West Indies tour of England will be a litmus test, feels Shaun Pollock
Shaun Pollock upheld the idea of local umpires officiating in international games
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Former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock is of the belief that the upcoming series between England and West Indies will be a litmus test for how cricket will be in the recent future. With the West Indies squad alread in the UK, the three-match Test series is scheduled to start on July 8.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, all cricket was put on hold and it has been over 100 days since the last international cricket match was played. But as cases have reduced in the UK, the ECB prioritised hosting the West Indies and Pakistan teams to start their summer. The Windies squad reached England via charter earlier this month and have been taking precautions ahead of the three-match Test series which begins on July 8. In this regard, former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock talked about how the England-West Indies series will be a litmus test for how things unfold for cricket in the recent future.
"The idea is to try and incorporate three teams of 8. People have two innings and you get to compete, and it almost gives you an opportunity to come back, so it is something that they are looking to try,” Pollock told FanCode.
"I think it's (Eng-WI) gonna be probably the most watched Test series in a very long time because people are being starved of the game so they'll be very keen to get out there and watch some Test cricket again. I think it will be a bit of a litmus test to see how things can unfold and how things can be managed to make sure that there's no issue,” he added.
With several travel restrictions globally placed it would now be difficult for the ICC to arrange neutral umpires in bilateral series and hence the governing council made a few rule changes ahead of the resumption of the sport. In one of those arrangements, the ICC allowed local umpires to stand in international matches. Pollock upheld the new concept stating it as a “good change”.
"Someone from India to be able to stand in a Test in Kolkata or someone from England to be able to stand in a home Test, Englishman, at Lord's or an Australian at the MCG, we've always been fighting for this in the committee so I think that's a good change," he opined.
"Now with the DRS, you can send things upstairs. In the old days, maybe they were worried about biased decisions, but I think that's a thing of the past so that's a nice change in the right way."
