For a few hours during England's NatWest Series match against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge last Thursday there was a very real possibility that the game would have to be called off. For once it was not rain which was to blame - it was a warm summer's evening in Nottingham - but wind. As dusk approached the floodlight pylons stayed down as embarrassed England & Wales Cricket Board officials admitted that they could not be lifted into position for insurance reasons if the wind was above 25mph. But just in time the breeze died down, the lights went up and all was well. But this week's day-nighter between England and India at Chester-le-Street might not be so lucky. The Met Office have said that there is a 60-70% chance of winds above the 25mph threshold being exceeded. If that happens then the pylons will stay on the ground and Duckworth-Lewis calculations may be brought into use.

The good news is that the lights only take a few minutes to erect, and so if conditions improve they can be brought into use with a minimal delay. The bad news is that although the natural light might be perfectly acceptable - at this time of year the sun does not set until well after 9 o'clock - the match conditions state that the floodlights must be on from the start of the second innings. That raises the possibility of play being suspended despite the ground being bathed in sunlight.

What is surprising is that the wind threshold has been in place ever since the portable floodlights came into use five years ago, but conditions have never been such that they have had to be taken down during a game. That, according to a Met Office spokesman, is down to luck, as winds are fairly common even during what is laughably described as the English summer - and that run of good fortune might be about to end this week.

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