The International Cricket Council and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 Organising Committee announced today that there would be no reserve days for rain-affected matches in the preliminary round of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003.

The decision by the ICC's Executive Board was taken for the logistical necessities of completing the tournament.

ICC Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed, said that the decision would ensure that the first stage of the tournament will be completed without disruption.

"The ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 is a significant logistical challenge. The tournament is taking place in three countries, at 15 venues over 43 days. For this to be managed effectively, the schedule needs a degree of certainty in the first round," said Mr Speed.

ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 Executive Director, Dr Ali Bacher, said that the reason to scrap the rain days in the preliminary round was based entirely on logistical necessities.

"Everything, including hotel accommodation, air-travel and satellite television time, would have had to be double booked to accommodate these reserve days," said Dr Bacher.

"Logistically for the teams, their supporters, the local and overseas media and the organisers this created several potential risks to the tight schedule and had the potential to disrupt the remainder of the tournament.

"In the end, there was little option but to move away from the reserve days for the first round."

Reserve days will still apply to matches from the Super 6 stage of the tournament from 7 March 2003 onwards where a reserve day has been set aside for all Super 6 matches and the semi-finals on March 18 and 20.

For the CWC Final at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on March 23, two reserve days have been set aside.

For the preliminary round matches, to be played between 9 February and 4 March 2003, points will be shared if no result is possible on the day of the match.

The Duckworth-Lewis system of recalculating target scores in rain-affected matches will be used in all matches at ICC CWC 2003.

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Brendan McClements
General Manager - Corporate Affairs
International Cricket Council
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7266 1818

or

Rodney Hartman
CWC Communications Director
Phone: +27 11 446 3600

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