May I request a later start to cricket season? (From Your Local Guardian)

May I request a later start to cricket season?

11:20am Friday 16th May 2008

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You could almost have predicted it. The Middlesex County League cricket season kicked off last weekend, with runs and wickets galore on a glorious weekend of sunshine.

But, come the start of the first Test of the summer, between England and New Zealand at Lord's, the covers are back on and hardy fans are seeking solace under their umbrella in the vain hope of play.

Rain and bad light marred last year's opener at St John's Wood, which featured the West Indies and ended in a draw - what price on that outcome 12 months on?

Legendary Australian quickie Jeff Thomson once said the weather at the start of the English cricket season was colder than his fridge in Queensland. Which begs the question: why do we bother with cricket before June?

Pitches at this time of year are not conducive to bombastic stroke play - unless you are Twickenham's Grant Hughes - and a sticky track hardly encourages the fast bowler to steam in. Which means you are left with a situation where the nudger and the trundler hold sway.

Thinking back through history, there aren't many medium pace bowlers or patient batsmen you would pay good money to see.

Former Aussie skipper Steve Waugh would fall into the latter, but you are struggling for options with the former. Mark Ealham anyone?

Last week's Blue Square South play-off final between Hampton & Richmond and Eastbourne Borough was played on a barmy evening in Hertfordshire.

With the football season ending in misery last week, it is ironic a fortnight of hot weather comes to an abrupt halt and spreads the gloom to the rest of the sporting calendar.

Teddington skipper Toby Bailey commented last week that the thought of travelling hundreds of miles to play, only to spend the afternoon sitting in the dressing room, meant another wet summer could tip him over the edge.

Even Twickenham's promotion last season was - by some - put down to the fact they had fewer games affected by rain.

Why do we put ourselves through it?

If sport wasn't unpredictable enough as it was, the heavens throw a spanner in the works time and again.

The Ashes arrive on these shores next summer. We live in hope.

Irrespective of the two teams - as one British writer once put it - the elements are cricket's presiding geniuses.