"Look how long it takes to get a game of cricket started. It's not good enough. Get those covers off!"
Sunday 16 August 2020 07:27, UK
Nasser Hussain hit out at "a lack of effort" to resume play at the Ageas Bowl after the third day of the second Test between England and Pakistan was abandoned without a ball bowled.
Gloomy overhead conditions, combined with drizzle - rather than heavy rain - have meant only 86 overs have been bowled so far in the match, with the tourists reaching 223-9.
The Sky Sports pundit said: "I had sympathy for the umpires on day two, they were just following the letter of the law, but today there has been a lack of effort to get the game on.
"From where I am, I can see two people working on the ground. Imagine if this was Sri Lanka - how many people would be rushing around to get the covers off?
"For the amount of rain we have had in this game, to only have had 86 overs of cricket is disgraceful. The effort that's gone in to get this Test series on, to just not have any effort to get out there and play the game [is not right].
"We've had people in a bio-secure environment since the end of June - people staying in a bubble, people staying in a hotel on the ground, people not allowed to leave, people being tested twice a week.
"And look how long it takes to get a game of cricket started. It's not good enough. Get those covers off!"
Current ICC regulations state that only the two umpires can determine whether it is safe to play - and, once they have taken a light reading that is deemed too low, the match must be halted if conditions dip below that level again.
The inconsistency of those rules were underlined by the fact Pakistan's white-ball squad were involved in a warm-up match on the practice pitch adjoining the Ageas Bowl late on Friday, while the Test players remained in the dressing-room due to bad light.
Hussain also feels the generation he played in are partly to blame for a culture of reluctance among cricketers to continue in even slightly fading light, given the opportunity not to do so.
"We're all guilty of it, because of the amount we played," he added. "We played a three-day game, then a Test match, then another three-day game and another Test.
"Whenever the light got a bit marginal, we all played that game where we went to the umpires - tired umpires, who themselves wanted to go off - and we'd say 'the light's a bit dodgy' and we'd blink our eyes and say 'we're not seeing it that well'.
"Then we'd wander off and sit in the dressing-room. If I went to any workplace in the world and said at 4pm 'look, you can all go home if you want, you'll still get paid' - you'd take it.
"People have got into the mindset that if in doubt, we'll just wander off and I'm afraid our game cannot afford that any more. Our game is shooting itself in the foot if every time, you wander off when you can and don't restart when you can."
Fellow Sky Sports pundit Michael Atherton believes the rules governing bad light should be overridden at grounds which - like the Ageas Bowl - are floodlit.
"If you think back many years to before helmets came in, the bad light regulations were there for a reason - because of players' safety. Floodlights have come in as well and cricket is almost slow to catch up to the fact it's a different time.
"I think eventually what we'll get to in cricket is just a simple regulation that, where there's a ground with floodlights, bad light does not apply.
"At the moment bad light is solely at the discretion of the umpires. They take a reading, then that reading is the benchmark for the rest of the game and that's where we're a bit hamstrung now."
Shane Warne sees a possible solution in the use of a pink ball as standard for Test cricket, which might help to negate poor light.
"There has been so much hard work to get the cricket on and players have given up their time," said Warne.
"I don't think the light is dangerous but I think we could help it with the pink ball so that when it does get dark we can play.
"It is hard to see a dark red ball. I don't think you would have as many dark days with a pink ball, plus it does a bit more and seems to swing."
Watch day four of the second #raisethebat Test between England and Pakistan, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10.30am, Sunday.
