Former England men's Test cricket captain Michael Vaughan has lashed the International Cricket Council after the Women's T20 World Cup semi-finals were marred by torrential rain.
Heavy rainfall in Sydney led to the scheduled 3pm (AEST) semi-final between England and India at the SCG being abandoned, allowing India - the team atop Group A - to progress to the final without a single ball being bowled. India had won all over their pool matches, while England finished second in Group B after a loss to South Africa early in the tournament.
The final at the MCG isn't until Sunday, but the International Cricket Council didn't schedule a reserve day to allows for extensive rain delays.
England captain Heather Knight was a sombre figure after shaking hands in the SCG tunnel with India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur.
The ICC's planning of the tournament after the disappointing semi-final outcome prompted Vaughan to rip in, writing an article entitled: 'ICC could have saved the women's T20 World Cup from farce. They blew it.'
"Once again the International Cricket Council has blundered and shunned common sense, leaving the Women's Twenty20 World Cup looking like a shambles," Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
"They had time to plan for this eventuality. But instead of adding in a reserve day or even shifting the semi-finals to Sunday in Melbourne and making it a finals day starting earlier in the day, they stubbornly refused to change.
"India will be delighted to reach the final — going through because they came top of their group — but they would not have wanted to win a semi-final sat on their backsides in the dressing room watching it rain. It is unsatisfactory for everybody."
Vaughan argued that the anticlimactic semi-final tarnished the "image" of the game.
"Even a bowl out, like we used to have years ago, between England and India would have been better," he said.
"You have to handle some kind of pressure and produce a skill set to get to a final, not just sit there and watch it rain. It is nonsense. This is a World Cup, not some club league.
"Instead heads were stuck in the sand hoping it would not rain and England have gone out. Some people are saying it is Karma after England's men won the World Cup final on a freakish boundary countback Super Over rule last year. That's rubbish. At least both England and New Zealand had a chance that day to produce their skills.
"To train all your life to get to a World Cup semi-final and for it to be taken away from you because of rain is unacceptable and not fair on the players.
"England were improving as the tournament wore on. It is those kinds of teams that win World Cups.
"I feel so sorry for England's management. They have learned nothing about their team.
"You spend all that time training for a tournament and in team meetings you talk about the semi finals as being the crucial moment. Can we produce a performance under pressure? To not get that chance means you learn nothing about your players."
Knight told media after the result was finalised that it was "sad for the tournament" and urged the ICC to learn from it.
"They're the rules that everyone signed up to. Obviously there has been this situation and the game tonight is potentially going to be rained off as well, so you'd hope now there is going to be a rule change," Knight said.
"That moving forward, no other team will have to experience going out of a World Cup purely because of rain. Hopefully it changes. We're frustrated.
"The weather has cost us. It'll be nice not to have the jokes about English weather now ... that's one positive.
"It's gutting. You put in a lot of hard work ... we're just going to have to rue that first game and try to move on, but it's going to be a bitter pill to swallow."
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/cricket/womens-t20-world-cup-england-v-india-michael-vaughan-slams-icc-over-reserve-days/958b7206-36ae-4c7c-892b-c0476472d36d
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