MUMBAI: Just days before the World Cup 2015 is slated to begin, ICC senior executives met to take important calls on the upcoming tournament. The meeting was chaired by ICC chairman N Srinivasan in presence of ICC chief executive Dave Richardson and other members of the Board.
Players behaviour and safety, playing conditions for 2015 edition of World Cup and schedule of ICC events from 2015 – 2019 were the major points of discussion in the meeting.
The ICC Board reiterated its support for the umpires clamping down on poor player behaviour, particularly leading into and during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
The Board considered issues around player safety following the tragic death of Australia batsman Phillip Hughes during a first-class match, and was briefed on the ICC-supported research project to improve the safety of cricket helmets, which has recently resulted in a new British Safety Standard being introduced.
It was noted that helmet manufacturers have now introduced a number of new helmet models that comply with the updated British Standard, and that an increasing number of international players have chosen to wear the helmet models that complies with this new safety standard.
Whereas on playing conditions, the ICC Board roped in the use of a Super Over in the event of a tie in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 final. This now replicates the arrangements for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 final and other recent ICC events where a winner will be determined on the day of the final (weather permitting), and a Super Over was the most credible way to separate the two sides.
The ICC Board also approved a change to the application of ICC Code of Conduct offences relating to slow over-rates in ICC events so that captains do not carry any prior minor over-rate offence ‘strikes’ or over-rate suspensions from other series into an ICC event.
This approval means all captains will enter the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 with no over-rate ‘strikes’ against their names, and they will only be suspended from playing in an ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 match if over-rate offences are committed during the event.
Any over-rate ‘strikes’ incurred prior to the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 will be carried forward to the first bilateral series after the event.
The entire scheduling of ICC event till 2019 was discussed in the meeting and the major events were distributed among various countries.
