“Not a World Cup but rather a tournament of ten teams.”
Veteran Scotland batsmen Preston Mommsen didn’t hold back after his team missed out on the big event last year. He may have had a point. The rugby World Cup is going to be held in a new country and is a game that is constantly expanding. There are talks of the football World Cup – an already bloated event – fielding 48 teams in the years to come.
But the cricket World Cup operates differently. While it looked like, many years ago, that the game was reaching corners previously unexplored, it is now moving in reverse. Canada, USA, Netherlands have been a part of International Cricket Council tournaments in the past. but the cricket-playing community has shrunk even further in the last few years.
And the World Cup now looks just like a fancier version of the Champions Trophy. The only hope was that the all-play-all league stage would make games interesting.
Poor start
What we have had, instead, is four bland one-sided contests. Agreed, it is not England and South Africa’s fault that the tournament opener wasn’t a better contest that the one we were served. On their day, the hosts can blow any team out of the water.
Pakistan, a former champion, surrendered meekly against West Indies. Sarfaraz Ahmed’s side was timid and looked like they were facing short-pitched bowling for the first time.
Sri Lanka, meanwhile, are on a perennial decline. On a green Cardiff surface, the Lankans folded cheaply against a clinical New Zealand outfit. Afghanistan, the newest name in the Test fold, put up more of a fight than two established names and previous winners. Australia’s bowlers, who were on top early in the match, were made to sweat a little.
It must be said that the Afghans came into the tournament through the qualifiers, a stage that the mighty West Indies also had to overcome.
Cricket, it looked like for a brief while, was replicating the football model. It may be worth noting that more than 200 nations play ‘The beautiful game’. It makes sense to have a qualifying stage. Moreover, ‘top’ teams are not guaranteed anything and frequently, some of the biggest names miss out on a spot in the football World Cup.
One look at cricket World Cup’s brief history would have shown how smaller nationals have also managed to punch above their weight in the previous editions. Zimbabwe upset one of the top-ranked nations in Australia in 1983, Bangladesh stunned the world with a win over Pakistan in 1999 and went on to become a Test-playing nation a year later. During 2007, Bangladesh and Ireland took turns to pull off major upsets against Indian and Pakistan. And most sports would have craved for more of the same? But cricket delivered a big resounding no.
What sort of a cricket tournament can afford to not have India or Pakistan in the latter stages? The format witnessed a change. And some more. The casualties? Ireland, of course. How dare they script two upsets in back-to-back tournaments.
No succession plan
But the bigger problem as has been visible from the first four games, is that the gap between even the top-10 nations in world cricket is pretty big.
Zimbabwe, who failed to even qualify for the World Cup, can point at the volatile political situation back home for their decline.
Sri Lanka and Pakistan, barring the odd flourish, have their own problems keeping pace with the elite. A resurgent West Indies have put some smiles back on the faces of the cricketing community at large. New Zealand don’t get to play Test matches as frequently as the rest of the world. The Kiwis, though, will continue to punch above their weight in big events.
Australia’s travails while David Warner and Steve Smith were serving their one-year bans is well documented.
As for the “minnows”, their struggle continues and for good reason. They seldom get to face the bigger countries. Bangladesh, after years of toil, now have a team who can match up to their opponents on home soil. But their away form continues to be patchy. The reason? Opportunities to travel for a Test series is not anywhere close to making them ready for the next big push.
Then, the question to ask is: What is the road map to make teams like Afghanistan and Ireland more competitive? Is there any map at all in the first place?
As things stand, cricket can ill-afford the fortunes of someone at the top nosediving. While the governing body can’t be responsible for a nation’s administerial mess a la Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, 35-over contests during the World Cup are equally problematic. One way to solve that would be to create enough opportunities for newer nations to compete and excel while trying to strengthen the systems in the top Test playing countries.
After all, nobody wants to see a four-team World Cup in the years to come.