The ICC Cricket World is now at the quarter final stage. And mostly it has been enjoyable with quite a few thrilling finishes plus outstanding batting and bowling performances.
The batting stars so far are AB de Villiers from South Africa, Kumar Sangakkara and Tillakaratne Dilshan from Sri Lanka, Brendon MacCullum from New Zealand, Brendan Taylor from Zimbabwe, Chris Gayle from the West Indies, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli from India and the Australian swashbuckler Glenn Maxwell – the Errol Flynn of cricket.
The outstanding bowlers have been Mitchell Starc from Australia and Trent Boult and Tim Southee from New Zealand.
I realise that it is easy to be wise after the event but the CWC could have been better organised. Here are my suggestions.
The final Test between Australia and India concluded in Sydney on 10 January this year. Then there was a meaningless Tri Nations one-day series between Australia, India and England.
The ICC CWC started on 14th February – 35 days after the Test series ended. The final will be played on 29th March, the tournament lasting 44 days.
Isn’t it too long for a cricket season to go on when the rugby league and AFL seasons start in early March and the daily newspapers give three to four times more coverage to NRL and AFL than to the all important CWC?
Instead of 14th February, the CWC could have commenced on Saturday the 24th January, the long weekend, with 26th January being Australia Day and a public holiday.
Also instead of lasting for 44 days with long breaks in between matches, the Final could have been held on Sunday the first of March, thus the tournament lasting for 35 days.
The opening India–Pakistan clash could have been held on the MCG where the crowd would have neared a world record 100,000.
Apart from Scotland and UAE, the lowly ranked countries – especially Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Ireland – performed well. A 12-team CWC would work better in future.
Now to the colour clothing by different teams. The rationale behind using different colour clothing in one-day internationals was two-fold: for better visibility of the white ball for batsmen and for umpires, and to distinguish between rival teams.
The first purpose is satisfied.
But with England, India, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan donning dark blue uniforms and many countries wearing yellow to yellow-green attire, the second purpose is lost according to me.
What do you say, Roarers?
B2
Guest
Sir Kersi ! Always on the money but yo missed some thing very relevant and very important which has not been seen or heard this World Cup. There are no LADY commentators .I miss that and am sure millions more do..Would be better than some of the CACKLING COCKS we are forced to bear with!
Conor
Guest
The 2007 format included the baffling super 8s instead of straight QFs which lengthened the WC by ages. If they went straight to knockouts that WC wouldve been much better. Agree with the India exiting early comment; the ICC cares way more about Indian TV deals than it does about expanding the game
Conor
Guest
Every other sport uses this process, including FIFA (groups 4) Rugby (groups 5), their WCs do not have the same issues as ours with regards to length and maintaining interest.
Spooky
Guest
Goes too long , each squad should have 20 players , each team plays 2-3games a week, have to rotate players as required , be over in 3 weeks
Hayley
Guest
New Zealand wears blue because of ANZ sponsoring them. They also aren't entirely wearing blue, its just on their back.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
JGK, I share your disappointment regarding the SCG members lock out.
The Bush
Roar Guru
Depends if it was a bad day against the team you had to beat. Usually in groups of four one loss puts you second behind the top team who didn't lose and thus you progress.
raz
Guest
To be honest most comments are just about Bcci ,most people here seem to convenient ly forget Cricket australia is as much involved
raz
Guest
Yep still coudnt ensure england though. The 4 group format thougj is flawed you basically just need to have one bad game and you are out,that definitely isnt what we want do we???
JGK
Roar Guru
Because they are members who have already paid for their membership. Just like the last time the WC was in Australia.
Tinfoil Hat
Guest
Why would the ICC hand out free tickets to the members?
JGK
Roar Guru
Kersi - you forgot to mention the disgraceful locking out of members of the various grounds from the games (unless they pay for a ticket). I know a number of members of the SCG, me included, who have boycotted the tournament as a result.
Renegade
Roar Guru
Haha ;)
Johnno
Guest
Kersi they may of made the finals fair and square, but in the current format which they had dictator like status over in scheduling. The format was so well suited to them making the Q/finals. Why doesn't the BCCI lets get real, they really run cricket as they basically put that ICC puppet in the Indian former boss of the BCCI who is on all sorts of allegations of corruption. The ICC/BCCI should set up a format of 16-teams, 4 groups of 4, top 2 qualify. What is India's fear of giving more opportunities to the associates? I'll tell everyone out there, it's loss revenue for themselves, at the expense of growing the game to more countries. I would like to see 2 more associates added e.g. like a Canada,Holland,Kenya, these types of teams given a go. Chuck in aussies and poms, the "Big 3" a ruling cricket with an iron-stick.
Chris
Guest
Nope, on my television, it did say live. Hope I wasn't watching the replays.
Red
Guest
I think the constant comments from the 'Big 3' to try work out the minnows is disgusting. The world cup should be increased to 16/24 teams with 2 sections with a plate to the WC and a path to a plate final like they do for the minnows and England. The same format that is currently used in 7's rugby. And please can these precious prima donnas try and play more than 1 game per week to try speed up the tournament.....
Renegade
Guest
Well we've been watching different World Cups then.... you sure you're not watching the 1992 world cup again?
Brendon
Guest
"The final Test between Australia and India concluded in Sydney on 10 January this year. Then there was a meaningless Tri Nations one-day series between Australia, India and England. " It wasn't meaningless as India's current form proves. The world cup started at the right time. The 1992 world cup started later and finished on the 25th of March, only 4 days before the 2015 version. The 1992 version lasted 32 days for 9 teams. Agreed the qualifying stages took way too long. Quite often there were mid-week games of top nations playing the minnows with a predictable result. If the ICC are worried that teams might play too many games in a short period of time (though the SCG semi is on the 27th and the final is on the 29th) then expand the amount of players in the squad. I would like to see that. Teams facing the choice of either sticking with their best 11 for every game or rest players and face losing close games.
Chris
Guest
I'd say NZ and the next best have a daylight difference.
Renegade
Guest
Kersi, All due respect - Aus and NZ have daylight between them and the next best.