The Week India – June 30, 2019

JUNE 30, 2019 • THE WEEK 103

Are retractable roofs
a solution?

The only cricket stadium with a retractable

roof is the Marvel Stadium, Melbourne

The multi-sport stadium was built in 2000

at a cost of $315 million

Only 12 ODIs have been played at the
venue, between 2000 and 2006

Building roofs for cricket stadiums is impractical because of the size of the field

Retractable roof

Sri Lanka Cricket Board has a system of

covering the whole ground within 10 minutes

Play can resume within an hour of the rain

ceasing

About 100 extra personnel are hired before

every game to man the covers

According to ESPNCricinfo, each

ground has 10 to 15 giant rubber

canvas sheets, imported from India,

each costing about

0 3.15 lakh

According to Sportstar, Eden Gardens,

Kolkata, has a full ground cover, bought

from England for

0 78 lakh

For instance, the Wimbledon centre court

retractable roof cost

$100 million

Compare this with the minimum area

of the playing field—as per boundary

dimensions given in the ICC handbook

—which would be

13,770sqm

Area covered by the centre court roof is

5,200sqm

The ICC has stated that reserve days will
not only make the tournament even longer,
but there are also logistical complications

Its subsurface aeration system is

vacuum-powered and cost

0 4 crore

It drains out 10,000 litres a minute—

36 times faster than the average system

boundary

The England and Wales Cricket Board was

criticised for not using whole ground covers

The Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru,

has one of the best outfield drainage

systems

Whole ground cover

Reserve days

Drainage system

Costs of abandoning matches

For fans

100% of ticket price is refunded if less than 15 overs are played

50% of ticket price is refunded if between 15 and 30 overs are played

No refund if more than 30 overs are played

For the broadcaster

$1.98 billion - The price at which Star India acquired broadcasting rights from ICC for

eight years (2015-2023)

$50 0 million - Allocated to this World Cup alone

Advertisers will not pay the broadcaster for washed-out games, resulting in losses

The broadcaster is covered by rain insurance, but still has to bear a chunk of the loss

Insurers stand to lose 0 150-180 crore on account of cancelled matches