ICC World Cup 2019 | ICC can do a lot better, says Gautam Gambhir on washed out India-NZ game

The New Zealand-India game at Trent Bridge resulted in a painful wash out as the incessant rains denied to show any mercy whatsoever. The fact that this was the fourth washed game out of 18 is only raising questions regarding ICC’s planning and preparations to tackle the rain. Many Indian greats including Sourav Ganguly and Gautam Gambhir have opined on the issue, which is slowly gaining immense momentum. Ganguly has suggested that grounds in England should use covers that India use in Eden Gardens, which is imported from England itself. 

“The covers that are in Eden Gardens and also in Lords are translucent covers, so light goes past it. For such important matches, and in a tournament like the World Cup - especially in a country like England where the rains are so frequent, having these covers are very important, especially on the outfield as well.

"Today’s case is different, the match was called off not only because of the rain today – but it has been raining continuously for the past three days. The two reasons for the delay were firstly, the wet pitch and secondly, something that the viewers on screen can’t see is how dark the ground is, the match can’t begin in such a dark setting," Ganguly said, reported.

The fact that rains at this venue were anticipated days ago, but the preparations were definitely below par. The fact that washouts are happening at a greater frequency in a tournament like World Cup is just taking the sheen away from the tournament. Gambhir has lashed out at the ICC for poor preparations and suggested that the ground should have been covered from the start to avoid wet outfields. 

“The ICC can do a lot better. The rains have stopped since the past 2-3 hours despite which the match hasn't started. Furthermore, the rains were anticipated since the past 3 days so what could be done is the ground should have been covered since the beginning so as to avoid the match delay due to the wet outfield.

"If this match would've been affected due to other reasons such as bad floodlights, it would've been understandable but that’s not the case. The ICC needs to look into this because this is a global tournament, for an event of such stature, it is highly disappointing for the spectators and viewers to keep waiting for hours,” Gambir said on Star Sports show CricketLive.