West Indies v England, Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad

Rain Starts Play

The big question coming into this one day international was whether His Excellency Brian Charles Lara, King of Trinidad would announce himself fit o play. Certainly the locals hoped so. Especially as Lara had played in a charity golf match during the week, drawing criticism from some quarters.

The game began late and was reduced to 46 overs per side due to the fact that rain had been falling for the preceding two days and the covers that had been used were minimal. There had also been no sign of a super-sopper, water-hog, whale or whatever you want to call a water removal machine. Sitting around hoping the ground would drain had seemed to be the Trinidadian method of things.

So, a late start and a full house. The music in the Trini Posse stand belted out between overs and when Anderson took the wicket of Gayle, well caught at point by Collingwood and the score became 34 for two, the crescendo built as Lara was due to come in next.

But out toddled Ramnaresh Sarwan. Half of the crowd were still whooping with joy and shouting "Lara, Lara..." when he was half way to the crease. Soon people realized that Lara was obviously elsewhere and the mood turned to a mixture of disappointment and bemusement. I am informed that a group of girls in the Jeffrrey Stollmeyer Stand were still cheering the new batsman as Brian Lara even when he took a right handed guard. Doh!

My guess is that Lara, using his local knowledge, sussed out that the rain was coming very soon and decided not to bother, telling Sarwan that he should bat until it began to fall, or else.

Imagine if Lara had got out for a duck in front of his hometown fans after they had idolized him for getting the 400 in Antigua. They'd been printing T-shirts, building big sculptures, talking about naming the airport after him and carrying on with all sorts of equally ridiculous malarkey.

Lara got his wish and at 57 for two with 16 overs gone, the rains came. And came. And came. They say the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. Well the rain in Port of Spain just falls bl**dy everywhere, especially on the Queens Park Oval.

The Trini Posse stand were undeterred. No cricket meant more music. Bodies moved to the blaring beat. Carib Girls were in there strutting their funky stuff, which was a pleasure to watch, as usual. Indeed many tongues were on the floor.

It wasn't long before the drinking and high spirits in the stands led to some people having a little run around the outfield. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on which way you look at it) much of the outfield had become a lake, which led to some revelers diving into the 6 inch deep water, pretending to swim, splashing each other as well as doing host of equally amusing things. Even the groundsman's wheelbarrow was commandeered for a bit of playful sillyness.

The P.A. announcer tried his best to get the intruders off the field, but telling people they would be ejected from the ground and not allowed back in again was plain ridiculous. With this amount of water on the outfield there was no way play would begin again today anyway. It appeared that no police or stadium stewards could be coaxed out into the pouring rain to assist in removing the harmless buffoons, so the harmless bufoonery continued.

The game was officially called off at around 3pm and the party continued in the local pubs and bars.

"Never mind, there's always tomorrow" seemed to be the general consensus.

3rd ODI. West Indies v England. Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Deja Plu.

In the morning, the outfield was still wet from the day before, but again there was no sign of a super-sopper. It was obvious that any further significant amount of rain would mean no play at all.

There were a couple of inspections by the umpires, but it started raining again around midday and play was called off soon afterwards.

This was a shame, but if the West Indians and the Brits have one thing in common, it's their ability to enjoy themselves, whatever the situation.

More beer was drunk and locals and visitors mixed freely and talked about cricket, culture and politics long into the night.

Some then went to Brian Lara's party and some off to bed, exhausted by the energies that have to be expended when it rains.