ICC (International Cricket Council) chief executive officer, David Richardson defended the decision of not allocating a ‘reserve day’ for the matches in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup. The ICC and the England Cricket Board (ECB) have been hit with criticism from the nook and corner of the cricketing world as three matches have already been abandoned due to inclement weather within the first two weeks, and it is feared many more games of the biggest cricketing show on earth will be marred with the intervention of weather. A general sentiment is that reserve days would have helped the matches reach a result.
The last game to get washed-out was between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at Bristol on Tuesday.
ICC CEO Richardson, in a media release on Tuesday night, cited that factoring in a reserve day for every match at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup would significantly increase the length of the tournament and practically would be extremely complex to deliver.
The match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka at Bristol County Ground in Bristol has been called off due to heavy downpour.https://t.co/4PIlzLA40Y#BanvSL #CricketWorldCup2019
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) June 11, 2019
The ICC high-up further tried to explain the logistical challenges the tournament would have had, if reserve days were in place for every game of the tournament.
“It would impact pitch preparation, team recovery and travel days, accommodation and venue availability, tournament staffing, volunteers’ and match officials’ availability, broadcast logistics and very importantly, the displeasure of spectators who in some instances have travelled hours to be at the game. There is also no guarantee that the reserve day would be free from rain either,” said the former South African cricketer.
“Up to 1200 people are on site to deliver a match and everything associated with it, including getting it broadcast and a proportion of them are moving around the country, so reserve days in the group stage would require a significant uplift in the number of staff. We have reserve days factored in for the knock-out stages knowing that over the course of 45 group games, we should play the large majority,” Richardson added.
PHOTO: MD Manik from Bristol
Richardson, in defense of the argument of why the ICC decided to have a major tournament in England in this time of the year that has heavy rain in forecast said, “This is extremely unseasonable weather. In the last couple of days we have experienced more than twice the average monthly rainfall for June which is usually the third driest month in the UK. In 2018, there was just 2mm of rain in June but the last 24 hours alone has seen around 100mm fall in the south-east of England.”
Bangladesh head coach Steve Rhodes was the latest to have lamented the lack of reserve days at the World Cup after his side’s crucial tie got washed out on Tuesday. Bangladesh having won just one game in four matches, now require four wins in the remaining five games to survive in the World Cup.
