Is this the frustrating ICC World Cup thus far?
Rain paved for one good thing, space for ardent fans to interact with their cricketing heroes
Four matches have been washed out so far in this World Cup—three of them without a ball being bowled—the highest in the history of a tournament dating back to 1975. And if the forecast for the rest of the month is to be trusted, more games will be interrupted by rain before the end of the series on July 14.
This has frustrated everyone—the players, the fans, even the broadcasters who question why the organisers didn’t have a contingency plan. Seven teams out of ten have so far fallen victim to the British weather and Sri Lanka has been at the receiving end far more than others. The ICC says there’s been three times the amount of rain in a few days than is usually seen in the whole month of June in England.
Three matches–Pakistan vs Sri Lanka, Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka and India vs New Zealand–were abandoned so far. The one between West Indies and South Africa ended in no result when rain came down just 7.3 overs into the start of the match.
What is worrying, however, is the lack of contingency plans to minimize the impact of rain in a crucial tournament like the World Cup. The only measure taken has been to insure the games against rain to compensate frustrated fans. Ticket money is refunded in full in the event of less than 15 overs being bowled, and 50 percent is paid back if more than 15 overs are bowled in a rain-affected game but not those associated costs like travelling and accommodation.
Several former cricketers questioned why there are no reserve days for all matches or why more covers and support staff are not assigned to cover the entire ground when it pours.
“It’s a huge tournament,” West Indian great Brian Lara, who is working as an expert commentator of the official broadcaster, has said.
“A lot of money is invested. We knew from a long time ago that this [rain threat] was a great possibility. They should have ideally thought ‘Hey, let’s have some extra covers, extra labour so that we have a bit of cricket’.”
But the ICC has ruled out the possibility of reserve days for the first round saying it will elongate the tournament. They also believe the round robin format means there’s less impact than if it had been four groups of four.
“Factoring in a reserve day for every match at the World Cup would significantly increase the length of the tournament and practically would be extremely complex to deliver, ” ICC’s outgoing Chief Executive Dave Richardson said in a statement.
According to BBC weather, Richardson is right that 100mm rain in 48 hours is unseasonable. However, it had only affected small areas in the Southeast of England and Lincolnshire. In Bristol and Southampton, where the matches were, the weather wasn’t unseasonable for June but rather typically English.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s Chief Selector and Team Manager Asantha de Mel, who is unhappy about the ‘step motherly’ treatment meted out to the Sri Lankan team (from pitches to hotels to team bus), said that the tournament was poorly organized.
“After Sri Lanka’s win against Afghanistan, we were expecting to continue the momentum we gained but unfortunately our next two matches were washed out,” he said.
“I believe they should have definitely got more covers in Bristol for the two games we were to play.”
The covering of the entire outfield is a practice that most sub-continent countries has put in place to counter the threat of rains. In Sri Lanka, the whole ground is covered within minutes by possibly the world’s fastest ground staff who work in perfect unison. Even after a heavy downpour, there is always chance of a resumption.
According to cricinfo.com, Sri Lanka has hosted 76 international games during the last four years in the island with only two of those matches–both ODIs–ending in no result. This is despite Sri Lanka hosting matches during the monsoon season.
If the outfield is covered, there’s the advantage of preventing wet patches forming on the outfield. This will help resume play. Here, the Sri Lanka vs Pakistan game never got underway due to wet field even after the rain stopped.
Sri Lanka’s next game will be against England at Headingly on June 21 and the forecast is better with the chance of rain placed at less than eight percent. The coming week might offer some sunshine to the teams, after all.