Covid, disregard of the climate crisis and a ludicrous rule change have clouded the tournament in New Zealand
he World Cup that begins on Friday will be New Zealand’s first chance to play host to the women’s tournament in 22 years. The 2000 edition, held in the pre-professional era when the game was still governed by the volunteer-run, perpetually-strapped-for-cash International Women’sCouncil, looked quite different to anything the current set of players will be used to.
To see this as straightforward “progress” would be to disregard the environmental impact of all that internal travel . The idea of persisting with a six-city World Cup in the middle of a global pandemic – Omicron is spreading like wildfire through the New Zealand population as we speak – also feels, frankly, irresponsible.
Instead, the ICC’s “contingency plan” involves the extraordinary introduction – announced last week – of a new rule: in the event of a Covid eruption, teams will be permitted to field nine players, plus two “substitutes” from within their management team.
England fans will be hoping that none of this circus distracts the reigning champions from their goal of becoming back-to-back global champions. Even if they remain fit and well – and Heather Knight admitted in Friday’s press conference that a Covid-free World Cup was “probably unlikely” – that is going to take some doing.
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