It's better already than it was before the new system was installed.

2. It'll get better still when it's had the chance to bed in.

3. The Ashes Test should be fine - or at least the chances of it being fine are much higher than they were in previous years.

I'm only going by what I've heard - this may all be bollocks - but I don't see any inconsistency in it.

 

[superkingdave]

1. It's better already than it was before the new system was installed.

2. It'll get better still when it's had the chance to bed in.

3. The Ashes Test should be fine - or at least the chances of it being fine are much higher than they were in previous years.

I'm only going by what I've heard - this may all be bollocks - but I don't see any inconsistency in it.

Hey that's fine, it will be all well and good come the ashes, but it isn't now, and there are other grounds that could have hosted the match that have fully functiional drainage systems because they fitted them in time. Apparently they couldn't perform a verti drain because the turf has only been laid recently so they were worried about pulling it up.

The inconsistency as i see it is claiming nothing could be done about it, then practically in the same breath stating that the drainage system isn't fully functional.

 

[zaremba]

Hey that's fine, it will be all well and good come the ashes, but it isn't now, and there are other grounds that could have hosted the match that have fully functiional drainage systems because they fitted them in time. Apparently they couldn't perform a verti drain because the turf has only been laid recently so they were worried about pulling it up.

The inconsistency as i see it is claiming nothing could be done about it, then practically in the same breath stating that the drainage system isn't fully functional.

I see what you mean. But would we be complaining if they hadn't put in a new drainage system? The thing is, this system is already an improvement on the old Headingley outfield.

 

[superkingdave]

I see what you mean. But would we be complaining if they hadn't put in a new drainage system? The thing is, this system is already an improvement on the old Headingley outfield.

I don't have a problem with them putting in a new drainage system, but to give them a game this early with the double wammy of a drainage system which hasn't been bedded in and the early season weather was perhaps asking for trouble. TBF to Yorkshire though, and surprisingly, they've had a few ODI's in May before and none of them have been rain affected.

 

[GIMH]

I don't have a problem with them putting in a new drainage system, but to give them a game this early with the double wammy of a drainage system which hasn't been bedded in and the early season weather was perhaps asking for trouble. TBF to Yorkshire though, and surprisingly, they've had a few ODI's in May before and none of them have been rain affected.

Not a phrase I expect to read from dav!

 

[Uppercut]

It's official- Eoin Morgan has been stolen.

And ftr, i hope he does really, really well.

 

[superkingdave]

England win the toss and bowl first, having pizza for breakfast, all good.

 

[roseboy64]

England team
AJ Strauss, RS Bopara, OA Shah, EJG Morgan, PD Collingwood, MJ Prior, AD Mascarenhas, SCJ Broad, GP Swann, TT Bresnan, JM Anderson

West Indies team
CH Gayle, LMP Simmons, RR Sarwan, S Chanderpaul, KA Pollard, DJ Bravo, D Ramdin, DJG Sammy, JE Taylor, SJ Benn, R Rampaul

 

[KiWiNiNjA]

It's official- Eoin Morgan has been stolen.

How does that work, btw?

 

[King Pietersen]

The ball's swinging around, so they give the new ball to Broad, doesn't really make sense. Broads a very good ODi bowler, but if it's swinging then surely Bresnan, a swing bowler, should get the new ball?