The ICC have announced that the 2027 and 2031 ODI World Cup will consist of 14 teams and the 2024, 2026, 2028 & 2030 T20 World Cup will be expanded to 20 teams. Also, New Zealand and England have begun their series with Conway scoring a double hundred. I will write my thoughts about expanded world cup and Conway’s double century.
More number of teams will reduce quality
We have seen from experience that when more teams are involved in the World Cup, there are lot of games that does not hold any interest to anyone. Most of the games are one-sided and lot of cricketers from the bigger teams have so much fun in those games that they score their highest or return the best figures quite easily. Glenn McGrath, the great Australian bowler, returned his best bowling figure in ODIs back in the 2003 World Cup. 7 for 15. He achieved this feat against Namibia.
It is figure even the great McGrath will not feel proud of. Afterall, this was achieved against the lowest ranked team. McGrath as we all know terrorised the batsmen around the world with his exceptional skill. I am sure he will never want to be known as someone who took a lot of wickets in one game against Namibia. Australia infact won that game by 245 runs having scored just over 300.
A few years ago, during the 2007 world cup, India scored more than 400 against Bermuda. Almost everyone from the top order helped themselves. India won that game by 257 runs. This was in days when scores above 400 was never heard of. Scores above 300 itself wasn’t that frequent as it is now. For a very long time, Sri Lanka had the record of most runs scored. 398 against Kenya.
Cricket is not a game to involve lot of nations
All of these goes onto show that the teams outside of the regular nations are just to make up the numbers. I do realise that there were quite a few upsets along the way but those are few and far between. The ICC must understand that cricket is not a game that involve a lot of teams. It is not like football to have 32 teams or 48 teams competing for one cup. Cricket is far too complex. It is driven by statistics like no other sport is. The more the number of teams, the less the competition will be and more the lopsided records.
ICC must help the struggling boards rather than spend somewhere else
The ICC instead of trying to expand the sport to countries that do not even have a cricketing culture, will do well to infuse funds into countries that have a rich cricketing culture but are struggling for funds. Sri Lankan board, West Indies board and a few other boards that are already part of test cricket will be thrilled with extra funds. The ICC’s funds must help the current struggling teams to improve their quality rather than invest in teams that do not have any hope of competing with the major teams in well over 100 years.
Teams like Namibia, Kenya, Bermuda are examples. Where are they now is a million dollar question. World cricket is struggling. West Indies are only a shadow of the great team they were. South Africa are losing at home. Ireland and Afghanistan need funds to grow the game. It is prudent to invest in these countries rather than in some unknown teams.
England vs New Zealand series
New Zealand have begun their tour of England which will culminate in the WTC finals. Devon Conway the New Zealand opener has got off to a flying start to his international career. A double hundred on debut and that too at Lord’s is something he will remember and he will be remembered forever. He wasn’t flustered by the pace of Wood or the guile of Anderson. From the days of Jeet Raval, who usually scores a painstaking 35 in most of the innings, New Zealand may have found an opener who perhaps can not only play the waiting game but play it over a longer period.
“Surprisingly, I’m actually feeling OK. After the first day’s play I had a discussion with [coach] Gary [Stead] and he asked how I was, and I said I was feeling a lot better than I expected,” Conway said,
As Nasser Hussain summed it up nicely on this piece, New Zealand may have found another Williamson in that he can play time.
However, where New Zealand will be troubled is in the fact that more than 60% of the total runs were scored by just one batsman. Remove that and New Zealand hardly have anything to defend. The middle order wobble will most certainly rankle Williamson. If not for the merry go around slog at the end, New Zealand would have ended up with less than par score.
India must have taken note of Conway. This is better for them because if Conway had debuted in the finals, the Indians would not have known him. Now that they have an idea, they will be able to plan for him.