Cricket World Cup 2019

[George C.]

My thought for a better format.

16 teams in four groups of four. Top three go through to one of two super sixs.
1st in each group of six go through to semi final, 2nd and 3rd play off for semi.

24 games in first round
18 in second round
total of 42 group games
5 knockout games

6 extra teams but much less of a change of a big name getting knocked out in the first round (less of a chance of 2007 happening)
1 fewer game than current format.
Winner plays 8 or 9 games.

But we don't really know what the BCCI requires and thats the most important thing. Is it that they want a certain number of India games, to be able to guarantee that India won't leave early or (as I heard somewhere this week) do they want a guaranteed India Pakistan game?

Why not have the associate nations qualifiers as part of the main tournament? in effect drop in the test nations at a later stage of the competition?

We have a winner...

[tee rex]

Because of the exclusion, the current format can't be justified for a "World" cup, but it does have one big plus: no sides of the draw, so no "beat A and avoid B unless C", at least not until the closing stages of the group. It feels slightly strange not to have a route map to the final other than simply winning games, because that's ingrained in so many knockout tournaments from Wimbledon to football's World Cup. This one's more like the FA Cup, with no paths to predict.

Wall chart manufacturers might disagree.

[Duncan Gardner]

But we don't really know what the BCCI requires and thats the most important thing. Is it that they want a certain number of India games, to be able to guarantee that India won't leave early or (as I heard somewhere this week) do they want a guaranteed India Pakistan game?

If India want to play Pakistan, why don't they organise a series of 3 ODIs? Play it in Srinagar, Stormont and Strabane as er, neutral venues?

I'm only half joking- if Srinagar's likely to start WW3, replace with Southampton or Sydney.

[Hot Pepsi]

If India want to play Pakistan, why don't they organise a series of 3 ODIs? Play it in Srinagar, Stormont and Strabane as er, neutral venues?

I'm only half joking- if Srinagar's likely to start WW3, replace with Southampton or Sydney.

They could play it in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It would be massive.

[ursus arctos]

Before he went to federal prison for securities fraud, one of Raj Rajaratnam's primary goals was to use his zillions to build a world class cricket ground on Governor's Island off the southern tip of Manhattan for just that type of match (he also hoped to attract at least one edition of the IPL, which has been played outside of India).

[Janik]

Levin's idea looks good. At first glance there are lots of early games simply to knock out four minnows, but given it's only 18 Super Six games I am assuming the results from the opening round pool carry forward, thus keeping the length of the tournament manageable and ensuring they are not dead rubbers at that stage (though there may be some towards the end of the Supers 6s in that format). It also has the advantage of having the minnows in to allow them exposure, but not for that long, so fewer turkey shoots.

The problem with two pools of 7 is that one team per round of games has a bye - that will lead to some long breaks for sides between games. And even with the top three through rather than the top two, you've got lots of dead rubbers, quite a few of which will either feature, or will potentially feature sides ranked 9th-14th that will be a struggle to sell tickets for/adverts during.

[Hot Pepsi]

@ Etienne: I was with you until 'quarters'. It's either around robins then 3 knockout games at most, or a bit of a mish mash.

@ Hot Pepsi: 5 or 10 years ago many (self included) though the 50 over format was not long for this life, but it endures largely because Indian TV likes it

It feels a bit neither-here-nor-there. It doesn't feel like an epic, um, test of endurance and team depth of a test, but it's not as TV/short-attention-span friendly as T20. But I suppose these matches are on in the evening in India. If they were during the day, that would be a harder sell. And the weather is brutal in much of the country right now (is it ever not?) So it's a good time to sit inside in the evening and watch TV.

I found this info too.
https://qz.com/india/1341882/tv-view...tflix-hotstar/

It looks like there are about 200m homes with TVs in India and that's growing. For comparison, in the US, that number is 120m and yet we think we're the dominant player in popular culture.

[ursus arctos]

I think that there is a sense that T20 can be too "volatile" in terms of the better team winning most of the time. That's fine for the IPL, but international cricket is a genuine matter of state on the sub-continent and the Indians prefer a format in which their quality advantage is more likely to translate into victories.

[Levin]

So since I posted "my" format (nicked off of Handball Euro 2018) I've been thinking abut weather. Does a large group give better protection against the vaguries of bad weather?

[Hot Pepsi]

I think that there is a sense that T20 can be too "volatile" in terms of the better team winning most of the time. That's fine for the IPL, but international cricket is a genuine matter of state on the sub-continent and the Indians prefer a format in which their quality advantage is more likely to translate into victories.

That's a good point. The smaller countries, especially the smaller Asian countries, might therefore prefer the T20 because they have more of a chance. A bit like Fiji with rugby 7s.

[ursus arctos]

I think that Afghanistan have made that point explicitly at least once.

It's also a reason why some people think that T20 should be reserved exclusively for club sides.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

There's also the balance between bat and ball. Most of the exciting games in this World Cup have come about because one side has been able to start taking wickets. T20 is just a runblast. As there us a genuine need for evening matches people can watch in three hours, I'd really prefer T20 to be just five wickets per side, and all.

[Hot Pepsi]

I thought of that too, but would there still be 11 players? Because then there’d be five players who never bat. Like the problems with the baseball DH but half the team.

[Ray de Galles]

Did nobody spot there was a game today and watch The Shakib Show? That's out first five-for of the tournament isn't it? Allied with a half century and ridiculous figures too.

Granted it it was against Afghanistan but they looked competitive for much of the match before frustrating by not limiting Bangladesh to as much as they could have and never really getting hold of the chase.

Lovely day day despite The Rose Bowl being a pretty chaotically run venue, especially compared to the London grounds.

Lord's tomorrow, then back to work.

[longeared]

Mitchell Starc took a five-fer against the West Indies.

[Ray de Galles]

Ah, that slipped my mind.

[Southport Zeb]

They could play it in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. It would be massive.

From 1996 to 1998 the Sahara Cup was held in Toronto. Each year this was a series of five ODIs between India and Pakistan.

[Nocturnal Submission]

From 1996 to 1998 the Sahara Cup was held in Toronto. Each year this was a series of five ODIs between India and Pakistan.

Hah. That's funny. Early autumn by any chance? I got married in Toronto in 1997 and on the day was informed that we should give ourselves some extra time to get to the church because there was a big India/Pakistan cricket game on in the area. I thought I'd had a stress-related auditory hallucination but then we hit the police diversions.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Just checked Wiki. India won by 20 runs.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Bloody hell! The Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club was almost adjacent to the church!

[Duncan Gardner]

Right. After my brief flirtation with Bottomham for the CL Final, now its the big one. Come on Australia! Theyre still cunts of course, but all must ease the progress of the mighty Lanka. Or failing that, the Stan or the Desh

[George C.]

What's especially wrong with Australia?

And the last 4 will be them, England et al, India and NZ.

Sorry to disappoint, here's to one of the latter two winning overall?

[Levin]

Here we go.

Is the anthems a new thing? Is it just for the World Cup, sorry, ICC Cricket World Cup? Do they have them before bilateral games? Or tests?

[E10 Rifle]

Can't get these fuckers out. Not necessarily bowling that badly but a bit of a joyless start

[Duncan Gardner]

What's especially wrong with Australia?

Specifically: the captain and his deputy's year ban for blatant cheating in which I'm pretty confident the coach and chairman of the board were complicit.

Generally: they've sledged more aggressively than anyone else in the 50 years I've been watching cricket