Cricket World Cup 2019 gave us plenty to cheer about. There was the usual brilliance of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli but some heartbreak for Indian fans in the end.
Legends like Gayle, Amla, Dhoni, Malinga, Malik all featured in what was their final World-Cup appearance.
Australia and New Zealand emerged as the giant hunters. There was some despair for the likes of Dhoni and Martin Guptill who couldn’t exactly set the tournament ablaze by their massive talent.
And in the end, a series that began with a rich aplomb, ended with a mind-twisting all-or-nothing thriller. A real cliffhanger, if you like.
And it was understood that something was quite amiss in NZ’s loss to England.
Some rules in the great game of cricket ought to be relooked at. For instance, the painful boundary count rule that saw England enjoy the last laugh at the completion of the super-over that resulted in them being declared champions of the world in the 2019 World Cup.
There were smiles galore for England but pain and heartbreak for Kane Williamson and his New Zealand, a side that played as good as any you would’ve imagined on that fateful day.
Technically, if you think about it, then what transpired on July 14, 2019 was a tie between two mighty sides in world cricket that gave us plenty to cheer and reminisce about. From a numerical perspective, England had tied the game with New Zealand. They didn’t better the eventually vanquished unit- or did they?
It wasn’t too surprising in the end that plenty of support came in for Williamson’s team, with even Ben Stokes and Eoin Morgan going on to concede that it was a tough moment for the Kiwis, something they themselves would’ve dreaded.
But that was that. A winner was declared at the cost of the losing side.
And it can be said with a certain assurance that a lot has been discussed if not deliberated upon the heart-wrenching narrative that the controversial ICC rule brought upon.
The aftermath of the 2019 World Cup final saw growing cries from different parts of the cricket frenzied world calling upon a united step taken to correct what seems a strange rule, utterly bitter for a side that’s declared as the loser in the end.
And guess what? Great news for those who may have wanted Cricket’s premier governing body and watchdog to do something about it.
In what comes across as an interesting developing, an Anil Kumble-led ICC committee is expected to meet soon to discuss the rather complicated rule in its next official meeting.
A top member of the committee offered some thoughts as to what might be the discussion in the forthcoming meet:
“Almost all the T20 leagues around the world also use boundaries as the tiebreaker in their Super Overs. We wanted to use the same Super Over regulations that are used across all professional cricket and that's why it was the way it was. Whether it should be different is something that our cricket committee will consider at some point.”
It would be indeed remarkable, won’t it, if some interesting breakthrough was reached in this crucial ICC meet?
The above meet is expected to happen in the first quarter of 2020, it is told.
