New Zealand coach Gary Stead has called for the Cricket World Cup’s rules to be overhauled, labelling the showpiece final “hollow” after England defeated the Black Caps on a technicality.
The teams could not be separated at the end of both regular play and a Super Over shootout, so England was handed victory because it had a superior boundary count.
“It’s a very, very hollow feeling that you can play 100 overs and score the same amount of runs and still lose the game, but that’s the technicalities of sport,” Stead told reporters in comments released by New Zealand Cricket on Tuesday.
He said such a thrilling match, which has been hailed by many experts as the greatest one-day game in history, deserved a better way to determine the result.
“There’s going to be many things they look at over the whole tournament — I’m sure when they were writing the rules they never expected a World Cup final to happen like that,” he said.
“I’m sure it’ll be reviewed (and) there’s many different ways that they’ll probably explore.”
Stead shrugged off suggestions England had been mistakenly handed an extra run after a throw from a fielder hit the bat of a diving Ben Stokes’ and deflected to the boundary in the final over of regular play.
England was awarded six runs but former umpire Simon Taufel said it should only have got five as the batsmen had not crossed for their second run when the throw was made.
“I didn’t actually know that,” Stead said. “But at the end of the day the umpires are there to rule.
“They’re human as well, like players, and sometimes there’s a mistake but that’s just the human aspect of sport.”
‘We didn’t lose’
Skipper Kane Williamson pointed out his team was not defeated on the pitch, saying it instead fell victim to “fine print” in the rules.
He said that was a shame but the New Zealanders had signed up to the rules that governed the tournament.
“At the end of the day nothing separated us, no one lost the final, but there was a crowned winner and there it is,” he told Newstalk ZB.
