ICC World Cup 2023: Ex-England pacer Steve Harmison calls for rule change amid 'grueling conditions'

Former England pacer Steve Harmison has urged ICC to change a rule on squads amid the World Cup 2023.

The ICC ODI World Cup 2023 has started from Thursday (October 5) as England are playing New Zealand in the opener. And Harmison has called out ICC to increase the squad size from the upcoming tournaments. Currently, 15 players can be included in the World Cup squad, but Harmison has advised to make it 18 to accomodate a bit more bench strength.

England had to leave out Jason Roy for the squad constraints and Harmison believes it is only fair to allow at least 18 players for long World Cup tournaments such as this, where a country will be playing at least nine matches.

"You can only get 15 men in a squad and that, for me, I can't understand. England have got nine games in eight different venues with internal flights, hotels and everything that goes with it. England are going to need more than 15," Harmison said to Mirror.

"You look at England's fast bowlers and two that spring out when you see the 15 names are Mark Wood and Reece Topley, two bowlers who have struggled from an injury point of view in the past. Eight different venues before the knockout stages, that's eight different plane journeys and the internal flights are not exactly business classes in India!," Harmison added.

The former England pacer also thinks the geogrpahical distances between two venues will be an issue and the temperature differences can cause problems for the English pacers. The English are playing New Zealand in the opener in Ahmedabad, and their next match is in mountanious Dharamshala in five days' time.

"England play New Zealand in Ahmedabad in the first game where it'll be red-hot, mid to late 30s and then they go to Dharamsala which is going to be 20 degrees cooler in the mountains five days later. It's a tough start for England from a venue point of view, but from an opposition point of view once you get the first game (against New Zealand) out of the way, I think Bangladesh and Afghanistan are two nice games for England," the 44-year-old concluded.