Uproar of fans and experts over the scheduling of the World 2019 Cup in the mid-summer of UK without any reserve days available for matches reached its peak on Tuesday (June 11) after Sri Lanka versus Bangladesh at Bristol became the third game of the tournament to be abandoned by heavy rains. 

But on the same day, ICC CEO David Richardson justified the move via an official press release. Richardson, who will be replaced at his job after this World Cup, stressed why having reserve days could've proven a genuine deterrent in organising the 45-day-long competition. 

"Factoring in a reserve day for every match at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup would significantly increase the length of the tournament and practically would be extremely complex to deliver," the statement reads. 

"It would impact pitch preparation, team recovery and travel days, accommodation and venue availability, tournament staffing, volunteer and match officials availability, broadcast logistics and very importantly the spectators who in some instances have travelled hours to be at the game. There is also no guarantee that the reserve day would be free from rain either."

The former South African wicketkeeper also said the allocation of reserve days would have required enhancing the quantity of staff, which is learnt to be already 1200. 

"Up to 1200 people are on site to deliver a match and everything associated with it including getting it broadcast and a proportion of them are moving around the country so reserve days in the group stage would require a significant uplift in the number of staff."

"We have reserve days factored in for the knock-out stages, knowing that over the course of 45 group games we should play the large majority," the statement noted.