Does the ICC not care enough about the Women's World Cup?

The entire cricketing world has been divided and has been debating about the DRS system for a very long time. The DRS came into the picture as a result of consistent bad umpiring.

In the crucial Super Six match of the Women’s World Cup that New Zealand skipper had termed, ‘almost a semifinal’, the umpiring was nothing but dreadful. Her team was at the receiving end of four LBW decisions; Kate Broadmore and Frances Mackay were dismissed by deliveries that hawk-eye said would have gone down leg side, Sophie Devine got an inside edge onto the pads and Nicola Brown was struck outside the off-stump.

The two umpires who were responsible for these shockers were Indian, Vineet Kulkarni and Indonesian, Shahul Hameed. Vineet Kulkarni is in the international panel of umpires, while Hameed is from the ICC’s Associate and Affiliate international panel of umpires. There is not a single umpire from the ICC’s elite panel officiating at the Women’s World Cup. Hameed’s last international game as umpire was in the 2009, during the Women’s World Cup. There has never been a men’s World Cup featuring umpires who have officiated years ago!

What message does the ICC give out by such incidents? Aren’t they taking the women’s World Cup seriously enough?

Tony Hill is the only umpire from the elite panel of umpires, but he is a mentor for the 13 officiating ones at the World Cup; 5 of whom are from the Associate and Affiliate International panel and 7 from the international panel. Kathy Cross from New Zealand is the only woman umpire at the event. Other international umpires from the elite panel could have been called upon for the tournament since there weren’t too many tournaments running at the same time. The only constraint would have been the budget. What is the point of only making people believe that the women’s World Cup is an upcoming event when even the basics are dented?

This was not the first instance when an umpiring error has cost a team the match; earlier in the tournament, English captain, Charlotte Edwards said that two umpiring decisions against the Australian girls were game-changing. Edwards went a step further to say that “Two poor decisions obviously did not help.” Also, maybe the DRS is a very expensive device for a budget tournament like the women’s World Cup, but she said, “There might have been a few decisions we might have referred today.”

Had there been elite umpires who were umpiring in the tournament, one wouldn’t have had an opportunity to have felt undone by the ICC, given the quality of umpires appointed for an ‘elite’ event. These officials are supposed to be the next generation of the elite panel, but why not use the best you have for a tournament that is just finding its feet? It was quite disappointing to have second-string umpires presiding over a tournament that is already oblivious to most.