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.

So far there have been 62 catches and 35 drops, a catching success of just 63.9%.

Of course, some of those chances will have been more difficult than others, but the percentage is considerably lower than normal.

At the same stage of the 2023 World Cup in South Africa there were 50 catches and 11 drops, with a success rate of 82%, and after eight matches in the previous edition, in Australia in 2020, there were 48 catches and six drops at a success rate of 89%.

Go back to the 2018 competition in the West Indies and catches were being taken 85% of the time.

This tournament is clearly the outlier - so what's different?

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.

The team with the worst catching percentage in the competition so far are West Indies - they have taken just 33% of their chances, with both of their matches played in Dubai, albeit one during the afternoon.

The team with the best catching percentage are world champions Australia, who played in the day-time in Sharjah.

Sharjah, however, actually has a worse catching success rate during the tournament.

There have been 32 catches and 21 drops in Sharjah (catching success of 60.3%) and 30 catches and 14 drops in Dubai (68.1%).

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

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 - and the sample size is small - but, either way, catching percentages are down 18% on the last Women's World Cup, held last year.

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