Final thoughts on 2012 T20 World Cup

T20 Champions League is currently under way in South Africa. Quite a misnomer, given that some of the Champion teams had to play in the qualifying, while a 4th place finish gets a direct entry for some one else. BCCI should get 4 IPL teams into the competition but restrict direct entry to only two.

Also, this is a perfect example of cricket overdose, coming close on the heels of the T20 World Cup. I have hardly been following the Champions league. And I’m sure there are many other ardent fans who are also suffering from this excess.

Now for the main agenda for this post. Here are some thoughts on the T20 World Cup, with a little focus on the Indian performance.

West Indies winning, was liked all around. They certainly brought joy to all the cricket followers through the “Gangnam style” celebrations. But will this mark a turnaround in their fortunes? I don’t think so, given that most of the current West Indies lot are more interested in performing in one T20 league or the other across the world. Will the likes of Pollard, Gayle, Bravo, Sunil Naraine show the same commitment when matches of West Indies clash with the Big Bash or IPL, etc?

Sri Lanka again lost in a major final (4th in last 5 years). But they have certainly been the most consistent of all teams in the limited overs format.

There was a strategic decision by Mahela Jayawardene to hand over the captaincy to Kumar Sangakkara, to avoid getting a ban. A move which raised a few eyebrows about the slow over-rate rule. Tony Grieg, the cheerleader-in-chief of Sri Lanka went all gung-ho, hailing this “tactical” move by the Sri Lankan team management. But what about the “Spirit of Cricket” nonsense which Mr. Grieg had harped on about earlier this year at the MCC lecture. In my opinion, Mr. Greig, if this is not hypocrisy, then I wonder what is.

Shane Watson was a deserving Man of the Series. One player who certainly owes a lot to the IPL.

A pattern has been observed in the tournament winners. They generally have very bad starts to the tournament. In fact, 3 of them have gone on to win the tournament without even a single win in the first phase. Here are the opening round performances of the 4 winners

- 2007 – India – 1 No result, 1 Tie (win in bowl-out)- 2009 – Pakistan – 1 loss, 1 win- 2010 – England – 1 Loss, 1 No Result- 2012 – West Indies – 1 Loss, 1 No Result

ICC needs to review the necessity of a Super Over in league stages. Use it in the knock-outs, but why is it required at all in a League game? A tie is after all, a perfectly acceptable result in any league format across sports.

I am worried about England. If they could make Piyush Chawla look like Shane Warne, then a 4-nil thrashing is in the offing in India. I have to admit that the better players of spin (Pietersen, Cook, Trott, Bell) weren’t in the squad. Which begs the question, why weren’t they there?

Now for India. The team doesn’t give the feeling of a team at all. A few thoughts on the Indian performance.

- Batting has become Virat Kohli+support. In case Kohli has an off day (an increasingly rare occurrence), the batting collapses completely.- There were some very strange team selections. The presence of Piyush Chawla, absence of Umesh Yadav/Praveen Kumar. – - Manoj Tiwary being forever benched. Rohit Sharma getting a game after game. Irfan Pathan opening, when there are 6 other specialist batsmen waiting in the dug-out. Quite a bit logic defying decisions.- One highlight was the return to fitness, though not his best form, of Yuvraj Singh.- Dhoni is looking weary. It’s said captains have a shelf life. He seems to be at the end of his. All this non-stop cricket is certainly taking a toll. But no replacement seems to be ready to take over the mantle from him.

Yet, in spite of all this, India did win 4 out of the 5 games they played. So there is hope.

P.S. – More than the Champions League, what I have been following, is the ongoing Duleep Trophy. To be covered in the next post.