World Cup 2019: Four factors to be considered to address weather interruptions
The ICC World Cup is under way in England and Wales, with 10 teams battling it out amongst themselves for the most coveted trophy in the sport. Being a quadrennial event, it promises huge excitement for the cricketing fraternity to watch the best of the class lock horns with each other over a course of one and a half months. This edition, too, has produced some riveting cricket, but some matches have been impacted by the weather conditions in UK.
As per forecasts, this year, the month is set to be the wettest June ever in England, even posing dangers for floods in the country. Rain has also played spoilsport in the biggest cricketing tournament, with 3 matches already being abandoned, and one ending in a no-result, at the expense of the fans and players.
This is a record for the most number of matches with no-result in a single edition of the World Cup, with the tournament still being half-way. In addition to this, there have been certain procedural anomalies, due to which the clash between India and New Zealand could not materialise, adding to the agony of the viewers.
Here are a few factors which should be given due importance in a global cricketing tournament.
#1 The venue and scheduling
Cricket is a game whose dynamics are heavily dependent upon the weather conditions prevailing in the ground. While cold conditions are favourable for swing, a moist outfield is beneficial for the batsmen. Weather also has a considerable amount of impact on the pitch. This makes it one of the most integral factors to be considered before organising a tournament.
England and Wales were awarded the hosting rights of the 2019 World Cup way back in 2006, as per the rotational policy of ICC, wherein every cricketing bloc gets the opportunity to host the World Cup at least once in 20 years. However, considering the unpredictable English weather or the way rain played spoilsport in Champions Trophy just a couple of years ago during the same time period. It resulted in Australia being eliminated majorly due to abandoned games, cricket's apex body could have reconsidered their opinion, in favour of the sport.
At the least, they could have rescheduled the tournament, organising it in early May, or postponing it to August, when the chances of rain were possibly lesser. It would be a real shame if the weather conditions deny a team a chance to make it to the next stage of the World Cup.