‘Sharing’ World Cup Title Must be Considered: New Zealand Coach Gary Stead

London: New Zealand head coach Gary Stead believes the possibility of sharing the World Cup is something that “should be considered” by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after the Black Caps lost to England in the finals of the 2019 World Cup at Lord’s.

England scored 26 boundaries in total in the entire duration of the match as compared to 17 by the Black Caps and were thus crowned as champions. Asked during a media interaction at the team hotel whether he would have preferred New Zealand being declared joint winners, Stead was open to the suggestion.

“Perhaps when you play over a seven-week period and can’t be separated on the final day, that is something should be considered as well,” ESPNcricinfo quoted Stead as saying. “But again that’s one consideration over a whole lot of things that went on over the World Cup. Everything will be reviewed, and I think that it’s a good time to do it now. But probably just let the dust settle for a while.” However, Craig McMillan, New Zealand’s batting coach believed that sharing the trophy would have been the “right thing” to do.

“It is not going to change yesterday’s result. But what is probably fair to say at the end of seven weeks in a big tournament like this, when you have two teams can’t be separated after a 50-over match and then a Super Over and neither team did actually lose in many ways in terms of runs scored,” said McMillan.

“Then perhaps sharing the trophy would be the right thing to do. It wasn’t to be yesterday, which we all are disappointed with. But it is sport and those were the rules.”

Earlier, many former cricketers like Gautam Gambhir, Dean Jones, Brett Lee, Yuvraj Singh and others criticised the ICC for the boundary rule. Both Stead and McMillan were confident the ICC would review whether the Super Over was indeed the best way to deal with the scenario like a tie in a World Cup final.

“Small margin this, isn’t it? I don’t know that rule to be perfectly honest. I have played a lot of games of cricket, watched a lot of cricket — overthrows have just been added to what has been run as opposed to the point of the throw coming in. So, again, it will be something that will be something debated, discussed, but again it doesn’t change the result,” said McMillan. Speaking after the match, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson had also said that it was a “real shame” that the final of the showpiece event was decided in such a way. IANS

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