Rain Cricket World Cup!

By Vijay Krishna

New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) "...fyi the Cricket World Cup matches are being hosted in England and Wales and not in India. The plan was to ensure that there are no rains around venues during the tournament. Looks like you have got it all wrong. It is raining at the wrong places...," excerpts from the ICC letter to the Rain Gods that it never wrote.

Evidently, both the rain god and the ICC have botched up. This mistake is proving costly, rains are wreaking havoc. A case in point: the toss for the India vs New Zealand match (note the two teams will be facing each other for the first time in World Cup since the 2003) is already delayed and the chances are that the match might as well be called off. With high chances of rains, more Indian are praying to the weather god to abate than for the Team India's win.

"Subject: Dry Day Dear Lord Indra (Nottingham branch) You have been working over time the last few days. Please take the day off today. Yours Sincerely, An Indian Cricket fan," tweeted @gauravkapur.

The Indian media are hounding the 'benign' BCCI to take on the ICC over this mass desertion of Indian fans due to their poor planning. No attempts to contact the BCCI for their reactions were made though.

Beat this out of 18 matches so far, 5 (including today's fixture between India and New Zealand) matches have already been affected by the rains - 2 games have been abandoned, 1 is abandoned, 1 is shortened and the fate of the India Vs New Zealand match still hangs in the balance. This is already the highest number of games rained out ever during any World Cup tournaments.

The heavens opened in the wrong places and at the wrong times. The World Cup fever is failing to get a grip over the fans, cricket enthusiasts are resorting to odd practices like reading/watching the news to catch on the coverage of the match that never was.

Fortunately, Twitter is awash with 'behind-the-scene' stories and has kept everybody glued in. Since we have nothing to report on today's match yet, let's catch up on twitterati dubbing the ongoing world cup 'Rain Cricket World Cup':

• Rains seems to be playing more matches in England than actual teams: @varun067

• I've had it with all this rain. Who decided a @cricketworldcup in England was good idea? asked @AndrewGourdie via his tweet

• After the match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh was called off @imanojprabhakar tweeted: Sri Lanka won the toss elected to swim first.

• Genesis 7:12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights...Back then they called it disaster . In England, it is now known as the perfect World Cup Weather: @DennisCricket_(Dennis Match Abandoned)

• Worst country to play cricketin. Imagine travelling all the way and then it rains and you have to come back. Fuel. Dayoff. Etc. I'd pissed off before being pissed on by the rains: @Miru_zx

• 28 consecutive rain-free days here in Reykjavik. Other countries in Europe were available to host this World Cup. Just Saying. #CWC19: @icelandcricket.