'Extremely unreasonable': Anger over unprecedented World Cup farce

Bangladesh coach Steve Rhodes has bemoaned the lack of reserve days at the World Cup after a tournament-record third abandonment in the space of five days.

The inclement weather in England and Wales is starting to become a major talking point after the Bangladesh v Sri Lanka match at Bristol became the third fixture to be rained off.

With rain continuing to fall at the County Ground, a decision was taken to abandon the game without a ball being bowled three-and-a-half hours after play was scheduled to begin - meaning both sides each took a point.

Englishman Rhodes said: "We really targeted this sort of game to get two points, and I know that Sri Lanka would have fought very hard and been no pushovers at all.

"But we do see it as one point lost and that's disappointing. But realistically, what can we do about it? Absolutely nothing. It's out of our control, the way the weather is.

"If you know the English weather, sadly, we're going to get a lot of rain. We never know when the rain's going to come. At the moment, we're seeing some problems.

"I know logistically, it would have been a big headache for the tournament organisers, and I know that it would have been difficult, but we have got quite a lot of time in between games, and if we have got to travel a day later, then so be it.

"We put men on the moon so why can't we have a reserve day, when actually this tournament is a long tournament?"

‘Extremely unreasonable weather’

Reserve days are implemented the knock-out stages but ICC chief David Richardson said it would be logistically too difficult to have them during the group matches.

"Factoring in a reserve day for every match at the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup would significantly increase the length of the tournament and practically would be extremely complex to deliver," Richardson said.

"It would impact pitch preparation, team recovery and travel days, accommodation and venue availability, tournament staffing, volunteer and match officials availability, broadcast logistics and very importantly the spectators who in some instances have travelled hours to be at the game.

"There is also no guarantee that the reserve day would be free from rain either."

Twelve months after heatwave hit most of Europe, freakish rainfall has blighted Britain, France and parts of Spain over the last 48 hours.

"This is extremely unseasonable weather," Richardson said.

"In the last couple of days we have experienced more than twice the average monthly rainfall for June which is usually the third driest month in the UK.

"In 2018 there was just 2mm of rain in June but the last 24 hours alone has seen around 100mm fall in the south-east of England."

"When a match is affected by weather conditions, the venue team work closely with match officials and ground staff to ensure that we have the best possible opportunity to play cricket, even if it is a reduced overs game."

However the ICC’s stance hasn’t affected the mood of fans and commentators, with many questioning why the World Cup would be held in the UK at this time of the year: