Seven weeks after a New Road fixture was last hit by a summer flood, Neil Armstrong stepped from his lunar module to take his “giant leap for mankind”. The technology may exist to put a man on the moon, but it has not yet been found to make play possible at Worcester six days after the incursions of the Severn.
In 1969, the club transferred their game with Middlesex to Dudley. This time, Mark Newton, the Worcestershire chief executive, opted to attempt to play - a decision, he admits, that was “greeted with incredulity” by his club’s committee, though it was soon prepared to back him. But no cricket proved possible against Kent on Sunday, and a single, ten-minute shower was enough to bring an immediate abandonment of the second day’s play at 11.35am.
Paul Millman, Kent’s chief executive, stressed that “we are not trying to be confrontational and sympathise with Worcestershire’s position”. But he has now put his disappointment that the game was staged at Worcester in writing to the ECB. Alan Fordham, the ECB’s operations manager (first-class) confirmed: “Kent have registered their concerns and we will address those as a matter of priority.” It is thought highly unlikely, however, that Kent’s request for the match to be re-scheduled can be accepted.
Fordham makes the point that if a ground authority expresses a belief that play will be possible, the ECB must accept it in good faith. “If we’d have taken a decision to tell a county to go elsewhere (Kidderminster was the alternative) it would have been completely without precedent.” Such an intervention would no doubt have been criticised as ECB high-handedness. More importantly, it would have opened the door to any amount of special pleading by counties with grievances of their own over the fitness of grounds.
But Carl Openshaw, Kent’s chairman, is keen to show that the Worcester debacle is not comparable with other fixtures affected by the elements. The first day of the Roses match in Manchester was also abandoned on Sunday after rain on earlier days but his researches have shown that all other Lancashire league games were similarly blighted. In contrast, all fixtures in the Birmingham League were fulfilled and a championship match could certainly have started in Kidderminster.
Advertisement
Robert Key, the Kent captain, said on Monday: “We thought we were coming here for a game. But even when I arrived on Saturday I knew there was no chance. The umpires [Richard Kettleborough and Martin Bodenham] and both sides agree it’s nowhere near fit though Worcestershire are prepared to play - but, obviously, they would be. We’re of the opinion that, after an hour, it’s going to be a bog and there is a very serious risk of injury.”
Key also cited “the health and safety issue” of playing on a ground so recently in contact with the dilute effluent contained in the floods. He was concerned about players applying spittle to the ball or being grazed when diving in the outfield. Newton insisted that local environmental health advisors had discounted these risks.
Newton’s abiding concern was always to ensure that the floodlit Pro40 league match on Friday, to be covered by Sky TV, would go ahead. He claims that, if the championship match had been transferred to Kidderminster, his staff would not have been available to complete preparations for a one-day match whose cancellation would cost the club “at least £80,000”. Newton added: “We are a business first and foremost. I will not back-track from that view.” With another short shower arriving at 3pm today, Tuesday’s play was already in doubt.