T20 World Cup Performance for the Lesser Knowns

Sachin Kodagali - Gayleism!!! 07 Oct 2012

Ireland, Afghanistan, Bangladesh (are they minnows?), Zimbabwe were trying to get a upset and sneak into the super 8’s, no such thing happened.

Rewind yoursleves,

2007 ODI World Cup - Bangladesh beat india and virtually knocked them out of the WC and then went on to beat SA in super 8’s

2011 ODI World Cup - England suffered badly with there form against minnows, Ireland and bangladesh at home.

T20 World Cup 2012,

It seemed from these results that lesser cricket playing nations can have a big say and end the road for top playing nations in this WC. Start of 2012 T20 edition was poor by Zimbabwe, once a force to reckon with ZIM have slided down rankings and form. They still have good players but need more exposure and encourage youngsters to take up cricket.

Ireland which was supposed to be ranked above australia a week before the start of the tournament, with the experienced side and some well known faces couldnt do much against Oz. The match against windies was rained out but overall not much promise shown by them.

Afghanistan was a surprise package for most of the time they spent on field for both the matches. They almost gave india shock if not for indian spinners and started well against england. They were charged up and really tried to win matches rather than having the attitude of coming second best.

Well everytime one says Bangladesh as minnows we wonder even more .. They havent come up in ODI/Test/T20 cricket. With so much exposure with there own BPL and some players in IPL it is high time they show some promise and beat bigger sides and win tournaments. There tournament was poor not because they lost matches, but manner in which they lost them. There batting was ok but bowling and fielding was quite bad.

Few reasons i see a big gap between Top sides and Minnows ..

a. Players shift to other sides/leagues to enhance there careers (E.g. Eoin Morgan)

b. Lesser exposure to youngsters .. ICC should try to have these teams play with A teams for series of 4 day matches and ODI’s

c. More rewards for star performers from ICC and there respective boards

d. International coaches and professionals hired to improve there domestic system.

Whats the future looking like,

* T20 arena looks tough to crack, perhaps we think that shorter the game more there chances, but smart skills required in a T20 game is more than a ODI game.

* Expand the tournaments between nations by including one top side, encourage top sides to play at full strength so that lesser known sides get more exposure and there players get more spot light ..

All in all no surprises in this world cup, usually its good to have surprises as along as the side you are supporting doesnt get effected.

RCB Fan,

Sachin Kodagali

36 Comments

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Latest comments

Teams like Bangladesh , Zimbabwe and two associates should be placed in one group so that even they get a chance to qualify

pratik-sura on 30 Oct 2012, 05:04 PM

good info..

abhishek-kumar-jha on 30 Oct 2012, 02:00 AM

there is nothing wrong in putting those teams under a single group and allowing them to qualify for next round..

kayle on 29 Oct 2012, 05:56 PM

good thats alllllllll

nagesh-naga on 25 Oct 2012, 12:00 PM

Teams like Bangladesh , Zimbabwe and two associates should be placed in one group so that even they get a chance to qualify for next stage of the tournament.

utkarsh-shenvi2 on 25 Oct 2012, 12:11 AM

No comments :)

sandesh-panchal on 24 Oct 2012, 10:46 PM

They have a qualifying tournament sort of a mini wc, to qualify to icc world cup tournaments

Sachinbengaluru on 21 Oct 2012, 08:04 AM