ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 - Disappointing Format?
ICC Cricket World Cup is the fourth largest and the most viewed sporting event of the world. Coming only once in four years it is the most sought after tournament for cricket lovers. But does its format justify its importance?
Let us first study the format in historical perspective. World Cups of 1975, the year the tournament started adopting the one-day type with 60 overs for each innings, and 1979 were restricted to six test playing nations and two selected regionally. In 1975 Sri Lanka and East Africa were the selected teams. Canada replaced East Africa in 1979. Round robin matches were played in two groups of four each with every team playing each other once within a group. Top two teams from each group qualified for the semi finals.
The 1983 World Cup was the most dramatic with teams like India and Zimbabwe causing major upsets and finally India winning the title. Zimbabwe came in place of Canada. In this tournament the round robin was amended a little and teams within a group played each other twice. Same format continued in 1987, but number of overs reduced from 60 to the international one-day standard of 50 overs.
While new colorful clothing and gears dazzled in the 1992 version format was again changed to a complete round robin without groups with teams playing each other only once. Around that time associate and affiliate members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) started making an impact. The size of 1996 Cup swelled to 12 nations. Group format was again adopted. The specter of 'minnows' and extremely one-sided matches involving them came to the fore.
Considering this in the world cups of 1999 and 2003 Super Six was introduced with top three teams from each group qualifying for the super league games. In 2007 super six was replaced by Super Eight with four groups of four each as the number of participating nations increased to 16-highest ever.
Criticism from cricket experts and ex-cricketers grew asking for curtailment of minnows and ineffectual matches. While welcoming the efforts of the ICC to promote cricket for its 100 associates and affiliates suggestions were made to restrict the tournament to only full test and one-day playing members and select only two top teams of the ICC Trophy which has been organized since 1979 among affiliate members and which has a complicated structure going down to six divisions of selection.
Now, consider the scenario for 2011 World Cup. Total 14 nations in two groups of seven each-10 full members and 4 associates. Teams play each other only once in a round robin within a group and top four teams from each group qualify for the quarter finals. From this knockout stage four go to the semis and two to final. No Super Six or Super Eight. If we include Bangladesh and Zimbabwe as minnows, they number six out of fourteen.
There are 49 matches which is surprisingly less than 51 in 2007 and 54 in 2003. Out of this 30 matches involve the minnows. At the league stage there are just 12 matches involving super teams. India plays only six matches out of which three are against minnows. So, in effect they play just three matches to qualify for the knockout and just three more to win the title! This applies to all super teams.
This is indeed disappointing. The suspense of competition is not sustained and the huge gaps between big matches hardly help. Criticism started again. Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting asked for doing away with the minnows from World Cup while others suggested selecting only top two teams from ICC Trophy tournaments.
What are the options before the ICC? We can list a few points here.
• It is not proper to deprive the minnow of this big opportunity altogether, but the suggestion of selecting only top two teams from ICC Trophy can be tried.
• At the league stage teams must play each other at least twice within a group. Maybe, if this rule was applied India and Pakistan would not have crashed out of 2007 World Cup which led to a marketing disaster. One encounter is not enough at this level. True to the game of cricket anything can happen in one-off encounters. Apart from suffering heavy defeats consistently minnows are famous for causing upsets that only damage the competition.
• Criticism about weeks consumed by the tournament is totally unfounded. Coming only once in four years it is expected to take up to two months. Nobody utters a word while the annual extravaganza called IPL(Indian Premiere League) goes on for months with each team playing the others as many as seven times! Further there is definitely no problem of funds and multiple venues help staging even three matches a day.
• Why not consider making this event biennial or organizing an Associate World Cup in between?
• A super league stage is also a must to ensure all super teams play each other. At least here they can play each other twice.
The ICC must consider all options to make this big tournament highly competitive and very effective.
Chinmay Chakravarty is a professional specialized in the creative field with over two decades of experience in journalistic writing, media co-ordination, film script writing, film dubbing, film & video making, management of international film festivals and editing of books & journals. Proficient in providing professional services in these related fields. Presently working in Mumbai Doordarshan as a News Editor.
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