Officials on dangerous ground

ROSE BOWL (third day of four, no play): Warwickshire 353-5 v Hampshire

It will be days like this that kill county cricket. Even though no rain fell after mid-day, play was abandoned here without a ball being bowled.

The umpires - Jeremy Lloyds and Rob Bailey - described conditions as "dangerous". They claimed that rain had "crept under the covers" and that conditions were "not safe".

That word 'dangerous' is bandied around somewhat liberally in cricket. To the rest of us it suggests bomb disposal, lion-taming or holidaying in Basra.

To cricketers, however, it would appear to be standing on damp grass. While footballers play on in rain and rugby players maul each other to pieces in mud, cricketers, for some reason, cannot for fear of sustaining injury.

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