GEORGETOWN: The wait kept getting longer. The world’s eyes were on the weather radar and as the clouds seemed to keep moving away, the smiles were back on the faces of the fans who have been trooping into Guyana from across the United States and other parts of the world. The toss got delayed, the super-soppers were on, but nothing mattered more than the hot sun that was burning in full glory after morning showers.
But as teams came out in field and started preparing themselves for a long day quite a lot has been talked about scheduling of this tournament by some quarters.
Firstly there is no reserve day between games at knock out stage it is unbelievable for anyone involved with cricket in this part of world. In lieu to this amendment was made to tournament rule just two days before match adding four extra hours.
Pakistan will rightly ask questions after rules changed before semis having had their game in Lauderdale not started despite a hot sun blazing through an entire day.
While that’s one issue, India knew months before Cricket World Cup began that their semifinal would be played in Guyana. India captain Rohit Sharma tried to shut it down saying that “it’s same for all teams” and England have enough experience of playing in these conditions”, however theory which they got bit of unfair advantage can’t be denied.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan didn’t mince his words when he said that T20 World Cup is “purely set up for India” and ICC should have been a bit more “fairer” to other countries because this is not a bilateral event.
“Well you know it’s their tournament isn’t it? Just literally it’s like that. You know it. They play whenever they want; they know where their semifinal is so they know it all right; they play every time in the morning so people watch them in their TV at night obviously in India,” Vaughan said on Club Prairie Fire YouTube channel during a podcast with Australian great Adam Gilchrist.
This Ashes-winning captain feels that this purely comes because of financial muscle of Indian cricket. “I understand money is the power player, I get that for bilateral series but when you come to a World Cup the ICC should be a little bit fairer to everybody. There can’t be any sympathy or sway towards one team and this tournament is purely set up for India.” Vaughan said.
