ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 was hosted by West Indies and their co-host was the USA, for the first time cricket was going to be played in the USA and everyone was too excited as cricket would be played in USA and India played their all matches in New York.
Half of the matches were in the USA, hype was made quite big which increased the viewership and the promotion of cricket was successful. USA are the co-hosts and also they qualify for their Super 8 in their first ever ICC tournament which is a huge moment and history has been created with this.
Ravichandran Ashwin slams ICC
Veteran spin wizard Ravichandran Ashwin takes a dig at ICC’s decision not to shift the remaining matches to other venues despite having severe rain in Florida. Florida is facing severe rain with floods everywhere in the city so the remaining matches of Pool A might face problems, just like yesterday USA and Ireland’s match got abandoned due to a wet outfield, and later rain started showering the stadium, earlier one of the matches between Sri Lanka and Nepal was also washed out due to heavy rain so it’s getting even more debatable that why ICC is not taking any stand over it and not shifting the venue.
ICC being an epitome of all councils has the authority to take a stand regarding such issues and needs to take some solution to it. BCCI had done twice in 2014 when the Lok Sabha elections were declared some matches were shifted to UAE management had made quick changes and all were managed well. In 2021, when the lockdown opened and IPL was again shifted to India after a successful season of 2020 in UAE, but later cases again increased BCCI then shifted the remaining matches to UAE so BCCI have good management skills and they can manage well for franchise cricket and ICC being an international council they have all rights to take big decisions but they don’t have simple sense when such instances occur ICC should have a backup plan which need to implement if their is no action about it then people will target the whole board. Ravichandran Ashwin says:
“I am careful not to become a keyboard warrior. Because it is very easy to say this, if we change the match to another place, all teams will have a chance. If I am a Pakistani fan, I would say, change it to another place. What are you doing? Because I want my team to qualify. But there is another side. We don’t see that side very often.”
“For example, 2-3 cumbersome logistic issues. Firstly, if they want to change the venue, another venue has to be prepared. Another venue has to be prepared. Because wicket preparation is not ground preparation. It is in stadia. You can’t ask, is this a big deal? Because, today, the economic model is very important. In stadia means, you have to give sponsorship to the World Cup, to the ICC. All in-stadium rights would have already been sold to sponsors. With the money they sell, they give everything from prize money. That in-stadia has to be settled in another ground.”
“Other than that, if there is a match in America, if you want to play a match in the Caribbean or somewhere else in America, hotel room booking has to be done. Each team needs at least 30-35 rooms. You don’t have to tell me how difficult it is for countries like this. Other than that, flight tickets. Transfer a team and take them. Ticket sales at that place. Refunding tickets sold here. It is such a big deal. It is very easy to say.”
Organizing big events and planning is done many months before so such instances and logistics can be handled easily by the local securities if ICC gives them green signal then can be managed in a night also. Though we can’t predict weather but when we see that city is affecting with rain past many days so ICC should inform other venues in advance so that it could be managed easily and no such incidents would happen.