ICC makes a rick

When you are planning a World Cup you would have thought that you would have engaged a leading local weather expert and above all a contingency plan for rain.

It’s a rare British summer that is not affected by rain. So far 4 matches have been abandoned over rain, three without a ball bowled.

The consequence is customer dissatisfaction and participating countries missing out on a top four place through no fault of their own.

England and Wales have eight Test match grounds with Bristol and Taunton drafted in for the competition. So no shortage of arenas and seemingly no reason why an abandoned match could not be played the following day.

ICC Chief Executive Dave Richardson described this as “complex” but is it?

He has already been contradicted by weathermen for his assessment that this weather is seasonally untypical.

Let’s take the abandoned game at the Ageas Bowl Southampton between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. This could have been replayed the following day at Hove, as Sussex were playing at Arundel, an easy coach journey down the A27. Every county is doing its utmost to the maximise their stadium income so I cannot imagine any opposition.

One also wonders why an ICC World Cup takes place in the same summer as the Ashes Cricket. Fans won’t complain but it is rather like stuffing yourself with too much rich food.