International Cricket Council chief executive officer Dave Richardson congratulated the Bangladesh Cricket Board and the people of Bangladesh for successfully hosting yet another ICC event as the Under-19 World Cup came to an end last Sunday.
The 19-day tournament featuring 16 teams concluded with the West Indies lifting their maiden title, defeating India in the grand finale at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
Prior to the tournament, security was said to be a big concern. After receiving feedback from its government, Cricket Australia decided to withdraw its participation citing concerns over security, putting the fate of the tournament in jeopardy.
But endless support by the Bangladesh government and direct intervention by the Prime Minister of the country saw a highly entertaining tournament end on a high note.
“I think we’re very pleased with the fact that we made the decision to carry on with the tournament, despite Australia’s decision to withdraw their team. I think the outcome shows that we made the correct decision,” said Richardson in a press meet yesterday.
“We’re certainly looking forward to the World T20 in India coming up. There is no doubt that there will be security challenges there as well. And we learnt a lot from this tournament. We’ve set a standard at what we need to deliver, with respect to all events, not just cricket events that we’ve to deal with. We’ll take it seriously, if we need to, and make sure that any threat that is received or any threat that is identified, we’ll put in place anything needed to negate it,” the ICC CEO added.
The Mankad incident effected by West Indies paceman Keemo Paul saw the side defeat Zimbabwe in the group stage and qualify for the quarter-finals. The mode of dismissal was one of the most talked-about event in the tournament. The Caribbean youngsters received bucket-loads of criticism as well as a lot of support. The age old argument was triggered – which is greater, end result or the spirit of the game? Many say Mankad goes against the spirit of the game but Richardson explained, “Ideally, you should have laws of cricket; you get black or white answers. Unfortunately, we know how complicated the laws of cricket are. So there are certain modes of dismissal that over the years, people have always regarded as a little ethically short and Mankading is one of those. I think the current law has a good balance. It stops batsmen taking advantage, so the bottom line is - you need to stay in your crease. On the other hand, there is a spirit of cricket element that comes into play. And my personal view is that where the batsmen isn’t specifically trying to steal runs, the option is with the fielding side to at least warn the batsmen ‘be careful now’. As I said, this is often down to spirit of cricket, and how the individual players see the match. We would like to encourage spirit of cricket at all times,” said the former South Africa wicket-keeper.
Among the 16 teams, the performance of Namibia and Nepal garnered the most attention. Both the sides were considered minnows before the tournament got underway. However, both the teams displayed brilliant cricket en route to progressing to the last eight and Richardson duly expressed his elation with their performances.
“We’ve approximately more than a million participants playing cricket outside of the Full Members. Now the trick is to ensure those one million improve in their standards. What we need to do is try and ensure the countries raise their standards."
