Is the World Cup really a big deal?
In a tirade against the powers that run cricket, John Stern says in the Wisden Cricketer that ridiculous scheduling and the administrators' hunger for quick cash rather than developing the game has rendered the World Cup redundant
Dustin Silgardo
25-Feb-2013
In a tirade against the powers that run cricket, John Stern says in the Wisden Cricketer that ridiculous scheduling and the administrators' hunger for quick cash rather than developing the game has rendered the World Cup redundant. "A 50-over match between, say, England and Australia loses some of its lustre when the same two teams have been slugging it out over a seven-match series only a month or so beforehand," Stern says.
The game needs a decent, well-supported World Cup to reaffirm faith in the 50-over game. Whether another six-week marathon will do that remains to be seen. I’m sceptical. Dispensing with the associate nations for next time seems a wrong-headed choice and detrimental to developing cricket in those countries. Scheduling two games a day, rather than one, would help to get things moving more quickly but presumably the TV companies don’t dig that. Just for once, it would be nice to see the ICC do something for the overall health and image of the game rather than just the short-termist, greedy requirements of broadcasters and marketeers.
Dustin Silgardo is a former sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo