Senior ICC officials step down amid New York pitch controversy in T20 World Cup 2024

Senior officials Chris Tetley and Claire Furlong have resigned from their respective posts at the International Cricket Council (ICC) amid the controversy surrounding the New York pitch in the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2024.

Both these officials were closely associated with organizing the T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and the USA. Chris Tetley was the ICC's Head of Events while Claire Furlong worked as the General Manager of Marketing and Communications. Both the resignations came on Friday (July 12).

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Senior ICC officials step down amid New York pitch controversy

Both these officials stepped down from their respective roles after the T20 World Cup 2024 and a week before ICC's annual conference, to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from July 19 to 22.

According to Cricbuzz, a source said that both Tetley and Furling had already decided to resign by the end of the last commercial cycle but continued with the view of the T20 World Cup in mind.

The source also mentioned that both these officials had quit some time ago but will continue to be with the ICC for the upcoming few months 'to ensure a smooth transition of charge in a crowded event cycle. Tetley and Furlong will also attend the Annual Conference Meeting in Colombo.

The organization of the T20 World Cup in New York was a major project for the ICC since the world body is looking to expand the game in the USA. It is also believed that a no. of members of the ICC wanted to raise the issue of the pitches in New York, which faced scrutiny for its low-scoring games and difficulties in scoring runs.

New York pitches came under fire during T20 World Cup 2024

The drop-in pitches in New York had inconsistent bounce and excessive seam movement which did not allow the teams to post big scores on the board. As a result, all the matches in New York were low-scoring games and probably not what the viewers and spectators would have wanted for a T20 World Cup game.

Many of these members are likely to raise the issue in Colombo. An important member of the board is learned to have written a letter to the members to raise this issue.

A lot of fours and sixes, which is generally a norm in T20 cricket, were expected in the T20 World Cup but difficult pitches ensured that the batters could not get their rhythm.

In T20 World Cup 2024, New York hosted 8 matches out of 16 matches in the USA and the highest score recorded was 137-7 by Canada against Ireland. Despite low-scoring games, the matches in New York proved to be nail-biters.

The marquee match between India and Pakistan was also played at the same venue where India scored 119 in 20 overs. In reply, Pakistan could score just 113-7, thus losing the game by 6 runs.

The pitches in New York were heavily criticized by many former cricketers and experts. However, the eventual champions, India, did not complain as they believed the pitches were the same for both teams.

The Nassau County International Cricket Stadium was built as a modular stadium by an entity called T20 World Cup Inc in record time. However, it was a temporarily built stadium as it was dismantled immediately after the games in New York were over.