Sydney: Cricket Australia CEO Todd Greenberg acknowledged the disappointment of fans after play on Day 1 of the fifth and final Ashes Test was cut short due to poor light and bad weather, saying he shares their frustration and wants the issue addressed at a global level.
Action was stopped at 2:55 pm (local time) before the day was eventually abandoned around 5 pm following rain and lightning. Speaking ahead of Day 2, Greenberg said the situation was particularly deflating given the circumstances.
“I share your frustration. There’s a lot of things that I get frustrated with in cricket but bad light’s one of them. Yesterday, maybe more so than ever with a full house and millions watching on TV,” Greenberg told SEN Cricket.
While acknowledging player concerns about visibility, Greenberg made it clear he believes the sport needs to find better solutions to avoid losing playing time.
“I sort of caution against the remarks of players who said they couldn’t pick the ball up and it was really dark and those sorts of things, but I get frustrated that we don’t have a solution to this problem. I’m always sort of mindful of being critical on issues where I don’t have the solution either, but we’ve got to find a better way in cricket… where we try not to come off the field when it’s bad light and show a greater willingness and intent to get back on,” he added.
Greenberg admitted he does not yet have a straightforward fix but stressed his intention to push for progress within the sport’s governing structures.
“I don’t have the answer for you this morning, but what you can take from my comments is a desire to push at the global level of how we get better at these things, because it felt like it wasn’t good enough. I have talked about this a bit over the years, the nuance of cricket and some of the strange and archaic rules that sit within the sport, and I’m sure there’s conversations that can be had about how we can be slightly more progressive.”
Emphasising cricket’s responsibility to its audience, Greenberg highlighted the need to balance entertainment with player safety.
“I sound like a broken record, but we’re in the entertainment business, and so I can’t think of another business that continues to walk off in front of its fans. I preface that by saying that it has to be safe for the players, clearly, but we’ve got big light towers here and we’ve got technology, I’m sure there’s a way we can make our way through it. I felt like there was more cricket to be played yesterday.”
While the interruption disappointed spectators, it arguably worked in Australia’s favour, with Joe Root and Harry Brook finishing the day unbeaten in the 70s. To recover the lost time, play for the remainder of the Test will start 30 minutes earlier each day.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
