EDIT: Bangladesh has been eliminated from the Twenty20 World Cup, which is sad. But worse is the fact that Ireland is through into the Super Eight stage of the tournament with such a premier name after having won just one match. As I write this, Australia are tethering on the edge - they need to win tonight against Sri Lanka if they want to survive. What have they done to deserve this fate? Oh, they have lost one match.
If they want to let the fates of the teams get decided by the outcome of just a single match, why not make it ICC Twenty20 Knock-Out Championships, and get 4 more affiliate members to join in? That would take the total to 16, making it ideal for a first round of 8 matches, followed by the quarters, semis and the final - at 2 matches per day leading up to the final without any rest days in between, it will take just over a week. Now that will truly define instant cricket!
(Original article as on 7th June '09, 6:53PM)
As I write this, South Africa are pummeling Scotland in the ICC T20 World Cup league match. If this continues - and from the looks of things as Graeme Smith sends another one to the ropes, it is going to - we will, in a couple of hours, face a situation in which we are barely 2 and a half days into a tournament of the stature of a World Cup, and the fates of all the teams in a group will have been decided. For it would not signal the exit of the minnows, it would simultaneously mean that the Kiwis and the gracious hosts of the recently concluded IPL are through to the next stage. In fact, from now on, every match presents such a situation, so we could by the end of tomorrow, know who all will form the Super Eight.
This highly debatable format of splitting the teams into 4 groups of 3 teams each isn't a one-off case of a cricket tourney's pattern being questionable. Remember the 1999 World Cup, where the Super Sixes had a complicated carry-over points and net run rate system, not to mention an extremely elongated itinerary? Personally, that was way more acceptable than the ongoing tournament where we will have teams heading home after having played just 2 matches, followed by a really lengthy segment of the tournament which, in the worsty-case scenario, may not even feature some of the top teams - in fact, given the draw, either Australia, West Indies or Sri Lanka will bow out, and if I venture to guess, on something as flimsy as net run rate. Clearly one of the drawbacks of sport in the generation of instant everything eh?
Now to extend the argument to the IPL - clearly, Mr. Modi will get along famously with the youth of our nation. After all, he stands for everything that the youngsters thirst for - accumulation of masses of personal wealth, being in the spotlight with celebrities for company and the ability to unflinchingly ape the West, and in particular USA. The latter is obvious from the fact that he came up with the format of the IPL after letting the American-style leagues getting the better of him. So instead of having a traditional league format where the league stage is just a preliminary - the winners are unfairly decided by knock-outs, and the top 2 teams of the league stage have everything to lose. Just look at what happened to Punjab last year, or Delhi this time around. For Mr. Modi, it must be worth it, given that the excitement levels translate to higher viewerships and greater revenue generation eh?
Some of you, especially the more loyal readers, might be thinking that I only know how to raise issues, not to give solutions to problems. Well, that might not exactly be a baseless accusation but in this case, I have a few suggestions in these regards:
If they want to let the fates of the teams get decided by the outcome of just a single match, why not make it ICC Twenty20 Knock-Out Championships, and get 4 more affiliate members to join in? That would take the total to 16, making it ideal for a first round of 8 matches, followed by the quarters, semis and the final - at 2 matches per day leading up to the final without any rest days in between, it will take just over a week. Now that will truly define instant cricket!
(Original article as on 7th June '09, 6:53PM)
As I write this, South Africa are pummeling Scotland in the ICC T20 World Cup league match. If this continues - and from the looks of things as Graeme Smith sends another one to the ropes, it is going to - we will, in a couple of hours, face a situation in which we are barely 2 and a half days into a tournament of the stature of a World Cup, and the fates of all the teams in a group will have been decided. For it would not signal the exit of the minnows, it would simultaneously mean that the Kiwis and the gracious hosts of the recently concluded IPL are through to the next stage. In fact, from now on, every match presents such a situation, so we could by the end of tomorrow, know who all will form the Super Eight.
This highly debatable format of splitting the teams into 4 groups of 3 teams each isn't a one-off case of a cricket tourney's pattern being questionable. Remember the 1999 World Cup, where the Super Sixes had a complicated carry-over points and net run rate system, not to mention an extremely elongated itinerary? Personally, that was way more acceptable than the ongoing tournament where we will have teams heading home after having played just 2 matches, followed by a really lengthy segment of the tournament which, in the worsty-case scenario, may not even feature some of the top teams - in fact, given the draw, either Australia, West Indies or Sri Lanka will bow out, and if I venture to guess, on something as flimsy as net run rate. Clearly one of the drawbacks of sport in the generation of instant everything eh?
Now to extend the argument to the IPL - clearly, Mr. Modi will get along famously with the youth of our nation. After all, he stands for everything that the youngsters thirst for - accumulation of masses of personal wealth, being in the spotlight with celebrities for company and the ability to unflinchingly ape the West, and in particular USA. The latter is obvious from the fact that he came up with the format of the IPL after letting the American-style leagues getting the better of him. So instead of having a traditional league format where the league stage is just a preliminary - the winners are unfairly decided by knock-outs, and the top 2 teams of the league stage have everything to lose. Just look at what happened to Punjab last year, or Delhi this time around. For Mr. Modi, it must be worth it, given that the excitement levels translate to higher viewerships and greater revenue generation eh?
Some of you, especially the more loyal readers, might be thinking that I only know how to raise issues, not to give solutions to problems. Well, that might not exactly be a baseless accusation but in this case, I have a few suggestions in these regards:
- In case of a league like IPL, please stick to it being a league. Increase the no. of teams as you are anyway planning to do Mr. Modi (but keep it yearly). If you have to have a knock-out stage, let the top two teams battle it out in a best-of-three finals.
- The T20 World Cup should have had the teams in 2 groups of 6 each, with the top 2 from each qualifying to play against each other in a Super Fours and a best-of-three final at the end.
- Even the '99 WC could have done better by reducing the no. of teams in the 2nd round from 6 to 4, and by not having any carry-overs and making each team play every else, instead of the complicated "face those teams you haven't faced before" rule.
There's much more that I want to discuss, but for now my intro is fast becoming obsolete - both openers Kallis and Smith were dismissed in the same over. Whatever - I still don't see Scotland having any sort of a chance here.
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