Why are there so many dropped catches at T20 World Cup?

Something strange is happening at the Women’s T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Catches are being dropped at a surprising rate.

The group stage of the tournament has now drawn to a close and there have been a staggering 88 drops in 20 matches.

That compares to 37 drops in 20 games at the same stage in last year’s World Cup in South Africa.

England found out just how costly dropped catches can be after they were eliminated by West Indies having shelled five chances – all off opener Qiana Joseph.

In the only match they played in Dubai, England managed a catch success rate of 28.5% but, if you include their games in Sharjah, they were the second worst team overall with a 41.1% catch rate.

Of course, some of those chances will have been more difficult than others, but the tournament is clearly the outlier for all sides – so what’s different?

BBC Sport has looked into the data and spoke to pundits to dig a little deeper.

The 2024 iteration of the Women’s T20 World Cup was moved to the UAE from Bangladesh at short notice because of civil unrest.

Matches are being played at two venues in Dubai and Sharjah. Both have previously regularly hosted men’s cricket, in particular.

Dozens of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches were hosted in the UAE during seasons impacted by Covid-19, and Dubai has the lowest catching success rate of the 14 grounds to have hosted more than 10 matches in the tournament since 2020.

In 39 IPL matches, there have been 93 drops from 322 catches – a success rate of 77.5%.

One theory is that the state-of-the-art floodlights in Dubai could be hindering fielders.

Known as the “ring of fire”, they are built into the stadium’s round roof, as opposed to traditional pylon-style light towers. It’s a relatively new concept in cricket stadia design, but is used in other sports – particularly football.

They appear lower in a fielder’s eyeline and could make it more difficult to track a white cricket ball travelling at speed.

After their defeat to the West Indies, England captain Heather Knight told Test Match Special that dropping catches “can be contagious” and her side “lacked a little bit of composure in those key moments”.

England coach Jon Lewis felt his side were hampered in Dubai by the fact they had not played, or trained, at the stadium before which made “it pretty tricky for some players” even though he “did not want to make excuses for what were a lot of reasonably straightforward chances”.

For all teams, the total percentage of catches held Dubai is 65.7% but is actually lower in Sharjah 56.7%.

The ground in Sharjah has recently been redeveloped, with the floodlights being replaced with LED lights.

In terms of best and worst. The team with the worst catching percentage at the end of the group stage are Bangladesh with 38.8%.

With 22 catches held and six dropped, India are top of the catches table with 78.5% catch success rate ahead of New Zealand (76.9%).

Defending champions Australia are fourth with 16 catches and nine drops with a success of 64%.

Bowler Tash Farrant, who was not in England’s squad for the World Cup but is part of the Test Match Special commentary team, has been equally puzzled by the number of drops.

“I don’t know why it is, is it a fatigue thing in the heat? But, we’ve seen catches go down at the start of the games. I don’t know why,” she said.

“Fielding, in the men’s and women’s game, is continually getting better but that hasn’t been the case in this tournament. It almost feels like it has been infectious in this tournament.”

Former England bowler Katherine Sciver-Brunt added: “You might be the best fielder in the world, but you can just start dropping the dollies.”

It could be the floodlights, it could be that the players are still getting used to playing in the UAE.

One thing to add is that catches are also going down in the day at a similar rate at both venues. Is that because of the bright sun? The searing heat? The design of the stadia?

We don’t know for sure but, either way, catching percentages are down on the last Women’s World Cup, held last year.

And, as that old saying goes: catches win matches.

A version of this article was initially published on 6 October.