Okay, so it may not exactly be yawn-inducing, but the format of this World Cup is just too long-drawn for anyone to be able to retain interest. It’s a tough balancing act for organisers as the tournament’s Chief Executive Chris Dehring said. “The length of the tournament was dictated by the decision to allow a reserve day for every match in case it was washed out, after weather disruptions at the 2003 tournament in South Africa,” he said.
But that’s still no excuse for a tournament to last 45 days! And Australia captain Ricky Ponting agrees. One of the latest critics of the format, he has in fact challenged the organisers to come up with a better format for 2011 in the subcontinent. But what can this be? In 1999, the Super Six was first introduced. It was a disaster then and again in 2003. So the Super Eight came about. And it allowed the inclusion of the top eight teams. Of course the fact that India and Pakistan are not playing has made it tougher to keep audiences tuned in, but the fact remains that 45 days is far too long.
The 2006 FIFA World Cup lasted 31 days and that included 32 teams. Of course weather has almost no bearing on a football match and in the case of cricket, there need to be arrangements in case of bad weather. In the Caribbean this time, there are nine venues and each venue gets more than a couple of matches. So obviously the interest of the locals would be minimised. In 2011, with four countries hosting, seventeen venues will be available in 2011 and of course the venue itself would ensure bigger crowds! But the format cannot remain same. It’s just too long. The ICC’s point is to bring the top eight teams into the second stage. Of course the number of teams are to remain the same (16) and it would perhaps work well if there were two groups of eight each with the top four going through to the quarter-final and then the semis and final making the second stage quicker and more viewer-friendly.
In this edition, a total of 55 matches would be played. With two groups, the number of matches would increase to 63 but one can’t help feel it would be quicker. The group stages can certainly have two matches on a day (with the exception of big matches) and it could speed up the whole process. And the excitement of the knockout could start much sooner.
There would be minimal weather concerns in February/March in the subcontinent and reserve days would not be required (except maybe in Bangladesh) and the tournament could well be finished in about 30 days; a full two weeks sooner! The group stages could be done with in about 20 days and the knockout in the next 10-12 days. The ICC has about two years before it has to finalise and announce the format and it would do well to listen to fans and players too.