World Cup 2019: Rain gods may be kinder during the tournament

The Cricket World Cup 2019 is another week away and the teams have started arriving for the mega tournament. However, just as the fans are eagerly following their heroes, they along with the organisers are also keeping a close watch on the skies. After all, nobody wants a tournament like the World Cup getting affected by the rain. It not just ruins the fun but also more arithmetical exercise can hamper prospects of even the most talented of teams in a competition which will be cutthroat.

The weather in England and around is known to be fickle. The recent ODI series between the home team and Pakistan saw one game getting washed out while the West Indies were hurt by the rain in the final of a tri-series tournament in Ireland against Bangladesh. The fans are earnestly praying that the rain gods do not play a spoilsport during the competition that will take place between May 30 and July 14.

1999 World Cup saw a damp environment

However, compared to 1999 when England had last hosted a World Cup, the weather forecasts look promising. That edition saw low temperature and rain all across and a tournament played in a gloomy and damp ambience. This time, more sun is guaranteed.
“There will be showers at times, with drier, sunnier settled spells,” Marco Petagna, senior operational meteorologist, British Met Department, was quoted as saying by Sportstar.

Speaking about how weather can affect outcomes in as crucial a tournament like the World Cup, the match between New Zealand and Zimbabwe in the Super Six stage of the 1999 World Cup was abandoned, thereby complicating the equations about the probable semi-finalists. The Kiwis had ended up with same points as Zimbabwe but got through to the last four owing to a better net run-rate. As recently as 2017, two matches of the Champions Trophy that England had hosted were also washed out.

However, only two out of 126 county games in England scheduled between May and July 2018 were affected by rain as summers have become hotter over the last decade and half.

“March 2019 was mild, wet but sunny, while April was slightly warmer than normal. May has been cooler, with near average sunshine and rainfall average or below,” Petagna was quoted as saying.

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