ICC World Cup 2019 | ICC CEO Dave Richardson sheds light on World Cup scheduling woes

The ICC World Cup 2019 has generated a mixed response from world audiences in recent weeks. International Cricket Council CEO Dave Richardson has come out in defence of the tournament as he said that it would be a logistical nightmare to have a reserve day for every match in the World Cup since three matches have already been washed out in England.

On Tuesday, the encounter between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka 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. Due to this, the World Cup has garnered a bad reputation after it set the record for most matches to be abandoned.

Bangladesh coach Steve Rhodes questioned the ideology behind the scheduling process of the World Cup as he said that each team should have been given at least one reserve day in the group stages. However, Richardson defended ICC’s decision of having reserve day only for semi-finals and the July 14 final.

“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,” Richardson said in an official statement.