Fitness of the ground. I need a sounding board!

[Number 6]

I haven't posted here for ages, my apologies for that :-(

I need some opinions and possibly help.

Take this hypothetical scenario:

A recreational league game but at a fairly high level.

It's a nice day for cricket weatherwise but the previous few days have been wet. Water has crept under the covers at each end and the areas between the bowling and popping creases are damp and soft; too soft to give a decent footfall for the bowler's delivery stride and too soft for the batsmen to push off for a run securely.

Two fast bowlers do trial run ups and state quite audibly "i'm not bowling on that".

Both captains are very keen to play but in my opinion the creases are unsafe. My colleague is of the opinion that "it's not ideal" but won't go so far as to say it's unsafe. However we agree to postpone the start and check every half hour.

The game starts one and a half hours late after the creases have improved markedly though still not ideal in my opinion. At my end a fast bowler starts, his front foot slides and he exclaims "this is nutse!", has a mutter to his captain but carries on.

At the same end the batsmen politely tells me he can't push off for a run securely and points out the divot he's removed from the crease in doing so.

The game carries on to a result without incident or injury with the use of copious amounts of sawdust.

In my opinion I was correct to delay the start, if anything if it was up to me I would have delayed a little longer but felt a little pressured to get things moving.

What would everyone else have done in these circumstances?

If the captains really want to get the game going in the circumstances I described above should I defer to them? If I do and there is an injury where do I stand (legally I mean)?

[missingleg]

This is a very difficult scenario.

Fitness of the ground is, after all is said and done, a SUBJECTIVE OPINION. It's your opinion that counts and if you disagree with your colleague the status-quo remains. That's easier said than done when both captains and your colleague are keen to start but technically the captains have no say since the last law changes.

Legally speaking, I wouldn't be qualified to say but I'd with it being subjective it would be very difficult to prove liability (I hope you're insured as a member of ECB ACO by the way).

A couple of weeks ago we had multiple rain interruptions and within in the last hour both captains were keen to play out the no result (the rest of the game) in the very light drizzle so we did and it was absolutely fine.

Ground weather & light causes so much controversy because it's your opinion (of course don't go out when there's standing water...that would be disasterous)

[sillypoint]

I agree that it would be (you did say it was hypothetical) a difficult situation to handle. The series of decision you describe, however, seem logical enough and the situation played itself out satisfactorily.

I would just reiterate that under Law 3.8 and 3.9 there is now no role for the players in actually coming to any decision, but from a practical point of view you would be foolish not to take their views into account. I think the key to handling this is to make sure they are clear that you (and your colleague if you have one) are responsible for all decisions but that you are seeking their judgement to assist you—after all, some players and captains may have more experience than you, and, more particularly, they can give you a different perspective as they are the ones who actually have to run on the wet areas. After such consultations with players you can simply thank them for their input and say you will consider it when deciding what to do. The vital thing, though, is that with or without such consultation you should separate yourselves from everyone else when actually deciding; then you should go to the captains, preferably together (ie. two umpires and two captains), and inform them of your decision.

As to the matter of liability, as long as you know the Laws and any competition Rules and you act in accordance with these you are on pretty safe ground.