World T20 champs, first round, March 8-13

[Durhamfootman]

Zim falling apart

unable to cope with the scoreboard pressure, presumably

[Alviro Patterson]

Not easy scoring runs on this slow bunsen burner

[Durhamfootman]

Zim don't have the luxury of the fast start that Afghanistan made, so they can ill afford to consolidate in the middle overs (like Afghanistan did).

Do or die time

[dan08]

Another amateurish run out from Zimbabwe.

[Aidan11]

Well done Afghanistan.

[mikesiva]

Wow, that was a huge win!

Imagine if Afghanistan win the Intercontinental Cup, and then have to play off with Zimbabwe for Test cricket status...I can't wait!

[Aidan11]

We may need to put an Afghanistan flag in our smileys section.

[The Professor]

Dear ICC

Look at Zimbabwe. This is what happens when you don't fund properly. A test playing nation who have a huge interest in cricket who lose players like Gary Ballance and Brendan Taykir because there is next to no money in Zimbabwean cricket.

Take heed Bangladesh and associates of the fate that may befall you.

Kind Regards

365

PS Can you invest in a big umbrella to stop all this rain.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Any money given to Zimbabwe would find is way out of the game. Admittedly, like Sri Lanka.

[dan08]

Zimbabwe get three times as much funding as Afghanistan and Ireland but obviously they just don't use it wisely.

[Dr Cricket]

but would the top teams (and, remarkably, England are arrogant enough to consider themselves a top team despite being mostly sh1te) allow it? I'm sure they would much prefer to tell the non-entities to ssip off, rather than risk losing to them (and England have lost to the *modded* lot)

Only 4 teams in the Super 10s can qualify for the semi-finals. 4 groups of 4 with a knockout round from Quarter-Final onwards increases the number of teams advancing to the next stage. The test nations are more likely to be in favour.

TBH can't see a 4 group of 4 teams ever happening again after 2007 world cup.

it will either be 2 groups of 7 or 3 groups of 6 if they ever allow the associates to be in the same groups as the main nations.

2007 World Cup had a Super 8s tournament after the Group Stage, which made it a flop.

2 groups of 7 (similar to CWC15) is okay for associates exposure and a good revenue earner, but World T20 loses it's intensity due to the prolonged round robin format and would take roughly 5 weeks to complete. 4 groups of 4 with a QF knockout allows for expansion, whilst retaining the traditional intensity of a World T20 and takes half the time to finish.

The 2007 world cup wasn't a flop because of the super 8 thing it was a flop because india got knocked out after 3 games and in the first round.

essentially the format need to fulfil this criteria.
India play a decent amount of games and against good opposition.
Any format with india getting knocked out after 1 or 2 games will be rejected.
India vs Bangladesh and india vs Sri lanka single-handedly killed the expansion of the cricket game in 2007.
If India qualified 9 years ago ICC would be totally different right now and world cup would likely be expanded again to 20 teams.



ICC Doesn't make any money unless India does well, india out early ICC loses around 70% of it's income of the world cup.

Also you are forgetting in t20 world cup you can play 3 or 4 games a day because of this it can essentially follow the rugby world cup format and still be over in 2-3 weeks.
basically if it followed the world cup format it could be over 1 or 2 weeks quicker than the 2015 format.

[Dr Cricket]

Zimbabwe get three times as much funding as Afghanistan and Ireland but obviously they just don't use it wisely.

that what I was thinking lol.
just a matter of time before zimbabwe get removed or basically get replaced and still have full member rights.
India, England and Australia don't actually want to give Zimbabwe money any more because it just goes straight to Mugabe pockets.

[mikesiva]

Tamim Iqbal hits a century off just 63 balls....

[The Professor]

A shame that Ireland and Netherlands tournament both ends with a 6 over game.

Bangladesh looking really good. Would beat most of the Asian minnows plus probably Sri Lanka and maybe Pakistan.