The current ICC world cup has already got a lot of on-field and off the field events that some of the issues have not yet surfaced. This article also talks about an 'unsung villain' of the current edition of the grand event in cricket.
Maybe the paragraph above is not sufficient to make someone guess about what this article talks about. Well, It is neither about the so called "Team India", nor about Pakistan cricket. It is about the scheduling of the event done by ICC. If you have a close look at the schedule of the world cup, the following things can be observed.
ICC wanted the event to be a 'Grand Event'. This is evident from the fact that the number of the teams is huge for a cricket tournament. The World Cup currently has 16 teams. But there are some teams which can hardly complete the play of 100 overs. ICC should have looked only at those teams who can give fight till 85-90 overs atleast-- In the end it doesnt matter if a certain team fails to win any match. Maybe, ICC gave chances to a lot of club class teams because they wanted it to be the 'real world cup'. (The tournament cannot be called a world cup if only 10 teams take part in it.) But what this thing has resulted into is that the number of matches in the WC is highest; simply because of the number of nations taking part in it.
Now that the number of teams were much more than it should be, they planned less matches in the first round, and more matches in the second round. This was simply because the quality of half of the teams is not upto the mark. ICC, arguably, would have thought that eight minnows would be eliminated after the first round, and only the top 8 teams will play in super 8.
But the number of games a team gets in each round is:
1st round : 3
2nd round : 6 (Super 8's)
3rd round : 1 (Semi-Final)
4th round : 1 (Final)
This planning is ridiculous. Ideally, the number of matches per team per round should decrease as the tournament progresses. Look at what effect it has: If a team loses two matches in the first round, most likely it is out of the tournament. But for the second round even if it loses five matches, it can play the sixth match!!
Now look at the total number of matches per round:
1st round : 24
2nd round : 24
3rd round : 2
4th round : 1
Look at the drastic reduction from second to third round, and also observe that the number of matches in first and second round are the same. There should have been a gradual reduction in the number of matches per round so that the tournament closes in.
And what has the above planning resulted in-- Two upsets so far, and two better teams are out in the first round (namely IND & PAK). This is not to favor the two teams. But look at the worst part. Even though Ireland and Bangladesh continue loosing all their matches, they will play all the matches. So, in the end they get to play 9 matches each. Result: Poor quality of the tournament. And that’s what is happening.
Written By: Nilesh Vaishnav, Sasken Technologies, Bangalore
Maybe the paragraph above is not sufficient to make someone guess about what this article talks about. Well, It is neither about the so called "Team India", nor about Pakistan cricket. It is about the scheduling of the event done by ICC. If you have a close look at the schedule of the world cup, the following things can be observed.
ICC wanted the event to be a 'Grand Event'. This is evident from the fact that the number of the teams is huge for a cricket tournament. The World Cup currently has 16 teams. But there are some teams which can hardly complete the play of 100 overs. ICC should have looked only at those teams who can give fight till 85-90 overs atleast-- In the end it doesnt matter if a certain team fails to win any match. Maybe, ICC gave chances to a lot of club class teams because they wanted it to be the 'real world cup'. (The tournament cannot be called a world cup if only 10 teams take part in it.) But what this thing has resulted into is that the number of matches in the WC is highest; simply because of the number of nations taking part in it.
Now that the number of teams were much more than it should be, they planned less matches in the first round, and more matches in the second round. This was simply because the quality of half of the teams is not upto the mark. ICC, arguably, would have thought that eight minnows would be eliminated after the first round, and only the top 8 teams will play in super 8.
But the number of games a team gets in each round is:
1st round : 3
2nd round : 6 (Super 8's)
3rd round : 1 (Semi-Final)
4th round : 1 (Final)
This planning is ridiculous. Ideally, the number of matches per team per round should decrease as the tournament progresses. Look at what effect it has: If a team loses two matches in the first round, most likely it is out of the tournament. But for the second round even if it loses five matches, it can play the sixth match!!
Now look at the total number of matches per round:
1st round : 24
2nd round : 24
3rd round : 2
4th round : 1
Look at the drastic reduction from second to third round, and also observe that the number of matches in first and second round are the same. There should have been a gradual reduction in the number of matches per round so that the tournament closes in.
And what has the above planning resulted in-- Two upsets so far, and two better teams are out in the first round (namely IND & PAK). This is not to favor the two teams. But look at the worst part. Even though Ireland and Bangladesh continue loosing all their matches, they will play all the matches. So, in the end they get to play 9 matches each. Result: Poor quality of the tournament. And that’s what is happening.
Written By: Nilesh Vaishnav, Sasken Technologies, Bangalore
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