What's a little rain?

You have to love cricket people and the lengths they will go to make it possible for the game to go ahead.

This week at the Switch Schools SA20 finals I watched the ground staff and officials spend an hour and half getting the wicket at the Tuks Oval to a state where a shortened game could take place. And just as the players were taking the field, the heavens really opened and everyone rushed to put the covers back on. Half an hour later the rain stopped and they took the covers off again, under the most ominous skies since the great flood.

They went back out again but the game was eventually abandoned after a few overs were bowled, when the rain came back again and time ran out.

The scenes were repeated the next day. In that case there were enough overs bowled for a result to be declared according to the Duckworth-Lewis method. It was interesting to see that, when the rain came back near the end and it was clear that it was all over, the fielding players took off to fetch the rain covers, followed closely by the batting team - leaving the dry of the clubhouse. It was instant and instinctive, it's a lesson cricketers are taught at their schools: when your game’s over you cover the pitch so that someone else can play on it tomorrow.

That finalists in the boys and girls sections were identified at the end of that rain-soaked week was testament to the determination that there must be play, if it's in any way possibe.

You have to love cricket people.