#WT20 On The Move?

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The ICC are rumoured to be considering the drastic step of moving England’s Women’s World T20 group to a different country, after the world champions’ opening match in St Lucia was washed out by heavy rain yesterday.

66% of the average rainfall for the month of November fell in 24 hours yesterday, turning the outfield at the Darren Sammy Ground into a soggy marsh, with the plastic sheeting used to cover the square and bowlers’ run-ups proving little defence against the deluge.

With further heavy rain forecast through the rest of the week and beyond, the tournament organisers were beginning to contemplate moving all of England’s Group A to Antigua, where the semi-finals and final are due to be staged later in the month.

Antigua obviously has the infrastructure to host the matches themselves, but moving 75 players plus officials and support staff alone would be a huge undertaking, not to mention the media and television crews. St Lucia has just one scheduled flight per day to Antigua, so moving the group would mean chartering planes for a military-style airlift, which may be beyond the resources of even the cash-rich ICC.

It would also prove bitterly disappointing for the spectators who have spent thousands of pounds to travel to St Lucia to follow England’s progress.

The good news, such as it is for England, is that if the entire remainder of the group were to be washed out, they would actually qualify for the semi-finals. The West Indies, whose opening game win against Bangladesh was played in Providence Guyana – the only Group A match scheduled to be played outside St Lucia – would top the group; with Bangladesh bottom and everyone else joint-second.

With two teams qualifying, the table would then fall back to seedings, which would see England qualify for a possible semi-final date with Australia.

6 thoughts on “#WT20 On The Move?”

  2. St Lucia November Average 167mm rain and 20 rain days.
    London November Average 63mm rain and 17 rain days.
    There is reason why St Lucia is so lush green.
    Granted its a lot lot warmer than London in November and they get more daylight.

    Would suggest they can’t move it. With N teams in the group they would have to wait until all N had played the same number of matches to be even slightly fair to all teams. Next time make sure N is not an odd number !
    England don’t get a crack at Sri Lanka, oh lets move it and allow West Indies, say, to play them. Not sure that’s fair.

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  3. Hearing that the group fixtures will now NOT be moved. Probably too much of a logistical nightmare, although presumably would need all teams’ agreement too. Not sure England would be that happy with it as they’d be disadvantaged more than they already are. This WWT20 is turning into a bit of a horror show for all having to play in St Lucia! Hosting this half of the draw there is looking a dubious decision. Imagine if there is no more play there before the semis. WI and England would be massively under the pump against sides well into their stride. It looks on for a Ind-Aus final to me.

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  4. Thinking away from the welly cricket in St Lucia.
    What thoughts of the Irish running on the wicket? Odd umpiring, or are future teams going to be docked runs on a regular basis?
    I thought very harsh to the Irish, but gulf in ability somewhat massive.

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    • Obviously we are in St Lucia so we don’t have any inside info, but guess the umpires have been given instructions because the ICC are terrified of the pitches becoming a mess and ruining later games. Feels harsh tho – I’ve literally NEVER seen this rule enforced for batsmen before.

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    • Pakistan got double penalised- 10 runs to India even before the started their reply.

      I believe it is because the same pitches are being used for the double-headers so they’ve been instructed to be very strict about it.

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