Sri Lanka and Bangladesh advance as rain washes out cricket again

NAGOYA, Japan, Sept 29 - Rain continued to disrupt the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Tuesday, with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh advancing to the men's cricket semi-finals after their quarter-final matches were abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Sri Lanka had been scheduled to face Nepal, while Bangladesh were set to take on Malaysia. However, a second consecutive day of no play at the Korogi Sports Park, on the southern outskirts of Nagoya, meant the higher-ranked teams progressed automatically to the last four.

Jarrad Shearer, the games' sports director, could not hide his disappointment after organisers spent an entire year converting a baseball diamond into a cricket venue, only to see minimal action.

"Cricket, like baseball, you can't play it in the rain. A year of my life on this, and it rains," Shearer said.

Sri Lanka will now take on defending champions India, while Bangladesh face Pakistan in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Bangladesh will be without Najmul Hossain Shanto, however, after the batter was ruled out of the tournament due to a fever and infection.

Despite the washouts, Shearer remained optimistic the weather would clear in time for the top-tier cricket.

"Come tomorrow morning it will be all hands on deck to dry up the areas that aren't under the covers. We've got some soppers, we've got some squeegees, some big old brooms, we've got sponges.

"Plus, it's supposed to be sunny and 32 C (89.6 Fahrenheit), so with any luck we'll soak up as much water as we can in the morning and the sun will do its work in the afternoon." REUTERS