Teams shift into reserve gear

Having sat through a persistent drizzle all evening, India and Sri Lanka will play fourth ODI today.

Standing in the dressing room balcony, Sanath Jayasuriya clutched his head in despair; he could see the vast expanse of thick plastic sheets lying over the playing area of the R Premadasa Stadium. He looked over at the grey skies and the constant drizzle and went inside to join his team mates.

On the other side, the Indians had been sipping cups of tea and munching on some muffins, listening to music and pacing restlessly for three hours, until relief came their way. Not that the weather gods relented, just that they decided at around 3.30 pm 8212; more than an hour after the scheduled start of play 8212; that the team would go back to their hotel, leaving only skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, coach Gary Kirsten and manager Sanjay Desai back to keep an eye out on the possibility of play.

The Sri Lankans, who trail 2-1 in the series, stayed put hoping for better news, but their wait turned out to be futile as the umpires finally called off play at 6 pm local time. The cut-off time for play to start on Tuesday was 8.15 pm, and the groundsmen had indicated that they needed minimum of two hours to drain the water, remove the covers and prepare the field. With no let up in the drizzle, umpires Billy Doctrove and Gamini Silva made their decision.

Reserve day

There is, however, a reserve day kept in the series for all the matches and the fourth one-day between India and Sri Lanka will be played on Wednesday. Malinda Warnapura, who was slated to make a comeback in the XI at the expense of the out-of-form Chamara Silva, but he will have to now wait another 24 hours.

8220;This reserve day is a big pain. Once again, we have to go through the same routine, reach the ground, and keep waiting,8221; observed a player. 8220;Why can8217;t they just call it off and get straight to the fifth game on Friday? Even the crowds wouldn8217;t turn up again and again.8221;

Whether that last statement is valid will only be known by Wednesday afternoon, but on Tuesday, they certainly turned up in numbers despite the conditions.

Signs of activity

Back in the team hotel, there was a little more to do: S Badrinath and Irfan Pathan settled down for a game of pool, Rohit Sharma spent his evening on the internet, while a few others preferred to catch the England versus South Africa game on television.

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The players huddled together to quietly discuss probabilities of having to play in a four-nation tournament that might be squeezed into the unscheduled 30-day break they have got thanks to the postponement of the Champions Trophy. While this development made interesting news on a day of complete inactivity, officials of the Indian board, here in Colombo, who admitted that there was pressure from Pakistan to utilise the gap, reiterated that the players would get their 8216;lucky break8217;.

In a day when practically nothing happened, that bit of news would have brought a smile to their faces.