There's a lot of obvious chat about whether the Manchester weather diminishes Australia retaining the Ashes this year. It being affected Ashes we've also had people referring back to McGrath's freak injury in 2005. Some people like to put a proverbial asterisk against such series, as if the result doesn't quite count to the same extent as those of other series.
For me personally, weather and injuries are inescapable elements of cricket so wrong to make a fuss over them if they influence a result. However, it did get me thinking about what other series had been adversely impacted in ways that they probably shouldn't have.
The one that stuck in my mind was England's tour to Pakistan in 2005, often heralded as the beginning of the end of Fletcher's era. Yet we started that tour really well, amassing a sizeable first innings lead in Multan before collapsing chatting a modest target. That match was also Shabbir Ahmed's last international because he was quickly reported for a suspect action afterwards, but too late to negate his important contribution of 5/79 in the test. Pakistan then went on to thump up is in the third test and win the series 2-0. It's not easy to postulate a what-if but it's not unimaginable that England would've won that match had he not played and then, who knows?
What are other's examples of matches or series that were inadvertently affected in a way that shouldn't have happened? [Yes, we all know about WCF 2019]
For me personally, weather and injuries are inescapable elements of cricket so wrong to make a fuss over them if they influence a result. However, it did get me thinking about what other series had been adversely impacted in ways that they probably shouldn't have.
The one that stuck in my mind was England's tour to Pakistan in 2005, often heralded as the beginning of the end of Fletcher's era. Yet we started that tour really well, amassing a sizeable first innings lead in Multan before collapsing chatting a modest target. That match was also Shabbir Ahmed's last international because he was quickly reported for a suspect action afterwards, but too late to negate his important contribution of 5/79 in the test. Pakistan then went on to thump up is in the third test and win the series 2-0. It's not easy to postulate a what-if but it's not unimaginable that England would've won that match had he not played and then, who knows?
What are other's examples of matches or series that were inadvertently affected in a way that shouldn't have happened? [Yes, we all know about WCF 2019]
