Cricket bosses not worried about being in hot spot

The opening two games in the 2015 International Cricket Council organized and New Zealand and Australia co-hosted 2015 World Cup took off with a bang in Christchurch and Melbourne, yesterday.

The organizers and co-hosts have left no stone unturned to see to the completion of the glittering tournament without any hassle. Yet they expect the little hiccups, but everything generally should be tickety boo.

Former South African wicket keeper batsman when South Africa made their welcome return to Test cricket after the end of the inhuman apartheid system, David Richards who is now one of the big bosses in the ICC says that they have worked hard to see that off-field incidents don't cloud World Cup cricket.

Corruption within the game

Corruption within the game, chucking, sledging, security and as to why 'hotspot' was not being used was explained by Richardson. The ICC is well prepared to deal with these problems if they crop up during the tournament.

Richardson speaking to Matt Richens of Fairfax Media in Christchurch, described spot-fixing, and match-fixing as a 'sickness' in the game. Every possible precaution is being taken by the ICC to prevent and eradicate this 'sickness'.

According to Richardson it's not possible to guarantee that nothing will take place but he is very confident that everything has been tightened to prevent any kind of fixing, match-fixing' or 'spot-fixing'.

Tremendous willingness

The boss has further said that players had shown a 'tremendous willingness' to acknowledge their responsibility in these aspects.

'Anything that looks suspicious the players are coming forward...which enables us to get a much better idea of who these guys are that are travelling the world and trying to influence players and match-officials'.

'I think we are probably the best prepared for any major tournament. This anti-corruption unit has been working with the law enforcement agencies in New Zealand and Australia for two to three years setting up Memorandums of Understanding and sharing information' he said.

Poor behaviour

Richardson also said that repeat offenders of poor behaviour and unacceptable sledging or abuse will suffer penalties or match bans rather than the usual fines.

Obviously fines were not seen as a big enough deterrent for some with poor behaviour continuing. First time offenders or 'heat of the moment' Incidents at the lower end of the scale would not be treated with the same venom.

'But certainly serial offenders, they need to realize they could be suspended which will not just impact them, but their whole team. There are players heading into this tournament that have been found guilty of the same offence in two previous accounts in the last 12 months. If they are found guilty of an offence at the tournament then they could be suspended for between two and eight games.

No extra effort

Richardson says there would be no extra effort put into spotting bowlers with suspect or illegal actions, though how they were dealt with would be changed for the World Cup.

He said that the ICC has done a lot in recent months to crack down on bowlers with suspicious looking actions and they don't want to lose any ground in that regard.

'If a player is reported for a suspect action, we have plans in place for them to be able to go to Brisbane to the accredited lab and undertake the tests needed'. The tests will be completed within seven days at most and until the results are found the player is allowed to continue playing.

'HOTSPOT' technology

'Hotspot' technology not being used in the tournament was also being queried. But Richardson defended the decision not to use the technology as part of the Decision Review System'.

But as there are not enough of the cameras needed to use the technology or the entire tournament, but it has been offered for the knockout stages of the event. In favour of consistency, the organizers thought not to use it for the seven knockout matches. The vastly improved Real Time Snicko 'proved a really effective tool', said Richardson.

'Hotspot is brilliant when it comes to ball touching glove, but the faint edges on the bat sometimes it doesn't pick up and that could create confusion. With Real Time Snicko, I'm confident we'll get all the edges.

Multi-screen shot

'It's much better (than it was): the third umpire is able to watch a multi-screen shot with synchronized camera angles so when you see the little graphic mark that snicko makes, you'll be able to see whether that mark occurs at the same time the ball is passing the bat'.

As far as security is concerned, Richardson said there's no direct threat to the tournament, but the global security threat has been raised and New Zealand and Australia are no different.

'We're confident that we've got a good security team and plan in place. The plan is appropriate for the level of threat so we've got no concerns in that regard'.

Finally Richardson said that they would like nothing better than for the cricket on the field to be what's judged as to whether this has been a good tournament or not. 'I think we're probably better prepared than we've been for any major tournament'.

By the way enjoy life now. It has an expiry date on it.

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