ICC T-20 Cricket World Cup 2009 in England….It’s quite a Format really !…there are four groups with three countries in each…two from each group will qualify for the Super 8s
You win one and you yet have to play your second but you have already qualified for the Super 8s,because the one you’ve beaten has lost both their matches !
These Country Sets have to yet play each other..but both have beaten the team in the red and thus move forward to Super 8s
India,Ireland….Bangladesh
South Africa,New Zealand….Scotland
West Indies,Sri Lanka….Australia
In the Fourth Group,England lost to Netherlands but beat Pakistan and thus qualify on the higher Net Run Rate…Pakistan has to beat Netherlands today by a good margin to qualify ahead of them on the Net Run Rate
Sad really,that there were all three recognised good teams in one Group…West Indies,Sri Lanka and Australia…Unfair therefore that one of them,Australia had to exit early…..while other three groups had minnows like Netherlands,Scotland and Ireland….though to their credit, Netherlands and Ireland got past England and Bangladesh respectively
With such a Format it would have been more sensible,rational and logical to divide Netherlands,Ireland,Scotland and Bangladesh seperately into the four groups…rather than concentrate Ireland and Bangladesh into just one group with India…good for India though !
This would have ensured that any spectacular upset by any of the Minnows would have been a fluke or just a one-off and would not have been enough to take the Winner into the Super 8s,unless they won again or had a higher Net Run rate.
This would also have rightly laid the ground for the Top 8 Cricket Playing Nations to contest the Super 8s…This now won’t happen as Australia is out already and Pakistan may exit too if they lose to Netherlands today or win,but log a lower Net Run rate
Just a few Thoughts !
3 thoughts on “ICC T-20 Cricket World Cup…What a Format !…you win One and you’re into the Super 8s!”
The groups were based on the 2007 T20 WC results. In that tournament, Group A had SA, WI and Bangladesh. SA and Bangla qualified while WI was out in the first round. Therefore for this tournament Bangladesh is actually ranked higher than WI explaining how WI, SL and Aus are in the same group.
Any basis should reward Consistency not a Fluke…You can say Bangladesh benefited at the expense of Australia because of their T-20 World Cup Fluke in 2007 !
T-20 is yet in Infancy so there is little precedence and Ranking available for any firm,sensible and acceptable basis…Yet !
Totally Agree. Not much of what the ICC ever does can be called sensible! Although its nice to finally see a tournament without the sole objective being who will be able to defeat Aus. Much like the French Open without Nadal through half way.