Cricket's Hari-Kari II

Last summer I blogged in dispirited fashion about cricket's ability to inflict damage on itself; in this case by stopping a game because the sun had come out. One year on, things haven't improved much.

The late postponement of last night's Twenty20 Cup game is another PR disaster for the ECB and shows a shocking lack of care for the paying customer.

It's widely understood that the game's authorities knew over the weekend that Yorkshire had fielded an unregistered player in a previous match at Nottingham. But as a result of prolonged consultation with lawyers they waited until literally minutes before the game was due to start, with 7000 people inside the ground, before deciding to call it off.

So, Durham have gone to all the expense of marketing the game, sorting out all the facilities, getting the field fit for play after heavy rain, and 7000 people have come through the turnstiles and are looking forward to it. And then the ECB call it off; unsure of what they're going to do next.

The ECB's options appear to include throwing Yorkshire out, making them replay the Nottinghamshire match or keeping Yorkshire in the competition but inflicting some other punishment. So why didn't they just play last night's game anyway ? If it turns out that they have to replay it or stage another match then so be it, but at least they wouldn't have had to turn away several thousand paying customers. It beggars belief that having pratted about for two days before coming to a decision, the people they hurt the most are those they need the most - the public.