First/Group Round - Group A - Bangladesh, Netherlands, Ireland, Oman

[Black_Warrior]

Sunny's action is dodgy and should have been reported way earlier. Don't know what's the problem with Taskin's action. Looks fair to me but I am no expert and will wait for the results once the tests are done. No doubt that this will affect them mentally in the middle of a global tournament. This caused a massive backlash in BD and the conspiracy theorists are out in full force.

I am not a fan of conspiracy theories, but I think the way that ICC has gone about it is just an invitation for such theories. When you try to keep everything hush hush except for the decision, you are inviting people to speculate.

The entire process, not just the testing but what factors lead to match officials reporting should be made transparent and public. No one really knows now why Taskin was reported. His action looks smooth to everyone, given that we are not qualified to speak about it..all the more reason for there to be more information.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

I am not a fan of conspiracy theories, but I think the way that ICC has gone about it is just an invitation for such theories. When you try to keep everything hush hush except for the decision, you are inviting people to speculate.

The entire process, not just the testing but what factors lead to match officials reporting should be made transparent and public. No one really knows now why Taskin was reported. His action looks smooth to everyone, given that we are not qualified to speak about it..all the more reason for there to be more information.

They have to undergo testing within 7 days (likely to miss at least one qualifier if not both) as opposed to 14 days because it's ICC event as per the rules. Taskin played two major events before both in Australia (u19 WC and WC 2015) and has been playing international cricket for 1.5+ years. No official ever raised any concern to my knowledge. Can't help but to think umpires' decision to report Taskin was misjudgement and error from them without much analysis. Time will tell.

 

[Pratters]

Go away rain, I want to watch cricket.

 

[Pratters]

Despite the anguish, the rain is so entrenched in cricket culture and some thing we look at fondly reflecting back, once play starts.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Sloppy start by Irish

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Looks like ball is coming onto bat nicely, BD needs 120

 

[cricman]

At least Bangladesh got some good batting practice and Ireland were beyond sloppy. Serious regression. 3 missed dismissals, overthrows and extras.

Bangladesh vs Oman for all the Marbles

Good thing Bangladesh have a better NRR, wouldn't want them to go out if that match got abanonded.

 

[Energetic]

Embarrassing for ICC for scheduling games there considering there were many other stadiums available. Obviously Bangladesh would've won had it been a proper T20 game. Luckily! a no-result for Ireland, but it's a result that will take them home.

 

[Pratters]

In the little play which we did see today, Tamim was brilliant. Why does this guy not have an IPL contract?

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Embarrassing for ICC for scheduling games there considering there were many other stadiums available. Obviously Bangladesh would've won had it been a proper T20 game. Luckily! a no-result for Ireland, but it's a result that will take them home.

CI reported that it does not rain there normally at this time of the year.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

In the little play which we did see today, Tamim was brilliant. Why does this guy not have an IPL contract?

He had this one season contract when Ganguly hand picked him for his team. Did not get to play much afterwards and the whole franchise did not take part in IPL after the season. He is a much improved player at T20s recently. Used to be dismal at this format.

 

[Prince EWS]

Well that just about rules Ireland out now.

 

[AndyZaltzHair]

Well that just about rules Ireland out now.

PEWS, thoughts on the format of this qualifying round?

Literally asking the associates a mountain to climb to play with the top nations in the main round. I don't think the matches would have been that one sided if the associates were slotted in the main round directly esp in this format. We might have seen some upsets. They would gain some experience. These qualifying rounds are still WC by definition but the real feel of it is going missing here. At least they can make two teams from each group to get the opportunity to play in the main round.

 

[Niall]

In the little play which we did see today, Tamim was brilliant. Why does this guy not have an IPL contract?

Its bloody hard to get one these days with only 4 oversea players rule, to be fair he has always been considered to slow for t20 and I am unsure smashing average Irish and Dutch bowlers.

His international t20 cricket record while not awful isn't to exciting either.

 

[Niall]

PEWS, thoughts on the format of this qualifying round?

Literally asking the associates a mountain to climb to play with the top nations in the main round. I don't think the matches would have been that one sided if the associates were slotted in the main round directly esp in this format. We might have seen some upsets. They would gain some experience. These qualifying rounds are still WC by definition but the real feel of it is going missing here. At least they can make two teams to get the opportunity in the main round.

Its a pile of toss.

At least when it was very years they got a little more cricket, but this feels so anti climatic and as you say its asking to much of the associates.

I don't know why we can't have 4 groups of 4, sure their may be one sided matches but these sides need to play proper world cup cricket rather than patronising qualifying for qualifying bollocks.

 

[Prince EWS]

PEWS, thoughts on the format of this qualifying round?

Literally asking the associates a mountain to climb to play with the top nations in the main round. I don't think the matches would have been that one sided if the associates were slotted in the main round directly esp in this format. We might have seen some upsets. They would gain some experience. These qualifying rounds are still WC by definition but the real feel of it is going missing here. At least they can make two teams from each group to get the opportunity in the main round.

Yeah I agree with you. It's essentially just a qualifier that they play right before the tournament as opposed to months before like most other qualifiers. In some ways I think it's disingenuous for the ICC suggest they're really part of the tournament (bar the two who progress, obviously).

Given the short length and high variance of T20 matches, all sixteen teams should be put into groups from the start. I really enjoy watching associate vs associate matches but it's not the optimal format.

 

[Crazy Sam]

It reminds me of the recent rugby league world cups where the top teams are in separate pools to the bottom teams, although they at least all play at the same time instead of having a 'pre-tournament' such as this.

 

[turnstyle]

Why not just leave it as it is but let 4 teams qualify.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

The answer to every "why" question with regard to the formats of ICC tournaments is the same - to reduce the chance of a top test team getting eliminated. That's the entire purpose of designing the format of every tournament they host. The last two cricket world cups had probably the worst format of any international sporting event I've ever seen, and while this t20 format is a bit better, since the results of individual games in the group phase actually matter and it's not the whole tournament decided in 7 knockout games after a month of wasting time, it's still not any good.

A proper format would be something like four groups of four with the top two from each group going into a knockout stage, simple as that.

The proper format for a longer tournament with less potential for upsets like the 50 over world cup would be something like three groups of four going into a super six or three groups of five going into a super six. Since I can certainly buy the argument that 6 associates is too many for a 50 over tournament. But that would mean that, like in 2007, test nations could be eliminated if they lost games of cricket to other teams. And we can't have that.

 

[Black_Warrior]

In the little play which we did see today, Tamim was brilliant. Why does this guy not have an IPL contract?

He did for one season. They barely gave him a game to play.