World Cup

A recent post on cricinfo.com made me write this one. There have been too many voices asking for a stop to the hectic cricketing schedule ahead of the World Cup. Even the World Cup in my mind, the format that it is right now is too long and would result in too many boring matches. The present World Cup has 16 teams (too many) and the depth in world cricket is too shallow to throw up many competitive match ups. While cricket claims to be a true world sport, the number of countries where it is followed is very small (The Indian subcontinent, Australia and England).Essentially the Super 8 as it is called right now would be the Test Playing nations minus Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.

The best World Cup format was the 1992 one held in Australia - the teams play each other once in a round robin format and the top four play in the knockout stage. Such a format would not only make compelling viewing but also allow teams to recoup from any reverses. The winner would definitely be the winner as he would have played against each and every team in the tournament. With 8 teams in the tournament (sorry no place for Zimbabwe and Bangladesh), there would be only 28 round robin matches followed by three knock out matches totaling 31. The tournament can be over in about a 40 days and the teams would have some rest before starting afresh. The teams can be chosen from their form on the points table over the last 2 years which would essentially mean the same Super 8. Such a tournament would not only make for good viewing but also retain interest for the viewers in the longer run.

This is a repost - it was posted before my blogs were deleted on 02 Feb 2007