Unpopular Opinion
0
Buckle in. What follows is saying that the ICC has got something right.
The format for this year’s World T20 Cup, which is the same as last year’s version, is actually pretty good.
It’s been fashionable to bag the format where a World Cup has got off with a preliminary round as being disrespectful and elitist, but it’s actually worked really well and provided us with a compelling week’s worth of viewing and interest.
Sure. Namibia rolling Sri Lanka on the first day sparked some interest, followed by Scotland head butting the Windies. And Group B has turned into a punter’s delight.
But that highlighted another virtue to this format. We all know that T20s in between World Cups merge into a haze of irrelevance, so points counting towards this event suddenly have some meaning. Take note West Indies and Sri Lanka, because noting else can inject meaning into those fixtures. They have paid the penalty.
While it is unusual for a World Cup to start off with a subset of teams, that does not make it wrong in itself. This format allows the likes of the UAE, Scotland etc, along with Oman last year, to appear on the world stage without having England (random example of flat track bullies) putting 300 on them.
Cricket needs to boost its playing base, and T20 is the obvious format for that. But mass Big Boy humiliation of Associate nations is not the way to achieve that.
While it’s a convention for World Cups to start with the full quota and then eliminate teams as they go along, it’s not really a rule.
If you think it’s unfair to think that four nations should rock up to a World Cup and play only three games before being sent home, take a look at the next FIFA men’s World Cup.
48 nations with 16 of those going home after two games.
There has been talk about a competition of four pools of four being the preferred option, but isn’t it interesting how the 2007 ODI World Cup has been forgotten about?
Putting aside the TV audience risk that transpired in 2007. you would get more mismatches in that format, along with 8, rather than 4 teams, going home after the first week. Not to mention many fewer encounters between the big teams, and the super watchable close games that have played out this week.
This format is not perfect; no World Cup format across any sport is, but it seems to be offer the best worlds of expansion; much needed in cricket, and a decent and reasonably succinct tournament.