Late on Friday morning, after the entire playing surface had spent most of the preceding few days shrouded in plastic sheeting, the sun broke out. The covers were peeled back and the ground staff – a huge team of about 70 people, those covers don’t move themselves – set about trundling their roller slowly across a fresh pitch at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.
The bad weather had lifted and, finally, work could begin. England were training at the time, hoping their own clouds are about to break and that after progressing awkwardly through the World Cup’s opening group stage they will, finally, in the words of Jacob Bethell, “go out there and give it the full shebang”.
