ONE OF THE objectives of any cricket tournament is to provide excitement and interest from beginning to end.
In that regard, the level of competition and the format are critical.
I feel it necessary to raise the matter today because of what I perceive to be shortcomings in the format of two ongoing events.
One is the 2011 World Cup, the other is the WICB Regional Four-day Competition, and the concerns for both are similar.
The primary one is that teams that struggle and make little impact for the majority of the early stages could still be in line to win at the tail end of both tournaments.
The other weakness is the potential for several dull, meaningless contests.Let me examine each tournament separately.
The 2007 World Cup threw up concerns that the tournament was too long and drawn out.
In that regard, there isn’t much of a change. While the tournament four years ago had 51 matches over seven weeks, this edition features 49 matches over six weeks.
The format, however, varies considerably. In 2007, there were 24 Group Stage matches involving the 16 teams in four groups of four and that phase was completed in two weeks.
Following that was a Super Eight stage that also contained 24 matches over four weeks. It was here that two top teams in each of the four groups advanced to the next round and played each other. From there, the top four qualified for the semi-finals leading to the final.
To my mind, it was a perfect format which sought to eliminate the weaker teams early in the tournament and made virtually every match of the Super Eights of major importance.
In the end, the plan didn’t go according to the script because of the surprise elimination of India and Pakistan after the Group Stage and the qualification of Ireland and Bangladesh for the Super Eights.
Make no mistake about it, there is a significant difference in the quality of play between the full ICC members such as Australia, India, South Africa, and England and the associate members, Ireland, Netherlands and Canada.
The ICC sought to make an adjustment this year by reducing the number of participating teams from 16 and 14 but has overcompensated by changing the format that now gives the lightweights a lot more matches than they played last time around.
While the fledgling teams played three matches in 2007, they will have a minimum of six in 2011 because of the format which shows two groups of seven teams with everyone playing the other.
As far as I am concerned, the Group Stage segment that features 42 matches is a mere dress rehearsal leading up to the quarter-finals starting on March 23.
With so many matches involving the associate teams, I expect there will be a host of lopsided, predictable games for the first month of the tournament that could lead to a lack of interest among fans.
Mind you, we are almost guaranteed to have the odd upset along the way, but by and large, the competition only becomes do or die from the quarter-finals – a stage of the tournament that I do not endorse.
It should have been straight to the semi-finals after the Group Stage, allowing only the top two to progress instead of the top four.
Under the current format, it is possible that a team like West Indies can lose their group matches against South Africa, India and England, beat Ireland, Netherlands and Bangladesh, advance as the fourth-placed qualifier from the group to the quarter-finals and still have a chance of winning the World Cup.
The ICC’s plan to reduce the World Cup to ten teams for the next event may be a step in the right direction but the format still needs to be given careful consideration.
My concern over the WICB regional tournament is similar in some ways.
Eight teams, including England Lions, are competing, but the tourists will be leaving the Caribbean before the semi-finals.
It means that a team like Barbados can sneak through to the semi-finals in fifth place and be in line to win the top prize.
In the past, whenever we have had semi-finals and a final, the top Caribbean team from the league phase would be crowned as the regional first-class champions and the semi-finals and finals were technically a second competition that offered a challenge trophy and less prize money than for the cup.
There was no reason to deviate from this.
The existing format might have had something to do with the way in which three-time defending champions Jamaica approached the final day of the third-round match against Barbados at Kensington Oval last Monday.
They made no attempt to open the game and force a win, probably secure in the knowledge that it might make little difference if they emerged from the preliminaries as the first or second placed team.
Under the old format, I believe we would have seen an afternoon declaration with a view to pressing for a win and moving ahead of their challengers.
It would appear that organsiers of both the World Cup and the WICB Regional Four-day Competition were trying to provide some teams with more opportunities.
Sometimes, however, more equals less.
Haydn Gill is The NATION’s Associate Editor (Sports).
