‘Match abandoned’, ‘Match delayed due to rain’ is what is observed more frequently than ever by the cricket enthusiasts who keep themselves updated by the app, news and various other means in this ICC Cricket World Cup. And it is such a shame that one of the blockbusters of the encounters for this world cup between India and New Zealand has been washed off due to rains and wet outfield.
Now a lot of questions might get started to pop in the minds of the cricket fans, did ICC efficiently plan the tournament? Because incidents like these surely hamper the fun of the league and take away its main crux and essence. Was the event not planned properly by ICC? Because when a considerable number of matches are called off due to heavy rains, weren’t these possibilities taken into consideration while planning such a mega-event? What if a team is too unlucky to have a maximum number of matches washed off and do not win enough of remaining matches to qualify?
By now everyone would like to have a peep into cricketing law manuals to understand what happens if it rains during qualifier matches or what does rule says if there are drizzles on the day of the match. So many scenarios get involved when a situation like this happens; first of all most shallow outcome is teams having higher points will automatically win that match, if they are having same points then there net run rate will be given precedence. There is very little chance of NRR matching but even if that is matched then who has won in league stage that is taken into account. And if league stage match was cancelled then ICC seedings come into picture where they have given rankings to every team before the league luckily for Indian fans India is on second of that list running up with South Africa at first. The rules mentioned above are not in order in which they need to be followed but this is the general chain of the protocol. All these rules are valid only till semi-finals but if fate decides to play wicked and final is about to get washed out then trophy is shared between two finalists.
But that is not the entire story there is a reserve day for final also but the match will be only played on that day if the match gets interrupted by weather and not completely washed. But the most that we can do is hope that there is crystal sky for at least a few weeks in England so that all the fans out there who have been waiting for this event for four years can experience complete fun of it. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed and pray that all the possibilities mentioned above just remain in the manual.
