Sunil Gavaskar has urged the ICC to find a way to decide the winner in case the rain-hit World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand ends in a draw. The final is being played in Southampton due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was initially slated for Lord’s.
The final has been seen two days, the opening and fourth day washed out completely, while play has been disrupted frequently due to bad light too.
India was bundled out for 217 in their first innings and New Zealand were 101 for 2, still trailing by 116 runs.
“There must be a formula to pick a winner in case of a drawn World Test Championship final. ICC’s cricket committee should think and then take a decision,” Gavaskar told ‘Aaj Tak’.
There is unlikely to be any change in the rules in this edition as the ICC had made it clear last month that India and New Zealand will share the trophy in case of a draw or a tie.
“It seems that the World Test Championship final will end up as a draw and the trophy will be shared. This will be the first time that the trophy will be shared in a final,” Gavaskar said.
“To complete three innings in two days would be really difficult. Yes, if both teams bat really badly, the three innings could be completed.”
A total of 141.1 overs have been bowled so far in the WTC final and with 196 overs still left in the match, a result is possible if weather permits.
The former skipper urged the ICC to find a tie-breaker to determine a winner and cited the examples of other sports such as football and tennis.
“In football, they have a penalty shoot-out or they have some other method to decide a winner. In Tennis, there are five sets and there is a tie-breaker,” he said.
Reserve Day
Among the decisions made in 2018 – before the start of the WTC cycle – was the provision for a Reserve Day in the final of the World Test Championship. The sixth day was to be be utilised to make up for any lost time during the course of the final, with 23 June set as the Reserve Day for this match.
The buffer had been put in place to ensure five full days of play, and it is to be used if lost playing time cannot be recovered through the standard procedure of compensating for lost time each day.
In the scenario of time being lost during the match, which is precisely the case right now, the ICC Match Referee will regularly update the teams and media about the way in which the Reserve Day may be used.
The final decision on whether the Reserve Day needs to be used will be announced at the scheduled start of the last hour on the fifth day.
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