Reacting to the frustration, Australian head coach Darren Lehmann on Thursday has suggested world cricket governing body International Cricket Council (ICC) to continue with the matches in inclement weather as far as conditions are suitable for play after two matches have been abandoned in which Australia has participated during the ongoing 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.
“Especially this time of year in England, you can get (inclement) weather. So it’s a case of if it’s not raining or it’s drizzling, we should just play,” Lehmann was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The 47-year-old Lehmann seemingly was left fuming as he has witnessed their back-to-back washout games against arch-rivals New Zealand before facing Bangladesh.
The former Australian top-order batsman revealed until and unless the conditions are safe for the play, ICC should continue to allow the matches to play.
“My view is simple play as much cricket as you can, where you possibly can,” Lehmann maintained.
As Australia would be aiming to win a crucial game against England, the weather so far has been unkind to the cricket and die-hard fans in general.
“I think we’ve just got to be more liberal to play some cricket. The fans want to see a result,” Lehmann remarked.
In their second game against Bangladesh, Steven Smith-led Australia was cruising toward victory when they were four overs short as skies opened up and the game was abandoned which witness one-point was shared each.
“You have to consider the safety of the players. That’s important and umpires and match referees take that into account,” Lehmann revealed.
Lehmann expects new on the platter adding the cricket committee of ICC has also discussed the rain-hit games as he further stated he would want more on this facet.
“Players and administrators have to move the game forward in the best way for the fans,” the influential committee member of ICC Lehmann added.
Lehmann feels the side is delivering well as a unit as the aggression has been shown by the batsman at the top against Bangladesh after struggling against the Kiwis.
In Group A, Australia is currently placed at the number second spot with two points in two games respectively. Interestingly, Australia has a positive on their side as their run-rate read as exactly 0.000.
In 2014, when Australia was playing South Africa, Lehmann revealed the sawdust has helped the match to carry on after the rain poured down.
“But we’ve played games in the past, I can think of a T20 game in South Africa (in 2014) where we had sand or sawdust on the ground to play,” Lehmann said.
Lehmann, who made his international debut in 1996, has featured in 117 One-day Internationals and 27 Tests for Australia.
The former left-hander Lehmann has scored 1,798 runs in Tests and 3,078 runs in ODIs, which further saw him registering five centuries in long-format cricket and four hundreds in the 50-over format.