Umpires unable to carry on

Steve Davis discusses the laws with Brendon McCullum

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Umpire Steve Davis admitted his hands were tied by International Cricket Council regulations after England’s second NatWest one-day international with New Zealand was abandoned because of the weather.

In a reduced match at Edgbaston, England were required to bowl just six more balls to enable a result to be calculated under the Duckworth-Lewis Method.

But Davis and fellow umpire Ian Gould took the players off the field as weather conditions deteriorated further.

The situation was made more frustrating by an earlier mandatory minimum 30-minute break between innings, when the players could have been out on the field.

Davis said: “At the end of the match the rain was too heavy and we had to be consistent. We couldn’t play in the the conditions early and we couldn’t play in it now.

“I can understand the crowd (frustration) but we we have to be consistent. We had two teams who struggled to stand up in slippery conditions and it was getting worse all the time.”

The match ended with New Zealand 127 for two from 19 overs in reply to England’s 162 from 24 overs.

When asked whether ‘common sense’ should have seen the last over bowled, or an overrule of the 30-minute regulation, Davis insisted he had no power to take such action.

The Australian added: “The number of balls left shouldn’t come into the decision. It was pretty bad out there at the end and it was worse by the time we left the field.

“If it was two, three, four overs it shouldn’t make a difference - the ICC playing conditions are clear.

“They are the standard one-day playing conditions and at the moment we can’t just make changes to the times - 30 minutes is the most we can go back to.

“Common sense is okay in terms of the playing conditions which the laws don’t cover, but in this case they are very specific.

“Maybe the playing conditions might need looking at. But you need some guidelines to work off and there needs to be consistency.”