Chuck science at it

Yorkshire 282 all out
v Hampshire 222 all out
Yorkshire 143-2
close on Day 3

Friday 2 September 2016

County Championship Division 1

Played at The Ageas Bowl

Twitter @ball_sup

You can't do owt about the weather. It's England. It's September. Or any other month. It rains. Worry about what you can control.

As it happens, they were off for the light mainly. At a ground with floodlights.Yes I know. Part of me says we'll just have to live with where we are. Part of me says chuck some science at it. I've considered the problem.

Here are the must haves.

1. Floodlights which conform to a set standard. So that we never go off because the lights are shit. Maybe I'm crazy, but I assume we already have those.

2. Better worded regulations. All this enhancing the natural light bollocks. Say it like it is. Plain English. Then we'll all know what we're up against. If it's as simple as “even with the lights on, if, in the opinion of the Umpires the conditions for the players viewing the ball….” Then say that. The Umps choreograph the game. That's fine with us punters.

I've seen floodlit Pink Ball cricket in The Emirates. For the Red Ball, received wisdom is. Even with the lights on, there is a problem seeing the darkish Red Ball against a dark background. OK. But, what dark background? The sky? The seats? The punters? The grass? We need to be told.

Because one option is to flood whatever is too dark with more light. There, you can have that one for nowt. Of course that'll be expensive and/or impractical. But, again, let's at least know what we're up against.

I would like to see some science chucked at it. A light tunnel affair. Different shades of red/pink. Different luminosity. Some gizmo which measures how clear it would be to the naked eye. Put some metrics on it ffs.

Anyway. All that aside. Simple. You can't control the rain & light. One team has to find a way here.

365/773