Tag Archives: ICC

Associates Representation at the World Cup

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It is good to see that the ICC has decided to allow at least 4 Associate nations to participate in the 2015 World Cup. But it seems to be a case of one step forward and one backward, as they have decided to restrict the number of teams in the Twenty20 World Cups to 12 (instead of 16) and also have only 10 teams for the 2019 World Cup.

Mind-boggling, to say the least. The official reason offered after protests was “cost“. Apparently, the ICC looks at a package of 3 events. So by having more teams in the 2015 World Cup, they have to reduce the teams in the other World Cups to keep costs under control. In my opinion, this is hogwash. My theory is that it was a compromise so that the people that wanted only 10 teams in the 2015 World Cup were assuaged by this “compromise”. Politics, you know. Cannot lose face. The trick here is that by still having 12 teams, the Minnows are not completely excluded, so the protests are more manageable.

Frankly, all of this damns the ICC. They are responsible for the growth of cricket worldwide. Yet they think that in eight years, there still wouldn’t be more than 10 competitive teams or more than 10 countries where cricket would have a strong fan following. If you take the parallels from soccer, the tournament has constantly expanded as the sport became more popular. But the ICC seems to be saying that come 2019, they think that cricket would still remain the same in popularity.

Also about cost, I could think of many ways that the ICC could improve the revenue picture. Embrace the Internet. Allow more vendors to stream matches (both audio and video). Work on the copyright to older matches and sell non-exclusive rights to vendors who can slice them up to crazy fans. Who wouldn’t want to see the best highlights of Sachin’s career or all the wickets taken by Murali and Warne? Maybe have a Cricket YouTube where vendors upload their videos and they get a share of the revenue. I think that cricket is grossly under-exploited.

Changes to the Laws

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The ICC has made several important decisions in the past few weeks. Here is my take on them:

Mandatory DRS: I am very happy about this. Of course, we have this weird compromise between the BCCI and the ICC with the ball-tracking technology being removed. But it is a start to making umpires accountable, improving their standards and also reducing sham incidents in matches.

No runners in international cricket: I don’t understand who had this as a big priority item. There have been a few cynical incidents involving runners, but I didn’t know that this was such a burning problem. Having a runner is a double-edged sword in that the batsman can conserve some energy, but also be out on some stupid confusion. So not sure what difference this will make on the average.

New balls from both ends in ODIs: May make for smaller targets with the top order crumbling more often than usual. I would have also provided an option for allowing one side to change a ball after the 30th over just to keep things interesting.

Batting and bowling Powerplays to be taken between overs 16 and 40: This is excellent and goes to show how clueless the ICC was when they introduced extra Powerplays without such limitations. You would have thought that there should have been some discussion of making sure that the Powerplays are used to spice up the middle overs. Anyway, all’s well that ends well.

Captains to be suspended after only two over-rate breaches in a year, as opposed to the existing three: What a joke! Captains have over-rate problems when they are losing. A good captain (I am not talking about Ricky Ponting here) would rather be suspended than speed through the overs and end defeated. A much better way to do this would be to punish the errant team (if they bowl first) by reducing the overs they get to bat. Or if they bat first, then they will get the runs in their most productive overs cut off from the target for the second team. I don’t know about Tests, maybe have a reserve day for all the missing overs?

Batsmen can be dismissed obstructing the field if they change their course while running to prevent a run-out chance: Duh!

Bowlers will be allowed to run out a non-striker backing up unfairly: Duh again! I have never understood why this was supposed to be against the spirit of cricket. Someone explain to me why stealing several yards to make a run is okay while running out that person is supposed to be a horrible crime. As for the warning before dismissal, should a bowler warn a batsman that he has taken a wrong guard and not york him?

BCC! Lands ICC Interview on WADA

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A coup by the guys at BCC!. An excerpt:

We have read / heard enough that BCCI is not too happy with the “Whereabouts” clause. There also have been reports of other boards supporting BCCI’s position. Could you elaborate on what the consensus is right now?

There have been reservations expressed about the filing of “whereabouts” information. All the other elements of the ICC Anti-Doping Code remain in place including in and out-of-competition testing. The consensus right now is that all parties are committed to a zero-tolerance approach to drugs in sport and there is a desire to find a solution to the difficulties being experienced.

Read the whole thing.