Rain a bane for all concerned

“It is the worst summer we are experiencing this year,” a lady in her 40s grunted while having a chat with this reporter. Like many New Zealanders, she has little knowledge about Bangladesh. She however appeared very sharp about the geography and questioned: “Is it the country through which the River Ganga flows?”

She was however more disturbed with the rain that poured in Christchurch the whole day on Sunday.

“We are supposed to have brilliant sunshine here now. It's raining. There are places in Europe where it's snowing like anything. We are killing ourselves,” the lady said philosophically.

Asked why in this part of the world people do not use umbrellas when it rains. She said it normally drizzles here and does not pours. It was very interesting to see most of the people walking in the rain without a 'brolly' yesterday. They preferred a windbreaker. At the Hagley Oval most of the security guards stood in the rain wearing that yellow-green dress.

A few of them were seen protecting their heads with half-broken umbrellas perhaps not used for a long time. They were actually not expecting such a downpour, much like the Bangladesh cricket team, for whom it was more painful. They were literally confined to a glass cubical for seven hours.