LAUDERHILL — Another day at Broward Stadium, another World Cup cricket washout.
The USA-Ireland match slated for 10:30 a.m. was canceled Friday due to wet field conditions.
Torrential rain started at 7:30 a.m. and stopped at 8:30 a.m., but the field was too wet to play and the wait was on.
The rainout announcement was made at 1:45 p.m. amid another downpour and lightning warning. It actually served the USA well.
It was scored a draw, with the Americans gaining 1 point and officially advancing to the Super 8 stage in the West Indies and eliminating powerhouse Pakistan and upsetting Canada.
“Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve shown that obviously we could definitely compete and beat some of the full member nations,” American star Aaron Jones said of moving on to the Super 8.. “So definitely looking forward to playing against them for sure.”
As about 1,000 fans sat rather placidly in the seats, the grounds crew tried to dry the field with all sorts of squeegee-type equipment and air blowers from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Then a second deluge happened at 1:30 p.m. After 30 minutes, the field looked like the Everglades.
The three days of downpours that created a state emergency were too much for the Broward cricket grounds to handle.
A conspiracy theory loomed among some in the stands that the ICC (International Cricket Council) was in no rush to play a shortened game at 10:30 a.m. so as to keep USA alive into the last 8.
Scattered fans yelled “Let’s play” as an ICC umpire would walk near the bleachers. Among the fan contingent were 12 members of the Palm Beach Titans — a club that plays at John Prince Park in Lake Worth Beach.
“I’m not a conspiracy theorist but we haven’t had rain since 8 o’clock,” said one cricket player from South Florida during the long delay. “The guys have been out here with supersoakers and there’s not that much water coming up. People have come here from South Africa and all over. I know a lot of people didn’t come because of the weather.
“I wonder because ICC cricket has been pushing USA cricket for a while. Nothing would be happier than the USA getting through to the Super 8s. I’d have loved to see them play “five overs” (instead of 20) to snap that home with authority than do it this way. It hurts to be a fan here and not see the game.”
It was even worse for the fans who had to stay put in the stadium during the second deluge because of the lightning warnings.
Jones, however, thought the field was too soaked to play in the morning hours.
“In my opinion for me personally I think it was too wet to play to be honest to you this morning,” said Jones, a New Yorker whose parents are from Barbados. “We didn’t really have a whole day of sun or whatever it gets to be really and truly dried up fully. So, it was a bit tough, to be honest with you, in terms of the conditions and stuff to play the game.”
Weather permitting, the first-ever World Cup match in Florida will be Saturday morning when India faces Canada. India, a world power, beat the Americans in New York.
India coaches and some staff visited Yankee Stadium for a game while in New York.
Baseball is a derivative of cricket, which originated in Great Britain. India coach T. Dilip said it was a good experience.
“It’s fantastic because I love (baseball),” Dilip said. “There are certain things which I have been using from pretty long because back in there I had an opportunity to work with Mike King with an Australian team. He was a baseball player so quite a few inputs from that game have really helped me in cricket.”
But cricket needs weather and the way the field flooded Friday afternoon, there’s no assurance Saturday’s match happens either.
“Regarding this stadium, we played earlier so we are slightly aware of the conditions,” Dilip said. “But the weather is challenging here. You don’t know about when the rain comes or not. We have been prepared for all these things. So, we are focusing on what we can control. We want a game to happen.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: cricket world cup USA Ireland Broward rain
