By Joe Pinkstone For Mailonline
Published: 10:36 BST, 4 June 2019 | Updated: 13:25 BST, 4 June 2019
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A hint of drizzle derails cricket games and ruins entire matches, but now the sport's governing body in England is looking into experimental ways of preventing it.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) met with the experimental division of Google, dubbed Google X.
They hope to investigate potential ways of eradicating the need for the dreaded phrase 'rain stopped play' from being uttered again.
One potential solution would be a fine mesh over the entire ground suspended in the air by a weather balloon.
Another is to use cloud seeding technology, as used by the Chinese government during the Beijing Olympics, although this is likely to be prohibitively expensive.
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One potential solution to the issue of rain stopping play at cricket games would be a fine mesh over the entire ground suspended in the air by a weather balloon (file photo)
The ECB met with the experimental division of Google, dubbed Google X, to investigate potential ways of eradicating the need for the dreaded phrase 'rain stopped play' from being uttered again
Microscopic particles of silver iodide are shot into existing clouds using land based generators or aircraft.
Silver iodide is an ice-forming agent,which causes supercooled water droplets to freeze in the clouds.
The 'ice embryos' interact with the surrounding water droplets, and eventually grow to snowflakes.
These fall to the ground as snow or raindrops, depending on the surface temperatures.
Cloud seeding can also, in some cases, cause the cloud to grow larger and last longer than it would have without the modification.
Google is working on ways to deliver broadband to rural and remote communities around the world using the balloons, as part of it's ongoing Project Loon.
Plastic balloons powered by solar energy are suspended 12 miles (19km) in the air and used to provide WiFi to remote areas of Africa.
Project Loon will receive internet signals and then send them towards Earth where it can be picked up.
Issues are abundant when it comes to stopping rain affecting play in cricket.
The balloon/mesh idea would likely be affected heavily by strong weather conditions sch as heavy rain and winds.
It is also unknown if there would be a plan in place for where the water would go when running off the net.
Details of the meeting between Google X and the ECB and what was discussed have not been released.
