Bristol: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has responded to the most talked subject of the 2019 World Cup- washouts. ICC was at the receiving end for not having plan B for the 2019 World Cup matches after three matches rained out due to persistent rain within a week in England and Walse World Cup.
ICC CEO Dave Richardson explained why the governing body didn't keep reserve days despite knowing the fact that rain could affect the spirit of the World Cup.
Also Read: 2019 World Cup: Three rained out matches in a week, the most in single edition
Here is the complete excerpt from ICC's media release:
"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.
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.
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.
When a match is affected by weather conditions, the venue team work closely with Match Officials and Ground Staff to ensure that we have the best possible opportunity to play cricket, even if it is a reduced overs game. We also work to keep fans in the stadium, or those travelling to the game, as up-to-date as possible with any information we have, either through public announcements or on our social media channels."
On Tuesday, the match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Bristol was abandoned due to rain. It was the third time a match was suspended in the ongoing World Cup, that too within a week.
This is already the highest number of games abandoned due to rain in the history of the cricket World Cup.
