This isn't my post but one posted on TEF by bluerinse, I'm absolutely on the same page though - it's beyond a joke.
bluerinse wrote...
'It really does piss me off all of this carry on with test cricket.
They were on TMS half an hour ago saying 'you can't blame the umpires, they want to get on with the game' - well you can, because how it works is the umpires set the bar with their light reading when they decide to take players off for bad light for the first time in the game and from there on, once the light dips below that they have to go off. That's the regulation. It's no longer up to the players like it used to be. The umpires control it and once they've made thier initial judgement call, it's regulatory that they go off.
And as per usual, they've been too cautious with their 'let's go off' reading and now you get this facrical situation.
And yet, I go back to the start of the day. Rain in the morning meant they couldn't start til 12.30p, so what do they do when that news comes in at 12pm? They say, it's lunch at 1.30pm for 40 minutes.
Why would it not cross their minds to take lunch there at 12, for 30 minutes or 40 if they really must, then get going? That's the logical thing to do, is it not? Let's kill this dead time by taking lunch and then we'll get as much cricket as we can for 3 hours until tea. It's simple common sense.
Usually they refuse to do this because of the corporates in the posh seats and their 5 star lunches being arranged for 1pm. That's not the case here. There's not a single spectator in the ground. It's just old habits and sheer refusal to do what makes sense.
And another one they flat out refuse to do in this country is start early. They know in England if it's cloudy you're finished at 5.30pm, but they stupidly tack on any extra play to make up lost time at the end of the day. It's absolutely useless. Get them playing at 9.30am or 10am (as they routinely do in Asia where it gets dark with the click of fingers) and do intervals at the appropriate times throughout the day. Easy/.
The amount of time they waste due to their totally unwillingness to be sensible is an absolute farce. It does my head in - and I haven't even come onto the way they couldn't be slower at getting back on after an interuption.
And the kicker for me this summer is these are English umpires. They've all umpired here for years and years, lived here all their lives. They know what the wearher is like here, but they're giving the light at the first opportunity - it just comes off like they're lazy and can't be bothered standing out there.
It's awful. The umpires deserve a lot of the blame and so do the ICC. It's 2020 and they're going off in floodlit conditions. If cricket lovers don't get it, how can they attract new fans to the sport? It doesn't make sense. They insist on carrying on like it's 1950.'
