As soon as India’s third group game in the recently concluded ICC Men’s T20 World Cup ended against the United States of America (USA) on June 12, the Nassau County International Stadium in New York, the first fully modular cricket stadium was brought down and folded up, as the cranes were already waiting outside the ground, even before the beginning of the game.
The workers were already prepared to dismantle the stands, while the removed four drop-in pitches were going to be returned to Las Vegas Formula One, the place from where the ICC borrowed all these infrastructures.
The New York project was always going to be one of the exciting ones taken by the ICC as they built the venue from scratch in about 15 weeks. However, questions started to grow on the conditions of the track in all of the 16 games out of 55 in the entire event, from the very first game. The pitches were never suitable for rapid batting as scores have been below average.
ICC to zoom on significant costs of US leg budget
The International Cricket Council (ICC) board will meet this weekend as they zoom in on several questions being raised during the ninth edition of the 20-over tournament. In particular, the claims are expected to be around the costs of the US leg which went past the budget by a huge margin.
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The board director of ICC approved an initial budget of US $40-50 million for the USA leg of the event. Even though, the divisions are yet to be confirmed, around $15 million was meant for operational expenses while the rest was planned for the construction of the stadium in New York.
However, on the eve of the T20 World Cup, the US-based entity sent a request for an additional $20 million which alarmed several directors on the board. The board asked why no red flags were raised on any side before the request. Later, it was known that the $20 million money wasn’t the additional one, but to support the cash flow. The CWI President Dr Kishore Shallow, ICC Deputy Chairman Imran Khawaja, and Pankaj Khimji requested the loan.
The Cricket West Indies (CWI) were the main hosts of the T20 World Cup after the ICC gave USA cricket some of the power to be the co-host of the event. Some of the members of the board are also going to highlight the conditions of the track.
Despite those pitches being kept quite fresh, questions were raised on their health, as the first semi-final surface at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba saw the South Africa side quite comfortably getting the better of Afghanistan, whose head coach criticized the track as ‘not the right pitch’ for the knockout event of a competition.
‘I don’t want to get myself into trouble and I don’t want to come across as bitter or it being a case of sour grapes.’ The former England batter Jonathan Trott expressed at the post-match press conference. ‘I’m not saying it should be flat completely with no spin and no seam movement, but I’m saying you shouldn’t have batsmen worrying about going forward and the ball flying over their head
Andy Atkinson generally visits the shortlisted venues months in advance to ensure the smooth heath of the surface. However, his constant absence from this tournament has raised the question of who was the actual member to be in charge of that.
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Another issue was been the empty stands around the ground. Day games were arranged keeping in mind the Indian broadcasters, who wanted the games to be at the prime time of around eight in the evening. This means the 10:30 start in the Caribbean during the morning.
Most of the answers are expected to come during October when the quarterly meetings of the ICC will be held.
