No more rough weather for the Indian team

It seems that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) could soon be playing a major role in deciding the itinerary and schedule of cricket tournaments in India and other countries in the Indian subcontinent.

The President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Sharad Pawar who also happens to be a Union Minister in the Indian government has agreed to a suggestion from Kapil Sibal, his cabinet colleague and Science and Technology Minister. Sibal had suggested that the BCCI could get weather forecast from the IMD before deciding on the venues and timings for cricket tournaments.

The suggestion was made following a presentation by the IMD last week on what kind of weather condition could be expected in Bangladesh during the on-going Bangladesh-India series.

In the presentation, it was mentioned that the series could have been avoided, as the climate of Bangladesh is generally quite warm and humid during May, with more than 60 per cent probability of occurrence of moderate to severe thunderstorm activity on most days.

This has already happened as the first one dayer on May 10 was interrupted at the very start of the match, restricting it to 47 overs a side. The second ODI on May 12 was again interrupted by rain, and this time, it was made a 49 overs a side match.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Sibal said that there were indications of Dhaka and Chittagong continuing to be affected by light to moderate rainfall activity, accompanied by thundershowers during the next five days, and consequently the third ODI on May 15 could be interrupted as well.

The Minister further said he would soon have detailed discussions with Mr. Pawar. "Cricket is such a popular game. Not only the players, but the spectators could also benefit a lot if weather experts were consulted at the time of fixing the itineraries.'"

Sibal said that he would offer a permanent arrangement so that whenever the BCCI has to fix the itinerary of a tournament, the IMD could provide proper weather inputs and if needed, there could even be a permanent representative of the IMD on the Board to provide guidance on a continuous basis.