Failed format promises tedious World Cup
With 32 days until the World Cup begins, Scyld Berry writing in the Telegraph argues that the format for the upcoming tournament promises the lengthy first round will be packed with pointless matches.
Sahil Dutta
25-Feb-2013
With 32 days until the World Cup begins, Scyld Berry writing in the Telegraph argues that the format for the upcoming tournament promises the lengthy first round will be packed with pointless matches.
If you thought the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies was grim, it was a roller-coaster of thrills by comparison with the forthcoming one. The World Cup, in effect, does not start on Feb 19 with the inaugural match between Bangladesh and India. It starts on March 23 when the quarter-finals commence: and the winners will be the team that conserves its energy for the first month and caters for the eventualities when the World Cup springs into life with the knockout stages which are crammed into the last 11 days. It is incredible such a tedious schedule has been devised. Nothing can happen in Group A of any interest whatsoever in more than a month of qualifying matches. Which four countries are going to qualify from Group A, folks: Australia, Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka? Surely not. There was I thinking Canada, Kenya and Zimbabwe were shoo-ins.
Sahil Dutta is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo