World Cup 2023: 70m boundaries, more grass on pitches, ICC issues guidelines for curators

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World Cup 2023 is set to kick off in October. According to the sources, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has asked the Indian pitch curators to increase the boundary dimensions and leave more grass on the pitches for the event.

Cricket in this day and age has become a batter's game. Reportedly, to reduce the impact that the toss plays in the game and to provide a balance between the bat and the ball, ICC came up with these protocols.

The World Cup will be held in October and November. There will be a whole lot of dew, affecting the games during these months. Dew makes it tough for the spinners to get a grip and the fast bowler's deliveries tend to come onto the bat with much more ease. Fielders also find it difficult to get hold of the ball as it is wet.

This is where the toss comes into the picture. Teams on winning the toss would definitely opt to bowl first and bat later in the game, as the dew makes the chasing easier. Toss, deciding the results of the matches, which itself is based on sheer luck, makes the tournament look dull as it happened during the 2021 T-20 World Cup held in UAE and Oman.

To reduce its impact, ICC has given this protocol to the curators to leave extra grass on the pitch. This will take the 'advantage of dew' out of the equation in the second innings, to some extent.

Even when the spinners would not be able to find the turn, the pacers would take the grass to their advantage and trouble the batters. This will definitely make the contest more interesting. The grass would also help the seamers in the first innings on the slower tracks of India.

A source told TOI, "Dew largely impacts the performance of spinners," With more grass, teams will not have to depend as much on spinners. That will also help in having true surfaces. And ODI games don't need to see very high scores to be interesting."

Increasing the ground's dimension will also help in providing a balance between 'bat and ball' and will give rise to low-scoring thrillers.

"The minimum size of boundaries for international matches is 65 metres and maximum is 85 metres. The old centres have a boundary size of around 70-75 metres. It has been suggested that boundaries should be kept more than 70 metres.", the source added.