Do you know how weather affects cricket?

So today we’re going to talk about weather, and look at how weather impacts the game of cricket.

As you know cricket is an outdoor sport and is generally played in the summer. However, cricket is different in that it is heavily impacted by the weather, as opposed to other sports such as football.

Cricket can’t be played if rain is falling, and this is due to a number of reasons.

If it is raining, then the bowlers may have difficulty controlling the ball, players may generally struggle to see the ball and the pitch has to remain dry to prevent it being damaged further.

As you can probably tell, rain delays therefore take time out of the game and that does eventually mean that the strategies and tactics must also change depending on the game situation.

Not only that, but the weather has huge impact on playing conditions.

So how do playing conditions change depending on the weather?

You may able to notice that the ball starts to the grip the pitch, or that the ball deviates through the air more dramatically. The pitch could have also slowed down considerably. This can all give the fielding team a huge advantage as it becomes more difficult to score.

The impact of weather resulted in rain rules being introduced, however this was only in the limited over format of the game. These rules are known as the Duckworth-Lewis and it usually involves the adjustment of the target runs and the overs allocated to the batting team.

So as you can probably tell, weather has a huge impact on cricket. It is not only rain, but also wind, dew or humidity which can affect the playing conditions. These conditions can affect the pitch itself and also influence the movement of the ball either through the air or off the pitch.

So it is important to note, that experience cricketers pay attention to weather conditions and they also understand how conditions can affect the pitch and the game situation.