If there’s one thing that club cricket excels at, it’s rules, regulations and calculations, occasionally to its detriment.

This is about light, leaf blowers and common sense.

Seeing the light

It’s not just the recreational game that can sometimes stray into a soap opera. Anyone who watched the third Test match at The Oval where Chris Woakes was asked, mid-over, to switch to spin because of bad light can rightly wonder if we’ve lost the plot.

Woakes, bowling line and length at a terrorising 80mph, was little trouble for the Sri Lankans and yet, to the amazement of all, he had to slow down (steady there, Chris). Next over? Gus Atkinson bowling 86mph at the other end.

Light, the measurement of it, and the impact on players and spectators has cropped up more than once this summer, to the puzzlement of many.

Safety is always at the forefront of any decision as it should be. But if we’re not careful, those who have forked out handsome sums are ignored because of reliable yet unhelpful metrics.

What’s the Bazball equivalent in cricket umpiring? Maybe not tearing up the rulebook but sometimes not getting it out in the first place.

In club cricket, I reported on the abandonment of a game due to the low position of the sun (which presumably doesn’t just sit there and refuse to budge).

I understand measuring the light as a yardstick by which to judge but everyone is there for a reason, having given up the day. Clubs have spent a load before a ball has been bowled, so within reason, let’s #GettheGameOn as the ECB once asked.

Speaking of hashtags.

#leafblowergate

Leaf blowers have been banned by the Aire-Wharfe Cricket League I discovered. If a pitch is wet, you now have to dry it with paper towels or blow really hard on the cut strip.

An alternative for any water that has snuck through the covers, as can happen, is to line up a row of thirsty dogs and have a canine drinking competition.

The thinking being, I guess, is that you could use a leaf blower (on turbo setting presumably) to transform a pitch at the interval from a seaming nightmare into a dusty road fit for batters to gorge on.

Like the incident at The Oval, it’s that removal of any interpretation on the day to make a sensible decision that everyone can agree on.

I know what you’re going to say… ah, but rules make it fair for all. But cricket isn’t as neat and uniform as that, is it? Unique circumstances crop up all of the time in weird and wonderful ways that sometimes regulations set in the 1800s (and not revisited since) don’t help but hinder.

In this case, it’s a new rule that might be adapted or withdrawn but it does seem a bit odd.

Rain and sawdust

With #leafblowergate (I’m leaving Twitter at the end of September so you can have that for free), the rule ignores some fairly obvious counter-arguments. It can rain at any time to change conditions, and not all new cricket ball behave the same way.

Then there’s sawdust added at any point during an innings that blows onto the pitch where the batter is taking guard. There was no controversy in Mark’s photo above (which is actually Darley vs Birstwith in the Nidderdale league before I get emails) – but I needed a ground pic.

But most of all, why use a leafblower? It’s to help dry a surface that needs it or remove debris like bits of mud. It can’t be less damaging than a rough scrub with a stiff brush surely?

Players switching between teams

Make a rule and someone somewhere will test it or cross it. Devious clubs have been known to stack lower teams with stronger players to influence games. Typically, there’ll be a league rule that a player can only play x number of games in one team or another.

I’m not saying it’s a daft regulation because otherwise you’d have all kinds of shenanigans but clubs can struggle to put out teams. They don’t tend do it to be dastardly (until the tail-end of the season when titles, promotion and relegation are at stake 😇).

First off, someone has to track all this. How many players have played for which teams all season across all divisions of every league in Yorkshire.

Good luck with that.

So, what you get are occasional punishments where it has come to light.

I’m not sure how I feel about a club losing points or being punished with a fine because a cricketer who plays for the 4th XI has had a few too many games for the 3rd XI.

I know, I know. Everyone has to abide by the same rules. Except that, and I don’t have a satisfying answer here, not all clubs are equal, are they? In finances, personnel, facilities, volunteers, you name it.

Just getting a team together can be tough through no particular fault of anyone.

Somehow we’ve supercharged the admin in league cricket and at times, things have become irrationally harsh and without compromise because of paragraph 14, sub-clause b, line 92.

Thanks for reading – Now, what do you think?

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Founder of Cricket Yorkshire, Author of Dales, Bails and Cricket Club Tales, All Wickets Great & Small and Last of the Summer Wickets.

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