Cricket World Cup organisers confident event will pass safely amid concern over recent terror attacks among some competing nations
- Organisers believe threat for event is ‘moderate’ – the second lowest level
- New Zealand was struck by mosque shootings in March this year
- Sri Lanka were also hit by a spate of bombings on Easter Sunday
- India fears for players and officials amid political tensions with Pakistan
World Cup organisers are confident the event will pass safely despite concerns over recent terror attacks in cricket-playing nations.
March saw mosque shootings in New Zealand, Sri Lanka was hit by a spate of bombings on Easter Sunday and earlier this year the Board of Control for Cricket in India expressed fears for its players and officials as political tensions with Pakistan rose.
‘When those incidents happened so close to the tournament, quite understandably that did cause some nervousness,’ said Jill McCracken, the World Cup safety and security director.
England and Wales will host the 2019 Cricket World Cup as the trophy rests at the Oval
‘The UK national threat level sits at ‘severe’, which means an attack is likely, but we also work with security services to assess the impact of the tournament itself and they have come to us with a bespoke threat for the event which is ‘moderate’ – the second lowest on the scale of risk.
‘The threat in the UK is always around crowded places, they look for mass casualties, but when you look at the security measures that we have around the venues, around the teams, and the background work we do, that actually reduces threat.’
The ICC said there had been 3.2million applications for tickets, around four times the actual availability, with 110,000 women and 100,000 under 16s expected to attend.
Lords will host the World Cup final this year which will take place on July 14
With that in mind the players have been warned to conduct themselves well on the field or face censure.
‘The definition of sledging is always difficult. But one point we’ve emphasised in all team briefings is to uphold a good standard of behaviour,’ said ICC chief executive David Richardson.
‘Any malicious or personal comments won’t be tolerated. Over the last 12 months it’s improved significantly, generally teams are pretty well behaved.
‘The Women’s World Cup was a good example of that family atmosphere. Everyone is welcome, male and female, young and old. Any racism or homophobia, there’s zero tolerance for that.’