In the line of fire

ICC chief Malcolm Speed does some firefighting with Ashish Magotra over the negatives of the World Cup

The empty stadiums convince you that that 2007 World Cup hasn’t quite been the success it should have been; the general feeling of angst against the International Cricket Council is pretty evident in each of the nine countries hosting the event; the players are complaining about the length of the tournament; the murder of Bob Woolmer raises some serious questions about the security situation but despite all this ICC’s CEO Malcolm Speed believes that the World cup has been a major success. 

“What we have seen is the governments of the West Indies have built 12 five-star cricket grounds that are the equal to cricket grounds anywhere in the world,” said Speed.

At a time when the duration of cricket is under the scanner, the World Cup stands out like a huge monster that has grown out of proportion. But Speed rolls out some numbers in argument. “The finalists teams will have played 11 matches in 47 days, so that’s one match every four and a quarter days.

“Now for example: India is going to England this year. They will play 22 days of cricket in 57 days, i.e, one day of cricket every three days. That’s twice compared to the World Cup. And they are going to stay there just 10 days longer.

“Besides, why is there this urge that the World Cup should be as short as possible? It’s good that the World Cup sustains interest all around the world over a longer period of time. It is often seen as a negative in the countries that have been eliminated. Your country loses interest, so you say this is going on and on and on,” he added.

So where does that leave two-time winners and Australians like Mathew Hayden and Ricky Ponting who have both flayed the long duration. “If Matthew Hayden wasn’t playing the World Cup here, then he would have been playing 4 Tests and 7 ODIs over 10 weeks. Instead of that, he comes here and plays one match every four days.”

Then there’s criticism from New Zealand coach John Bracewell and Brian Lara himself that the distribution of matches have been wayward. West Indies played four matches in 10 days and then 2 matches in 18 days. “That’s the way the cricket experts did the draw. West Indies wanted to play in each of the countries and they have signed up on that schedule before it was approved. Nobody has forced that on them. It’s not as if these things are done on a whim.”

In the backdrop of all the flak, Speed realises that the next World Cup is a bigger challenge. The next edition, to be co-hosted by Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India, will have at least 15 venues and probably over a shorter duration. “This (in West Indies) is shorter than South Africa; the next World Cup may be shorter by a few days — I don’t know.”

One more criticism is that the Caribbean flavour, that makes matches so unique, is missing. “The Caribbean flavour, which you were talking about, is because that the stadiums were renovated, Bourda in Guyana for example. I don’t quite see how you can build a modern stadium with a West Indian flavour. What I like about this stadium (in Grenada) and we don’t see much of this in India is that they are new, solid, low in maintenance; facilities are great. By contrast, what is a modern stadium with an Indian flavour? (One that has) Uncomfortable seats?”