International Cricket Council CEO Dave Richardson has clarified that it would be logistical nightmare to have reserve day for every match in the World Cup after at least three matches have been washed out in the quadrennial event so far.
Tuesday’s Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka encounter was the second consecutive match to be washed out without a ball being bowled. The other games to have suffered a similar fate include Monday’s clash between South Africa and West Indies and an earlier game between Sri Lanka and Pakistan, giving this edition the unwanted record of having most number of games abandoned due to rain.
Bangladesh coach Steve Rhodes was the latest to question the wisdom behind not having a reserve day for the World Cup matches even quipping “We put men on the moon, so why can’t we have a reserve day, when actually this tournament is a long tournament?”
However, Richardson defended ICC’s decision of having reserve day only for semi-finals and the July 14 final saying, “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.
It would impact pitch preparation, team recovery and travel days, accommodation and venue availability, tournament staffing, volunteer and match officials availability, broadcast logistics and very importantly the 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 South African in a statement.
Richardson pointed out that England had received much more rainfall than normal. “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,” he added.
According to the met department, rain could affect the next two games between Australia and Pakistan on Wednesday and India and New Zealand on Thursday.
