Have you ever noticed why in every ICC World Cup event; India plays Pakistan in the first round of the tournament?

This article will explain why the 2024 T20 World Cup tournament has Shocking and absurd flaws

Introduction

From the illogical pre-seedings to the priority treatment given to Team India are questions which an average cricket fan will need answer to.

Unfair Teams mapping in groups

In the game of Football, be it Internationals or franchise tournaments, the draws of the tournament are random. That means which team falls in which group is entirely random and unknown. That is why we have the famous ‘Group of death’ scenario where more than 2-3 strong teams are pitted against each other in the same group and risk being eliminated due to the quality of the group teams.

In ICC tournament, there is no such drama. Only Two good teams are put in a Group giving them a safe passage to the Super 8 stage. With 5 groups and twenty teams, it becomes unfair to the balance 10 weaker/ associate teams who will have a mountain to climb to cross to the Super 8 stage.

Team Seedings

After an unfair round of handpicking the teams to be put in predetermined groups in the beginning, the top 2 teams in the group gets 1 and 2 seeding.

The group-stage matches hence are designed to have barely any impact on the Super 8 stage.
Assuming that the top 2 teams go to the next round, immaterial of their positions in the points table, the qualified teams know in advance in which group they fall in the Super 8 stage. They will also be aware of the grounds they will play in and the teams they will play against. The suspense of who will face each other in the Super 8 stage is absent.

Exception to the above is in case one of the top 2 seeds gets eliminated in the first round, then the 3rd or 4th seeded team (who is in the top 2 positions in the points table) gets the exiting team’s seed.
Top 1 and Top 2 Seed will however not change their seeding (if qualified) even if 2nd seed team leads in the points table.
For e.g. Even after topping their group Australia remained seeded 2.

No. 1 Ranked team New Zealand got replaced by Afghanistan who now don the number 1 seed in their group and would now play against the group which New Zealand would have played had they qualified to the Super 8 stage.
The element of natural progression that you’d want to see in a World Cup is missing.

Teams could gift a win to not allow a strong team to qualify

As there are only 2 big teams in each group, there is a possibility of foul play. This scenario aroused in this World Cup when the defending champion England, who had a game washed out, was in risk of getting eliminated.

Australia, who had already qualified to the Super 8, could have played spoil sport if they had purposely lost their last.

In an interview, Australian, Josh Hazlewood agreed to a question that it was in Australia’s best interests to perhaps increase Scotland’s chances for an early England exit.

However, better sense prevailed and Group B saw both the two powerhouses finishing first and second.

Super 8 Stage – Pre-decided?

In Super 8 stage, Group 1 was to be: A1, B2, C1, D2 and Group 2 was A2, B1, C2, D1.

As mentioned earlier, seedings were prefixed.

Australia, who finished top of Group B, were pre-determined to meet India, who finished top of Group A, in the Super 8 stage. This is because India were pre-seeded as A1 and Australia as B2 for Super 8s, irrespective of the team finishing first or second in the group.

Australian pacer Mitchell Starc also raised one of many important questions about the format and scheduling in place for the 2024 edition.

India Match Schedules

To accommodate the Indian broadcasters and fans, India matches are all day games to suite the prime time 8 p.m. IST slot, while some of the non-crucial encounters are played as day-night fixtures which streams live in the odd early morning hours in India.

While it may have not directly helped the team, BCCI’s power over international cricket is quite evident here.

In the current tournament too, India had the luxury of minimal travel in the group stage (three matches in Nassau followed by a quick trip to Florida) whereas most other teams had to travel between venues, even countries, and clock plenty of air miles. India also got a warm-up match in Nassau, whereas their three opponents there in the group stage were all playing their first matches at the new venue the day they met India, even for the Host USA.

All Super 8 fixtures for team India are already pre-decided to be 8pm starts in India and India knew the venue they will play their semifinal that also starts at 8pm IST.

Due to the revenue, it generates, India’s presence into the next stage is a requirement and ICC does everything to make sure India are unlikely to exit without playing at least five or six matches.

India-Pakistan Clash in Group Stage

Another unfair group stage draw is the consistency in ICC putting India and Pakistan in the same group in almost all ICC marquee tournaments. So, it is clear that the mapping of team is never random and always handpicked.

How the Group stage draws take place is never known and are just announced which is surprising and raises few eyebrows.

Pre decided matches like India-Pakistan, England-Australia and Sri Lanka-Bangladesh are a given in most ICC tournaments in the initial stage.

When Some Teams defied the prefixed fixtures

USA, Afghanistan and Bangladesh took everyone by surprise and defied the seedings to make it to the Super 8 stage. New Zealand and Pakistan shockingly did not make the Super 8 stage even when the path was made easy by ICC with the group stage fixtures.

Afghanistan vs West Indies could have been a show stopper but the schedule made it almost a dead rubber in the end.

Summary

While ICC argues that the main reason behind the introduction of the absurd seeding system was to make logistics easier for fans to ensure the fans don’t have to have any difficulty in planning their travel to follow their team in the competition in advance.
Also, England after struggling and barely qualifying for Super 8 stage still remains as B1 (they finished second in the points table) and Afghanistan becoming C1 is just difficult to comprehend.

In the Super 8 stage games for B1 Team or C1 Team is already prefixed which raises eyebrows again.
Only 2 teams from the 2 groups will now go on to play the Semi Finals and Finals.
We will let our readers decide if all this makes sense.