Zimbabwe throw Twenty20 World Cup scheduling haywire

Reports suggest that Zimbabwe have voluntarily withdrawn from the 2009 edition of the Twenty20 World Cup in England.

Obviously this is a temporary compromise worked out to ensure that Zimbabwe's status as an international team isn't addressed for now. Are Zimbabwe good enough to play Twenty20 cricket? If the answer to that is yes, then they should play the tournament. If the answer to that is no, then they shouldn't. Are Zimbabwe good enough to play ODI cricket? No. Let's not even bother asking about Test cricket.

Now Zimbabwe's withdrawal from the tournament has a few ramifications. They're in the same group as India and Bangladesh. At this point in time, the format of the tournament has 4 groups of 3 teams each (10 full members of the ICC + 2 qualifiers from amongst the associates). The top 2 qualifiers from each group are then divided into 2 groups, where they play in a round-robin league. The top 2 from each group's league qualify for the semi-finals. There're a total of 27 games: 12 in round 1, 12 in round 2, 2 semis and 1 final.

Since Zimbabwe have withdrawn, does it mean that India & Bangladesh automatically go through to the next round? Although on the basis of cricketing ability it was likely to have been the outcome had Zimbabwe not withdrawn, it doesn't seem fair to other teams.

So maybe the ICC will rework the groupings into 2 groups of 6 and 5 each, or 3 groups of 4, 4 & 3 teams each. That could upset fixture locations, especially since tickets have already been sold out. A lot of fans could have bought tickets for certain games since their favourite team was playing that day at that ground. If the groupings are reworked, the fans get taken for a ride.

I reckon that the ICC will bring in a third qualifier and slot that side as a replacement for Zimbabwe.

It will be interesting to see how the ICC works this one out!

Labels: icc, scheduling, twenty20, twenty20 world cup, zimbabwe