Former India head coach Rahul Dravid has defended the heavily-criticised US leg of final month’s T20 World Cup, saying that “taking part in at odd hours” and dealing with “difficult” amenities have been obligatory “compromises” to take cricket to a bigger viewers.
Given the large effort concerned in conducting the occasion within the area, Dravid mentioned he was superb with the ten.30am (native time) begins and the infrastructure used for the video games in New York, Florida and Texas.
“Sure, when it comes to amenities, it’s difficult. However if you wish to develop the game and make it a worldwide recreation, then you need to be at occasions like this and make compromises, even when it means taking part in at odd hours in situations which may not essentially be good,” Dravid mentioned in a panel dialogue on ‘Cricket on the Olympics: Daybreak of a New Period’, celebrating the game’s inclusion within the 2028 Los Angeles Video games, right here on Sunday.
Dravid coached India to its first ICC title in 11 years within the match hosted collectively by the USA and the West Indies, the place the knockout matches have been performed.
The USA internet hosting a cricketing showpiece for the primary time was seen as a stepping stone to constructing a fan base within the area forward of the Los Angeles Olympics.
ALSO READ | Indian skipper Suryakumar backs his bowlers, says Bishnoi
However, so as to additionally cater to the large viewers within the subcontinent, all India matches have been held at 10.30am, which attracted a little bit of criticism because it was felt that native People weren’t considered.
“I don’t assume beginning at 10:30am was an issue for me, truthfully. We’re within the leisure enterprise, which caters to individuals who need to watch the game. I had completely no drawback with it,” Dravid mentioned.
The previous India participant mentioned the early begin, actually, ensured it was “even-steven” for each the groups.
“As a coach, the situations have been fairly even as a result of dew turns into a consider quite a lot of day-night video games. The toss can turn out to be an enormous issue, as we noticed in Australia. However for 10:30, it was not an issue; it was even-steven for each groups.
“From a training perspective, I didn’t thoughts the ten:30 recreation,” he mentioned.
Dravid had ICC CEO Geoff Allardice for firm in the course of the dialogue and lauded the governing physique for its audacious transfer of taking a World Cup to the USA.
“It was an amazing effort by the ICC to take the sport to the USA and expose that viewers to the sport. There’s a big ardour for the sport within the USA. It was very nice to play within the USA; among the video games have been packed,” he mentioned.