ICC asks for extra grass on pitches and bigger boundaries for 2023 World Cup: Reports

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has given a 'protocol' to Indian pitch curators for the 2023 World Cup to "keep the toss out of the equation". It includes directions for keeping extra grass on pitches and maximum boundary sizes.

The World Cup will be hosted in October and November. Toss plays a major role in these months in India because of the dew. Batting gets easier in the second innings because the ball comes onto the bat quicker and spinners (also fast-bowlers who like to bowl cutters) find it difficult to grip the ball.

"Dew largely impacts the performance of spinners," an unnamed source told The Times of India. "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."

The ICC reportedly wants to ensure that teams include extra seamers to their teams. This might work at the start but as the tournament goes on across the 10 venues, the pitches might tend to get slower.

It will also be interesting to see how India, being the host country, reacts to extra grass on the surface. They would like to play opponents like England and Australia on spin-friendly pitches.

When England hosted the 2019 World Cup, the conditions were heavily suited to their playing style - flat wickets and short boundaries.

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ICC gives a minimum boundary size to curators

The sources in the report also claimed that the ICC has prescribed a minimum boundary size of 70 meters to the curators.

"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," they said.

The World Cup will start on October 5 with a match between England and New Zealand in Ahmedabad.