 Cricket controversies in 2007
30th Dec 2007 23:03 IST
Manish Kumar
The 2007 World Cup organizers were criticized early on for being over-commercialized and, in particular, the generally smaller crowds have been blamed on the International Cricket Council's security restrictions on things such as outside food, signs, replica kits and musical instruments, despite Caribbean cricketing customs, as well as the authorities being accused of "running [cricket and cricketing traditions] out of town, then sanitising it out of existence".
The ICC was also condemned for high prices for tickets and concessions, which were considered unaffordable for the local population in many of the locations. ICC CEO, Malcolm Speed, said that the ICC recognized the problem but said it was the local organizers' fault.
However, the later matches had more crowds as the tournament progressed with the local organizers easing restrictions. Although they did not meet the target of US$42m, the revenue from ticket sales was double the ticket sales revenue from the last world cup and recorded the highest ticketing revenue for a Cricket World Cup with more than $32 million in ticket revenue.
The tournament was also criticised as overlong. At six weeks, it was the same length as the 2003 World Cup, but longer than the five-week 1999 World Cup and the four-week 1996 World Cup.
Further criticism was generated by the confusion at the end of the final match, during which the umpires suspended play due to bad light and while official announcements and the scoreboard declared Australia the winners and the Australian team celebrated, while the umpires incorrectly insisted that the game was only suspended not completed, and that three overs remained to be played.
And so in farcical light conditions, Sri Lanka batted out the three overs following a gentleman's agreement between the two captains. The umpires and ICC apologized for the unnecessary situation and cited it as an unnecessary fundamental error due to the pressure of the situation.
In June, ICC announced that the officials involved – on-field umpires Steve Bucknor and Aleem Dar, reserve umpires Rudi Koertzen and Billy Bowden, and match referee Jeff Crowe – would all be suspended from the 2007 Twenty20 World Championship.
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