• Home
  • Cricket News
  • We Are Asking Players Teams To Be Sensible To Negate Covid 19 Threat Icc Ceo Geoff Allardice

We are asking players & teams to be sensible to negate Covid-19 threat: ICC CEO Geoff Allardice

Somya Kapoor

The ICC Women’s World Cup is slated to begin on march 4, 2022 with New Zealand taking on West Indies in the opener in Mount Maunganui. The International Cricket Council (ICC) CEO Geoff Allardice is hopeful that the players will take up the responsibility and avoid going to the areas likely to create transmission. 

"I think the approach is around having a managed environment for this tournament and the testing will be frequent. It is not like it is going to be daily testing or anything," Allardice said in an online interaction ahead of the mega-event.

"It is really about players taking responsibility. We are asking the players and the teams to just be sensible, stay away from the areas likely to create transmission," he added.

Allardice also talked about the introduction of a nine-player-a-side provision where a team can field nine players in case of a Covid-19 outbreak within the contingent. 

"It was something that we had to do over the last few months since the Omicron outbreak. Almost all of our tournaments, we have been challenged with the number of all players being unavailable due to isolation for positive COVID tests," Allardice said.

Earlier, the India U19 team had faced some issues during the recently-concluded World Cup when a number of players had tested positive for the virus. 

"I think one of the shifts is we had quite a close call in the West Indies with the men's Under-19 World Cup, a month or so ago, where there were a number of teams that had breaks.”

"And I think we needed to have some contingency plans. The bottom line is we want eleven versus eleven. We have got squads of 15, I think all teams are travelling with some extra reserve players as well, as a contingency," the ICC CEO said.

"...the announcement or introduction of those protocols was very much given the uncertainty of the events that we were dealing with. It is just a contingency. And I am hoping that every match takes place as scheduled with no interruptions,” Allardice added.

Discover more

Top Stories
news

NZ vs SA | 2nd Test | Day 4: Proteas well poised to level series

Dean Elgar’s South Africa are inching closer to an incredible Test match win at Wellington after four days' play. If the visitors can manage to take New Zealand’s final 6 wickets, they will stage an incredible turnaround after losing their first match by an innings and 276 runs. At the end of fourth day’s play, South Africa needed six wickets to win with 332 runs still in the bank. The task should not be hard for the visitors who have breathed fire with the ball in hand. Kagiso Rabada, already has seven wickets in this game, alongside Marco Jansen who scalped four in the first innings. While the lanky left hander remains wicketless in the second, he would have high hopes from the morning session which might remain quite cloudy on Day 5. Unlike the rest of the match, which saw momentum shift in almost every phase of the play, Day 4 completely belonged to South Africa. First, it was wicket keeper Kyle Verreynne who scored a century to tilt the scales in favour of the visitors, before Kagiso Rabada blasted his career best 47 off 34 balls to stretch SA’s lead to a mammoth 400+ runs. Verreynne's tempo was crucial for South Africa today after their initial collapse on Day 3, but the batter paced his innings to perfection playing his shots all across the ground. He found support in Wiaan Mulder who scored 35 off 91 before getting out to Kyle Jamieson. The partnership between the two of them lasted over 30 overs essentially setting the tone for the rest of the day. The hosts got tired and a late onslaught by Rabada turned out to be a mood killer for the Kiwi who would have hoped to take the game away from the visitors. Coming into bowl, Rabada continued from here he left off in the first innings, dismissing the openers yet again in this Test match. Rabada was too much to handle for the openers as he edged one back to gully and removed the captain by trapping him at short leg. However, Rabada was not the best bowler on the day as Keshav Maharaj rewarded the SA thinktank by bowling two absolute rippers to Henry Nicholls and Daryl Mitchell, shattering the stumps on both occasions. As it stands, the Kiwis are down by four wickets for 94 runs and need to chase down a record score in the history of Test cricket to win the game. At the end of day’s play they have Devon Conway batting at 60 off 127 balls alongside Tom Blundell at 1 off 17. They pitch has already shown signs that one is rewarded for playing their shots here, but it is unlikely that NZ will try to chase this down. With centurion from the first innings, Colin de Grandomme still to come, NZ will be hoping for a little help from the weather if they are to force their opposition to a draw in the final day.