‘Cosy cabal’ within ICC will be cricket’s ruin as World Twenty20 vision for qualifiers is lacking

Unfortunately, tournament formats are designed only to make sure that one team, India, will not exit early. The countries that have a vice-like grip on the ICC care little for fairness, writes Dileep Premachandran.

Netherlands cricket captain Peter Borren speaks to media. AFP / ND-MV

In his new weekly column, Wisden India’s editor-in-chief Dileep Premachandran takes a look at the sporting scene in India, with a heavy focus on the country’s No 1 sport, cricket.

"Emotional", "extremely disappointed", "frustrating", "absolutely devastated" – these are just some of the words and phrases that jumped out at you from Peter Borren's post-match news conference after rain ruined any chance of World Twenty20 play against Oman in Dharamsala on Friday. As a result, the Netherlands, who lost a close opening game to Bangladesh, were eliminated.

A few hours later, his sentiments were echoed by William Porterfield, whose Irish team were upset by Oman in the first set of games. Ireland's match against Bangladesh was also rain-hit, and they too can contemplate the journey home after one defeat.

The current format is both cruel and thoughtless. It is not as though these sides, and the likes of Afghanistan, Oman and Hong Kong, are in India on a junket. They earned the right to be here after negotiating a fiercely competitive qualifier in Ireland and Scotland last July.

Read more: Your guide to the 2016 World T20 in India

Each of these teams played at least eight games in 20 days to make it this far. Preston Mommsen, Scotland’s captain, put it best when he was asked whether his side would have done better if this had been a qualifying event.

“You said ‘if this was a qualifying event’?” he said with a quizzical look. “This is a qualifying event, no two ways about it.”

With the same number of teams, you could easily have had four groups of four, thereby guaranteeing the likes of the Netherlands and Ireland two or three matches against full-member opposition.

As things stand, there will be 35 matches in this tournament. As many as 12 of them are just to weed out four teams. With four groups of four, quarter-finals, semis and a final, you would have had only 31 games.

It would remain a compact competition and everyone would get a fair chance.

Unfortunately, tournament formats are designed only to make sure that one team, India, will not exit early.

The countries that have a vice-like grip on the ICC, and which show next to no interest in taking cricket global – just compare rugby union’s growth in the last 20 years – care little for fairness.

This cosy cabal will be cricket’s ruin.

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