ICC Cricket World 2019 was inaugurated on the same day as the Europa League final where the two major London clubs, Chelsea and Arsenal faced each other. Naturally Londoners were more excited about the European football encounter than the opening ceremony of Cricket World Cup.
Entry to the ceremony was restricted to invited fans only. Pairs from each participating country played a mini cricket match. A pair comprised of one former cricketer and a popular public figure. Actress Jaya Ahsan and Cricket Abdur Razzak represented Bangladesh. For subcontinent cricket fans who watched the 2011 World Cup kick off with a colorful event, this was a very bland experience for sure.
Cricket was once the game of the English summer. The golden days have passed. The British will not score high on the cricket enthusiasm scale now. The cricket stadiums are almost never full of people. The expensive seats of the ground are conspicuously left empty. The premium cricketing journal Wisden termed it as “A form of cricketing apartheid’. ICC claiming that all the tickets are sold out may just be a trick.
Lawrence Booth from Wisden wrote ‘The discrepancy was especially glaring at the Rose Bowl when India played South Africa. Much of the ground was buzzing, but in the expensive sections in the stands either side of the pavilion were swathes of white-seated emptiness. And it could not be entirely explained by the fact that the ground encourages spectators to stroll around its 360-degree concourse.’
A World Cup of 10 teams leaves little opportunity for any upsets.
Bangladesh has thankfully reached a stage where winning against teams like South Africa and West Indies is a not big deal. May be if Bangladesh could defeat Australia or India, it would have been an upset. The team that most people relied on to do something unpredictable was Afghanistan and so far, they have failed to spark a win or a thriller. What’s a World Cup without an upset? People who watch European football and have witnessed the nail bitting tug of war between Liverpool and Manchester City in the English Premier League are highly unlikely to find cricket very enthralling.
Most of the matches in this year’s World Cup have been one sided. The one unpredictable outcome was England losing to Pakistan. But can one really call it unexpected? Is anything unexpected from Pakistan given their record?
Spectators are greatly annoyed by all the disruptions that the English weather this summer is causing. This World Cup already has the highest number of matches abandoned due to rain.
Long breaks are meddling with the teams’ routines. It is frustrating for teams to sit out an entire day of cricket.
Ireland was left out the Cricket World Cup 2019 despite having achieved test status. Zimbabwe didn’t qualify either for the World Cup for the first time since the 1980s. In 2011 World Cup, the Irish offered some fascinating cricket matches. They beat England. A photo Kevin O’Brien overwhelmed after the victory was the highlight of the World Cup. Ireland’s match against Bangladesh was a close one. It’s a pity that cricket fans will not get to see the Irish play in this edition of the World Cup.
The idea of a 10 teams World Cup and bringing back the old format probably occurred to ICC when Bangladesh beat India and Ireland beat Pakistan in the group stage of the 2007 World Cup. Major financial loss was incurred due to India and Pakistan’s absence in the rest of the tournament. According to the Washington Post, 1 billion people watched the last World Cup match between India and Pakistan. Although Pakistan has not won any of their World Cup encounters with India, the political and military history and tension between these two countries keep the hype up.
This year’s World Cup was devised to make sure that powerful and popular teams get to at least play 9 matches each. That way even if they do not make it to the later stage of the tournament, enough income can be earned. There’s no group of death, obviously.
“There’s only 10 countries in the tournament. How can this be a World Cup?” — commented correspondents at ESPNCricinfo. “The rate at which ICC is reducing number of teams in the World Cup, by 2075 World Cup might just be a tri series.” — they further added.