We Interrupt This Baseball Website to Bring You...Cricket Articles / David Lengel Date: Sep 08, 2005 - 08:56 PM It’s Game Seven of the World Series. The summer is most definitely over — it’s a chilly eight degrees Celsius and rain is in the forecast. Every seat in Chicago’s Comisky Park is filled, and television viewers around the globe are tuned in to one of the most exciting duals in the history of the sport. Just nine innings separate the winners and losers of the Fall Classic. All pitchers for the White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals are available — they’ll have all winter to rest their tired and abused arms. It’s two all in the second inning when the rain starts to fall. The players retreat to their clubhouses as water soaks the outfield. After two days of rain, Commissioner Bud Selig decides he has no choice but to end the World Series in a draw. It’s a sad moment, but there’s always next year. You can imagine the response of the players, fans, advertisers, television broadcasters, and everyone else involved in baseball. They’re not happy. After 162 games and three rounds of playoffs, there is no champion. One word describes the Commissioner’s call. Pathetic. It’s a beautiful day in London. There are no seats available for the first day of the fifth and final test match between England and Australia. The winner will lay claim to The Ashes, a prize the English have been denied since 1987. Ask any fan of cricket who the best test sides are and the quick response will undoubtedly be England and Australia. The Poms have waited two years for their latest crack at winning back the bragging rights. The English lead the series 2-1, with the third match ending in a draw. With no test cricket world cup tournament to determine a true champion, this is as close as it gets to crowning one. Anyone with any interest in cricket is watching this match with unrivalled intensity as these two cricketing institutions wage war against one another, one last time before winter creeps in. The frenzy surrounding the series is so great that thousands of people who didn’t know a thing about stumps, sixes, and spin bowlers before the Aussies landed at Heathrow Airport, can not get enough. Cricket fans are getting a taste of baseball’s Game Seven drama. The rain comes and there are substantial delays. By Monday the two teams get in a full day, but by then there is no chance of a result. With a draw, England has won back The Ashes. There are celebrations, but deep down in the hearts of England supporters, the truth causes a large lump in their collective throats. Sure they won the series, but it wasn’t completely decided by the players. The weather patterns sitting over southeast London and in the northwest of England during the third test match – which also ended in a draw, played a large factor in the result. Yes, draws are part of cricket. If two teams play each other so evenly that a result is impossible to determine, then it is the right result. Such are the circumstances surrounding this final test match that anything less a win, loss, or hard fought draw is unacceptable. These are the premier fixtures of cricket. This one single match has more riding on it than any other in recent memory. If it rains, it rains. Open the doors on Tuesday, Wednesday, even Thursday until every scheduled over is played. No excuses. I don’t want to hear about what is impossible, about “that’s just the way it is.” I’m not interested in what the octogenarian crew at the MCC feel is unacceptable. Would it be a complex, revolutionary move to extend the match until its full conclusion? No question. But it is one which would resonate with old, and more importantly, new fans of cricket for years to come. It would be the icing on the cake for a sport which has enjoyed a renaissance in popularity. If indeed it does rain, the cricket authorities should surprise us, shake the dust off their sport, and declare game on. Then again, it may not rain at all. This article comes from UK MLB Supporters Club http://www.baseballfan.co.uk/ The URL for this story is: http://www.baseballfan.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=192