ICC World Test Championship 2021 final: Rain washes out 4th day’s play between India and New Zealand

It is not very often that a sport’s global governing body gets its own scheduling wrong—for the simple fact that in the year 2021, with the advancement of technology and the knowledge that sports administrators can acquire beforehand, it becomes totally impossible for regular natural events such as rains to play any kind of spoilsport. 

While global sports such as football and even Formula One have used technology and knowledge to their maximum benefit, the same cannot be said for the game of cricket which refuses to take even the smallest of right steps. 

It is only in the sport of cricket that you will find some of the most orthodox and rigid rules and policies being followed, even though they have no place in the modern world replete with rapid advancement and progress. Third umpire or the TV umpire looking for overstepping by bowlers, anyone?

Yes, you may take this as a rant but it is what it is. Despite knowing that rains are a regular intervening factor in England and despite knowing that the contest between India and New Zealand, to be played at The Rose Bowl in Southampton from June 18-22, 2021, was going to be ‘The Ultimate Test’ of its inaugural World Test Championship 2021, the ICC still went ahead. 

The outcome is there for all to see—criticism from all corners regarding scheduling and a game which has in a way been treated with contempt. 

It has been four full days since the final of the world’s first-ever Test championship began and we have not even had a full day’s play. Two of the world’s best cricket teams—India and New Zealand—are being robbed of a chance to showcase their supremacy and clinch the trophy, along with the ICC Test Mace and the hefty prize money that is up for grabs. 

The players from not just India and England, but all those from the other countries who competed in the ICC World Test Championship 2021 will get some degree of justice if the final was treated like a final. Instead, the summit clash will eventually finish with six days of scattered cricket with neither team getting enough time to make a mark. 

The ICC has to take the blame for the disaster that the World Test Championship 2021 final has turned out to be. 

Like the opening day of the final, the fourth day too was washed out on Monday without a ball being bowled. The washouts of two days out of five leaves both India and New Zealand with very less time to try and force a result. The contest has not even reached its halfway stage and to expect teams to pull out a magical result in the time left will be gross injustice on everyone. 

In cricketing terms, India are slightly behind. New Zealand are placed better to try and pull things in their favour. But to do so, New Zealand still will need to spend at least one more day batting and try to build a lead beyond India’s reach. On their part, knowing that they have been shunned out of the contest and there is not enough time left to stage a comeback, India can happily play for a draw and return with their heads held high. 

For some inexplicable reason, the ICC gave India and New Zealand one extra day in case the teams needed enough time to force a result. But by organising the contest in England, a country which is notorious for frequent rain interruptions, the ICC has done great injustice to the sport which it governs, the players it rules and the vast sea of fans it is supposed to bring joy to. 

If anything, the ICC must explain the disaster that they have created.