World Cup Format

World Cup 2019 in England, only the rain is the most consistent performer. Out of 24 matches played in the tournament, four have already gone without any play and in equal number, density of clouds keep travelling over and above the stadium, which means broken mojo of the teams on the field. 

Everybody went back the memory lane, of how Pakistan (the underdogs) qualified in 1992 for the semi-finals by virtue of rain. Pakistan only had three games to be played in the Group Stage and two were washed out due to rain. Pakistan’s, underdog team, qualified for the semi finals and ultimately went on to win the World Cup in 1992. South Africa was strong contender for 1992, but lost out to D/L method in knockout stage.

In a strange sense of events in 1996 World Cup, South African team was again the favourites for the World Cup. South Africa thrashed out the teams, they played in Group stage. In Quarter Finals, South Africa was going strong and the worst West Indies, West Indies as team has gone to its worst today, compared to their heydays of winning first three editions of World Cup, 1996 team was the worst till the time; and then in a strange chain of events, West Indies took three wickets in one over, only to end South Africa’s dream run, without giving them a chance to play Semi-Finals. But it was still Quarter Final. 

South Africa as country had joined international cricket after decades of hiatus in 1991, due to apartheid. Post which, ICC has been working around the world to ensure more and more countries start playing cricket and trying to bring more countries in the main stream. Cricket is the least adopted sports in the world in terms of number of nations. Of course, we can compare some of the snow related sports, due to weather and mountains.

ICC tried to increase teams for the World Cup, and in one such edition, they brought 14 teams. And the realization dawned that bottom six teams, do not even deserve to be in World Cup. World Cup as the tournament, which comes every 4 years should only be played by the best teams. We are also living in an era of T20 cricket with the immensely popular IPL edition; when players like Gayle are becoming specialists in the format.

IPL (Indian Premier League) has 8 teams and all teams play with each other, twice in the tournament, which ensures, only the most consistent teams in performance get the chance to reach the Qualifier (more like semi-finals) rounds. 

For the first time in World Cup, every team is playing all the other teams in the tournament with 10 countries playing World Cup 2019, to ensure there are no stroke of luck editions like Pakistan in 1992. It was not about the best, it was only about getting lucky on that day, when fortunately you get to play a match.

In World Cup, 2019, rain can wash up 3 matches for every team, still every team has at least 6 matches to be played and perform, which requires consistency and persistence to qualify for the Semi-Final stage. Six matches to be played by every team in World Cup has never happened before. 

The four teams which qualify for semi-final, now need luck only for two matches on two days, definitely the consistent ones, who carry performance throughout the 9 matches (or 6 matches, due to rain), would rely more on performance and less on luck. Four teams at the top will be crème de la crème.

Now after 39 out of 45 matches, we are still not clear which teams qualify for the semi-finals, except for Australia making the cut. Rain didn’t play the spoilsport post the 4 – 5 matches in the initial phase. 

Which World Cup format is better or has more merits to gauge the reflexes that which team is more consistent in its performance, which can perform over longer duration against everybody to be truly anointed the Champion of the World Cup. 

My bets are all hedged on Cricket World Cup 2019 - #CWC2019.