July 14, 2019
International Cricket Council: Food For Thought
By Rifaquat Ali
Kudos to International Cricket Council for organising the ICC World Cup 2019 in England so successfully and efficiently. I enjoyed watching all the matches played in a spirit of camaraderie.
Having played first class cricket and as a cricket writer (I was Feature writer for the Cricketer International, London, for about a decade), I suggest the following for the consideration of the Governing Body of ICC: the abandonment of some matches due to rain and inclement weather conditions was just pathetic since it placed some teams to a great disadvantage, and advantageous to teams lowly placed as it split the points, both teams getting one point each.
The paradox is that in such a situation, a top team in the ICC Ranking is equated with the lowly-placed team in the ICC Ranking, which is not fair. In this context, it is interesting to recall that in the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017 in England, the Australian team returned home without playing matches since almost all matches were abandoned due to rain.
Eventually, Pakistan won the Trophy, beating India in the final by a whopping 180 runs. I suggest that the ICC aught to reconsider this aspect and frame a rule whereby no match is totally abandoned due to rain or any other natural calamity.
In case there is rain and play is not possible, the match could be played at a later date in fairness of things. This should be acceptable to all the cricket- playing countries under the umbrella of ICC. The ICC World Cup 2019 in England saw a slew of matches being abandoned due to rain. And that put a couple of teams to a great disadvantage, derailing their chances to advance in the mega event.
In this context, on a separate wavelength, The ICC must take into account the possible weather conditions in the country where the mega event is likely to be held. The weather conditions in England are not conducive enough almost throughout the year and detrimental to host such mega events. But I am not suggesting that the World Cup should not be allotted to England.
Of course England has the right to host such mega events, but a way has to be worked out to get out of the imbroglio. May be England can throw up an indoor stadium to overcome this perpetual problem permanently. Otherwise, the position will be status quo and teams will continue to suffer beyond comprehension.
And the fairness and spirit of the game will be lost as it is in the current situation. England have won the World Cup 2019, beating the formidable New Zealand team. But in the most bizarre manner. It has sullied the competitive fairness of the game. First, New Zealand scored 241, losing eight wickets. Chasing the modest total, England were 241 all out. The match was tied.
Then the super over came into play. England scored 15 runs. New Zealand too scored 15 runs and the match was tied. But the Trophy was awarded to England since New Zealand scored less number of boundaries than England in the super over. Balderdash.
The ICC must do something about it to keep alive the spirit of the game, and spectatorsinterest too.
Syed Rifaquat Ali is Sydney, Australia-based journalist.
The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
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Maryam Turab
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