Teams To Remain In 'Managed Environment' Not Bio Bubbles During World Cup: ICC

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ICC CEO Geoff Allardice said that they are organising the upcoming Women's Cricket World Cup in a 'managed environment', where the teams won't be in bio-bubbles and won't be subjected to daily testing for Covid-19. He added that the onus will be on the players to be sensible for the smooth conduct of the tournament. The Women's Cricket World Cup will take place in New Zealand from March 4 to April 3.

"I think the approach is around having a managed environment around the tournament. Testing will be infrequent; it won't be daily testing. It's really about players taking responsibility knowing they are in the country for a month and living away for that period not locked into a very tight bubble. It's not going to be practical; it's certainly not going to allow teams to play their best on the field," Allardice was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

Allardice explained how the responsibility will be on the players when the World Cup is on.

"There are some general guidelines that are required, but we're asking players and teams to just be sensible, stay away from areas that are likely to create transmission. The other thing is, we found out in the last few tournaments -- like at the Under-19 World Cup (in the Caribbean in January-February) -- is even though we had number of positive tests, the number of people displaying symptoms were very low. We want to focus on keeping people safe and healthy. It's a bit of a change from where we may have been six months ago."

Ahead of the tournament, the ICC had made some changes in the playing conditions for the tournament, including nine players on each side in the event of a Covid-19 outbreak.

Moreover, teams have been allowed to have travelling reserves apart from the 15-member main squads. The nine-per-side suggestion came from the Men's U19 World Cup in the West Indies and the interrupted women's Cricket World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe.

"We needed to have some contingency plans. I know they have attracted a bit of attention, but in terms of having to think these things through, how you give teams the best chance to prepare to know what might happen, that's the reason we came up with that protocol. The bottom line is, we want 11 vs 11. We have squads of 15, all teams are travelling with reserve players as a contingency."

"The announcement or introduction of those protocols was very much given the uncertainty of the event we were dealing with. We had the Women's World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe where one team was marginal in terms of players available for some of the matches. We had the same situation at the Under-19 World Cup (in the Caribbean). Fingers crossed we don't have to get anywhere near it. But there may be situations where if a team doesn't have an XI available, we needed protocols to deal with that," concluded Allardice.