By Baidurjo Bhose
New Delhi, June 11 (IANS) The International Cricket Council (ICC) in a major goof-up in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup in England and Wales forgot to inform hotels booked for the 10 teams to subscribe to Sky so that players could watch other teams in action. This has now seen the ICC give the 10 teams Sky subscription vouchers so that players don't miss out on the cricketing action on the biggest stage.
Speaking to IANS, sources in the Indian team management confirmed the development and said that it was indeed the case that team hotels didn't have Sky subscription and the teams were handed vouchers.
"We have all been given subscription since the ICC forgot to inform the team hotels that they needed to subscribe to Sky so that the cricketers can watch other teams in action in the showpiece event," the source said.
A senior BCCI official rued the planning process and said that this was the first thing the organisers should have done.
"ICC teats its tournaments like a video game. They play it by the ear as they go along. Just the other day you saw a senior ICC official complementing their staff for routine performance, I.e for capturing India skipper Virat Kohli telling the fans to be nice to Steve Smith. Almost as if it was surprising to see something that the entire stadium was seeing. Will they now spin this as some new groundbreaking step? This should have been one of the most basic things for them to ensure," the official told IANS.
This is the second organisational mishap after the ICC was left red-faced as it failed to print tickets for the World Cup game between West Indies and Pakistan ahead of the second game of the showpiece event on May 31. With fans left stranded even as the first innings of Pakistan neared completion, the ICC was forced to refund the money to all those who couldn't enter the ground initially.
In fact, the ICC then decided to make an exception and allow fans to print their tickets at home and walk into the ground with them to avoid another case of fans losing their cool as they wait to enter the stadium for a game.
(Baidurjo Bhose can be contacted at baidurjo.b@ians.in)
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