England Cricket / Frank Gregan / 21 June 2011 /

England have won another Test series, a decent crop of young players are on their way through and the future looks bright. Except for the weather. Frank Gregan considers possible solutions.

English summer is a fantastic time, a beautiful blue sky playing host to puffy crème fraiche clouds as the barbecue smells waft over the fence from next door's garden. The shorts are dug out of the wardrobe, suntan lotion is liberally applied and a good time is had by all. Sadly, the English summer is a brief affair, it usually happens on a Tuesday or Wednesday in late May and the rest of the time it piddles down!

That makes it very difficult to play Test cricket and, given we're now in the 21st century and have the Umpire Decision Referral System, the glitz and glamour of Twenty20 and have finally realised that the Aussies are not super-human, surely we can come up with a solution to playing cricket in the rain?

Something has to be done. Nobody in their right mind would book a day off work, incur the wrath of the Local Education Authority by taking their son or daughter out of school during term time to go and watch a Test match, knowing the day might be spent eating soggy sandwiches and watching the bottom of an umbrella.

Covered stadiums seem the obvious answer. Even the last bastion of tradition - Wimbledon - elected to go down that path a few years ago. We've got Sir Cliff Richard to thank for that, rain delays are just about bearable but having to put up with his singing as it lashes down is too much for even the most hardy tennis fan.

Stadiums with retractable roofs have been a feature of Major League Baseball for many years. A little bit like plastic soccer pitches, they haven't been everyone's cup of tea but they do enable play when the heavens open or a period of sustained rain is forecast. We're talking about some big stadiums here with capacities around the 50,000 mark and let's not forget the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff can also give inclement weather a one fingered salute and close its roof.

Anyone who has visited the Rose Bowl where England have been in action this week will tell you that it's not exactly the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It's a lovely little stadium but the key word here is little, it has a capacity of only 25,000. Okay, the playing area has to be covered and that's going to need some serious construction, you couldn't browse through Southampton's local directory and get a Man with a Van and a very big toolbox to do the job, it would need significant investment.

Would it be worth it? Erm....probably not, at least not now. It would have to have been factored in during the initial construction citing the ability to hold Test and One Day Internationals in any weather as a unique selling point and justification for the extra expenditure.

Next up for England is the one and only Twenty20 and then a five game One Day series against the Sri Lankans which will once again be at the mercy of the weather. The market has yet to be formed but this new crop of Sri Lankans will be much better suited to one day formats in English conditions. Every contest will start as 'anybody's game' so if odds of [2.3] or better are up for grabs on Sri Lanka winning any of the one day contests don't be put off by the big price.

As for the future, any new cricket stadium should seriously look at a retractable roof. In the meantime, England could follow the lead of Pakistan and the IPL who have recently had to export their game due to internal problems. How about one English 'home' game a summer in the Caribbean? Barbados would be nice. Imagine that conversation, "Honey, you've no objections if I go with a few mates and watch an England home Test this summer have you?"

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