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

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.