And the very next paragraph seeks to spin the above negative into a positive for a different format..One-sided cricket matches can be boring........ Group A could see some ridiculous mismatches involving the likes of Australia and Sri Lanka pitted against Canada and Kenya. Look no further than the 2003 World Cup when minnows were dismissed for 30's and 40's and top teams regularly raked up 300's and 350's .
This makes no difference from the pov of desiring a good competition. You have mismatches either way.The ideal format would have been to have the group winners get direct semi-final berths and the 2nd and the 3rd place teams from each group play a knock out to decide the other two semi-finalists. That would have given an incentive for the stronger teams to mash up the minnows and the contests during the league would have had a context.
Those games still have context now. If you're looking to play a weaker team in the quarterfinal (as you should), you'd want to thrash every weak team in your group so that you end up placed higher up your group on the basis of NRR.What I meant to say was the matches would have had a context that is all. Say for example if in my suggested format a game between Australia and Canada could have assumed importance if Australia were to win by a certain margin.
You can spin it that way, we can agree to disagree though..Those games still have context now. If you're looking to play a weaker team in the quarterfinal (as you should), you'd want to thrash every weak team in your group so that you end up placed higher up your group on the basis of NRR.
Since you asked, Any team would prefer to take on a weaker opposition. However weaker is just on paper. The top 8 sides on a given day can beat anyone.. So it's not like India would rather face Pakistan than New Zealand or Australia would rather Eng than WI.Haha, how is that spin? Do you deny that any team would prefer facing a weaker opponent in a knockout match?
The 2 bolded statements again contradict each other.Since you asked, Any team would prefer to take on a weaker opposition. However weaker is just on paper. The top 8 sides on a given day can beat anyone.. So it's not like India would rather face Pakistan than New Zealand or Australia would rather Eng than WI.
The battle would be to avoid the top 2 teams from Each group. India, Aus, SL, SA. So the games against the minnows and these top teams would still be irreleavant.
No hate here man.Why the hate, man?
Some valid points there and I agree that the main driver behind this format was $$. However to make the league stage a little bit more meaningful had they adopted the format I had suggested in the piece, the league games could have had more context. All in all still 6 teams would qualify. Of course this debate can go on for it's tough to design a format that is liked by everyone.Sorry Ganesh,i don't agree.
People have been cribbing about how tedious the group stages will get for a while now.That part,is not wrong.What most people seem to be ignoring however,is the fact that after the 2007 edition,the ICC had to come up with a format to make sure that all 8 big teams advance to the knockout stage.I don't think what effected the last WC was the way minnows got smashed.I think what effected the torunament was that 2 big countries in India and Pakistan,never advanced to the knockout stages,and that automatically brought down the viewership.This is not to suggest that the ICC should format a tournament where teams from the subcontinent advance.My point is that whenever a big team goes out early,it will bring down the tournament ratings (if there is any such thing) and the vieweship,and also have an effect on the tournament itself.Now will all 8 teams virtually assured of a spot in the QFs due to the easy groups,the viewership won't go down.Plus i think interest in the tournament will persist,as comapred to a situation where a heavy weight is heading out as that particular team would take it's fanbase with it.Cricket is not a sport like football where the neutrals would have a lot of interest too,along with the regular hardcore team fans.The largest amount of vieweshhip and interest in cricket would be generated by the hardcore team fans,and as long as that is there,the tournament will be successful.
Just my two cents.