Cricket World Cup 2019: New Zealand coach Gary Stead calls for change in wake of final controversy

Even when New Zealand call for rule changes in the wake of their World Cup final defeat they do it with a sense of decorum. There’s no histrionics, just plain old commonsense.

The Kiwis expect rule changes to be under serious consideration.

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New Zealand coach Gary Stead believes sharing the World Cup in the event of a tie in the final should come under consideration after his side were denied the title in agonising fashion.

England matched the Kiwis’ 241 in a breathless conclusion at Lord’s and the sides could not then be separated after a super over - the tournament hosts only prevailing by virtue of registering more boundaries across the contest.

While Stead was as magnanimous in defeat as captain Kane Williamson had been, he questioned whether a tournament that spanned 46 days should be decided by such narrow parameters.

The Kiwis expect rule changes to be under serious consideration.

And when asked whether the International Cricket Council should award both sides the crown in the event of a tie, Stead said: “I’m sure when they were writing the rules they never expected a World Cup final like that.

“I’m sure it’ll be reviewed. Perhaps when you play over a seven-week period and you can’t be separated on the final day then that is something that should be considered.

“But that’s one consideration over a whole lot of things that went on over the World Cup.

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“It’s a very, very hollow feeling that you can play 100 overs and score the same amount of runs and still lose the game, but that’s the technicalities of sport.

“It’s unfortunate it comes down to one ball right at the end of the tournament when we’ve been here for seven weeks playing some really good cricket. It will be raw for a long time.”

New Zealand had some luck go against them, most notably when Martin Guptill’s throw at the stumps saw a diving Ben Stokes inadvertently deflect the ball away to the boundary via his bat.

Gary Stead said ‘when writing the rules they never expected a World Cup final like that.’

Six runs were added to the total, but former international umpire Simon Taufel said England should have been awarded only five because Stokes and Adil Rashid had not crossed when the throw was released.

A law in the MCC’s rulebook would seem to back up the ex-official’s view, but Stead commented: “I didn’t actually know that. The umpires are there to rule and they’re human as well and, like players, sometimes errors are made.

“It’s just the human aspect of sport and probably why we all care about it so much as well. We can’t change that now. It will go down in history as one that got away from us.”

England’s director of cricket Ashley Giles played down the Taufel claims, insisting Stokes would probably have won the game anyway.

“Well, you can look at so many moments during the day. If that had been the case, Stokesy got a full toss last ball, he’d probably have smashed it out of the park rather than try to nurdle two,” Giles said.

“If you look over there, we’ve got the trophy and I think you’ll find it very difficult to get it out of their hands.”

Originally published as Cricket World Cup 2019: New Zealand coach Gary Stead calls for change in wake of final controversy