You must have heard the expression "re-arranging the chairs on the deck of Titanic." But New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham has coined his own phrase to, indirectly, hit out at International Cricket Council (ICC) for changing the 'boundary count' rule which gave England the victory in World Cup final, after the damage has been done by it.
Neesham responded to the ICC's decision with a sarcastic comment directed at them. He wrote: "Next on the agenda: Better binoculars for the Ice spotters on the Titanic" – a snide remark about the futility of changing the rule now that the horse, or from the point of view of New Zealand, the World Cup has bolted.
In an extremely rare and improbable occurrence, the World Cup final had ended in a tie, and the Super Over, meant to break the deadlock, also finished with the scores level. England, due to having hit a greater number of boundaries, were awarded the cup. This led to very critical remarks on social media from all over the world as fans expressed their outrage at the manner in which the winner was chosen.
Bryan Waddle, the iconic radio commentator of New Zealand, described the whole super-over format as a 'T20 gimmick.' Kane Williamson, captain of Black Caps, said that it is hard to come to terms with what happened as it was 'someone's idea' and not cricket that decided the winner. What made the situation worse was the fact that, in terms of wickets lost, New Zealand were better off.
As per the updated rules, in case of a tied super over, there would be another super over. This change led to comments from other commentators and players also. When Harsha Bhogle mentioned the alteration of rules on his account, Michael Vaughan replied with a cheeky comment in which he said that he prefers the boundary count rule with a winking emoji.
However, it wasn't just the boundary count that hurt New Zealand in an unfair manner. The four-overthrows off the bat of Ben Stokes were equally harmful to the cause of the Kiwi side. Lot of people thought that there would be a change in the rules regarding overthrows as well. But that issue seems to have been kept untouched.
It goes without saying that Neesham isn't the only New Zealander who will be sarcastic about the change of rules. This matter should have been dealt with beforehand. But then again, as Bhogle pointed out in another one of his tweets, the possibility of what happened actually taking place is very low and perhaps, ICC never considered it seriously.
