Tony Palladino has supported the umpires’ decision to abandon the opening day of the Specsavers County Championship match against Northamptonshire at Queen’s Park.
Play was called off for the day before lunch after Neil Mallender and Ian Blackwell decided the run-ups were “dangerous” following a second inspection and Palladino believes it was the correct decision.
“It’s still quite boggy and even with trainers on there’s moisture coming up,” he said. “Tom Milnes had a run-out with spikes and it was quite bad. When it’s like that, you have to be confident with the run-ups because if you’re not, you could easily slip on take-off.
“Last year in pre-season, I hurt my knee in similar conditions when I landed on the edge of a foot hold where it was quite soft and that hampered me all season.
“That shows what can happen and the umpires have to bear in mind that there could be a career-threatening injury so that’s why I think they are erring on the side of caution but in my opinion they made the right call because it’s not fit for play.
“As hard as it is to believe, a certain amount of health and safety has to come into this because it is professional sport like any job.
“The umpires have to make that decision bearing in mind the health of the players and even if it’s not the bowlers run-ups there are other areas where someone could slip and tear a groin or a hamstring and then the season’s done.
“Both ends are quite bad and that’s where you put most stress through your take off and if that’s not stable then you could damage a knee so you have to be really careful because at the end of the day, it is players careers you are talking about.
“I have seen a lot of injuries where players have slipped so it’s better to be safe, even though the weather’s great, it doesn’t matter what’s upstairs if the ground is not fit to play.
“A lot of teams have been losing a lot of cricket and this has been as wet as I can remember. It’s frustrating because in the last two games we’ve got into winning positions so whatever happens here it will be nice to try and get into another winning position but you can’t beat the weather.
“It’s not like we don’t want to play, I hope the supporters don’t think that, we want to get out there, we don’t want to be sat in the changing room.”
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