Anil Kumble-led ICC Committee To Review Boundary Count Rule

England clinched their maiden ICC World Cup 2019 title beating New Zealand by Super Over boundary count at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. Since then, the ICC ruling has attracted severe criticism from fans and former cricketers. The Anil Kumble-led ICC Cricket Committee will take up the issue when they meet next in the first quarter of 2020.

ICC to review boundary count rule

In an exciting encounter, England won the World Cup based on their superior boundary count — 22 fours and two sixes — to New Zealand’s 17 after the match ended in a tie after regulation play and subsequent Super Over. While technically the host lifted their maiden title, popular perception said that both England and New Zealand were winners as the game of cricket did not separate both the sides.

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ICC’s General Manager, Cricket, Geoff Allardice revealed that they will take up the issue when they meet next along with their other agendas. Allardice also explained in detail the rationale behind the boundary count rule. The Super Over replaced the bowl-out in 2009 as the tie-breaker to a cricket match.

“The Cricket Committee will consider any issues arising from the World Cup final when it next meets (in the first quarter of 2020),” Allardice said to ESPNcricinfo.

“A Super Over has been used to determine a winner in a tied match in ICC events since 2009 (replacing the bowl-out), and the tie-breaker after a tied Super Over needed to be derived from something that happened in that particular match. So it has always related to the number of boundaries scored in the match,” he added.

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Furthermore, Geoff Allardice said that every league across the globe follows the boundary count rule. ICC also implemented the same rule to bring uniformity in the rules and regulations of cricket match across the world. He also said that the Cricket Committee will take a call whether to chance it or not in the coming days.

“Almost all the T20 leagues around the world also use boundaries as the tie-breaker in their Super Overs. We wanted to use the same Super Over regulations that are used across all professional cricket and that’s why it was the way it was. Whether it should be different is something that our cricket committee will consider at some point,” Allardice concluded.