Protection of modern pitches means the ‘sticky wicket’ has had its day

Over its history, cricket has developed a language of its own. In so doing, it has been responsible for introducing words and phrases, unique to the game, into common usage or adapting simple words and making them specific to cricket.

An obvious example of the former is “playing with a straight bat,” meaning to act in an upright, honest and respectful manner.

An example of the latter is “sticky wicket,” where a difficult, even treacherous, situation is encountered. In cricket, this situation was created by a particular combination of rain, sun and wind.

Cricket has had an uneasy relationship with rain throughout its history. It makes a pitch soft, the degree of softness depending upon the hardness and quality of the pitch prior to rain, the rain’s intensity and the type of soil on which it fell. If, once play resumes, the pitch is very soft, the ball will cut through the surface, taking a piece of the top with it, leaving a mark and/or a tuft. On harder pitches, the ball may skim through or bounce steeply.

Anticipating how a pitch will play after rainfall is not an easy task, as there are so many variables to consider. One of these is how quickly the pitch will dry. Rain, followed by hot sun and/or a drying breeze, provides conditions for a sticky wicket to reveal its character. Conditions for batting become problematic, as the ball could be spun quite sharply, with the patches on the damaged pitch creating a surface from which the ball could either rear to head height or shoot through at ankle level.

A wet outfield stops the progress of the ball across it and the movement of fielders is impeded. The area over which the bowler approaches the crease, the runup, becomes difficult to navigate, increasing the