Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, if Pietersen don’t get ya, the ICC must.

It was pretty dark. Darker, in fact, than it had been when the players were hauled off for bad light earlier in the test. Darker, too, than it had been in Manchester when Michael Clarke objected to the umpire’s decision to halt play on account of the light.

But so what? Was there any evidence that continuing to play would constitute an “obvious and foreseeable risk to the safety of any player or umpire, so that it would be unreasonable or dangerous for play to take place”? That is what the laws demand; it remains a mystery why this is not the standard umpires actually use.

The England batsmen did not think conditions dangerous. We have all seen test cricket played in murkier conditions than those pertaining in south London last night. So while it might have been difficult for Australia’s fielders to see the ball that’s not the same as it being dangerous for play to continue.