When the first six was hit in anger during the course of theinaugural match between hosts Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe at the T20 World Cup itwas greeted with much cheer. Sadly, however that remained the highlight of aseries of matches that promised much and delivered very little. You can thank aformat that has shortchanged the minnows trying to make a mark amongst the bigboys.
Consider this: the first four days matches were as excitingas watching paint dry. India struggled to beat Afghanistan and then rested forfour days. Whereas their opponents played their second match and flew out ofthe island by the time India played England.
If that was not bad enough, the former calypso kings playeda match and a half, did not win and yet went through on the basis of a superiorrun rate. They played the Australians, scored around 178 odd and lost due tothe confounded Duckworth-Lewis method after the Australians responded byscoring 100 odd runs in 9 overs. Intheir next match the Windies played Ireland. Sadly rain intervened and thematch was abandoned.
Bishan Singh Bedi , ex cricketer and resident contrariansaid “ I am not really a fan of this format. There is nothing in it for theconnoisseur. This is the only format where the batsman tries hard to get outand the bowler tries not to bowl them out. This format is all about hitting andmissing. The ICC spends millions on fireworks. They should spend the money torectify the atrocious bowling actions. SaeedAjmal is a dart player. Harbhajan, well what can I say? This is no longercricket but baseball. What is the ICC doing? They are a bunch of bloody jokers “
His views however were not shared by Shadab Jakati, spinner of the state Ranjiteam. He said “the minnows lost because they could not match the prowess of thetop eight. They had a good opportunity to show their skills and they did well.What is holding them back is experience. I think the absence of continuouslyplaying with the top teams is what is holding them back. “
His views were echoed by Vivek Kolambkar, coach of the stateteam. He said “I don’t think the minnow can feel cheated. They were givenexposure at this level and they were found out. The format is such and it canprove costly for any of the big teams too. The absence of exposure is what isholding them back. The West Indians madeit through because they played so well against the Australians and despitetheir loss on the DL calculation they made it on run-rate. I would recommendthe ICC organise more A matches between these teams and the major teams”.
Perhaps the problem lies in the sports focus on earning the nextrupee. As Bishan Bedi said “I am very scared. This entertainment business isoverwhelming the sport”.
