West Indies captain, Kieron Pollard, has welcomed the inclusion of the Decision Review System (DRS) and other amendments to the matches for the upcoming T20I World Cup.
In an interview with the media on Tuesday, the all-rounder commended the International Cricket Council (ICC) for its efforts to take into consideration the players’ wellbeing and put systems in place to deal with the challenges.
According to the 34-year-old, “In terms of the DRS, I think it is good, because what we want as cricketers and individuals is to get the right decisions and whichever way to get the right decision, if it is the use of the technology in different ways to get the right decision, I think we are all for that because we want to have consistency going forward.”
This is the first time the technology will be used in a men’s T20I World Cup but has featured in the 2018 and 2020 women’s T20I World Cup. Each team will have a maximum of two reviews per innings.
In another development, a drinks’ break of two minutes and 30 seconds will take place during the halfway mark of each inning.
Speaking of this development, Pollard stated, “The humidity and the heat here is very tough. We came here about a month back and even during the day you couldn’t go out outside to be on your balcony and even going to training was very difficult so I think they are taking players’ wellbeing into consideration. Kudos to the management of the ICC for thinking about that and putting it in place.”
Additionally, fans are also expected to return to the fray. This move was also accepted with open arms from the West Indian skipper.
“I think getting fans back in the stadium is a fantastic thing, we as cricketers would have missed the fans and the support and miss the excitement of having fans in the stand so we welcome that. We recently played with fans gradually coming back and it gives you a different feel to what we have been playing over the last 15 months or so, so that is really good and we look forward to that,” he added.
In the UAE all venues will be operating at approximately 70% of maximum seated capacity, whilst Abu Dhabi has also introduced new socially distanced ‘pods’ of a maximum of 4 spectators on their east and west grass mounds. The Oman Cricket Academy has had a temporary infrastructure built to welcome 3,000 fans. The tournament begins on October 17 and concludes on November 14.
