Rose Bowl downpour saves honour

It normally takes a hundred or so years before English sport fails to be a major influence in a game it invented but yesterday at the Rose Bowl the England cricket team were within five minutes of not being involved in the first international game of a form of cricket it created 12 months ago.

It normally takes a hundred or so years before English sport fails to be a major influence in a game it invented but yesterday at the Rose Bowl the England cricket team were within five minutes of not being involved in the first international game of a form of cricket it created 12 months ago.

England are to play Australia in international cricket's maiden Twenty20 match at this venue next summer but until the heavens opened for the fourth time over Hampshire's delightful new ground on the outskirts of Southampton it appeared New Zealand and the West Indies were about to steal this honour.

The toss had been made and the umpires were 20 metres onto the grass when another front of rain blew in and forced the third NatWest Series match of the summer to be abandoned. Before this season regulations stated that a 25-over game was the shortest which could be played in international cricket.

But following the success of Twenty20 cricket the International Cricket Council agreed to reduce this to 20 overs.

The fact that both of these teams had already qualified for tomorrow's final at Lord's made the result irrelevant but one had to feel sympathy for the 10,000 spectators who sat around until 4.30pm. They are entitled to a full refund and the insurance company with whom the England and Wales Cricket Board have a policy will have to pay out another £200,000.