Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Super 8 stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup has barely begun, but the tournament’s pre-seeding format has triggered a storm — and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has firmly questioned the timing of the outrage.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Fans have taken to social media to criticise the system that placed all group winners — including India, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the West Indies — into the same Super 8 group, raising fears that some of the best-performing sides could be eliminated before the semi-finals. The other group features second-placed finishers England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and New Zealand.
But Gavaskar believes the criticism has come far too late.“Why bring this up now? Why was this not brought up before the start of the tournament?” Gavaskar told India Today. “Those are the questions that need to be asked of the people who are raising these points now.”The former captain suggested the International Cricket Council had valid logistical reasons for fixing the groups in advance, especially given the tournament is being held across multiple countries.
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Do you agree with Sunil Gavaskar’s view that criticism regarding the pre-seeding format of the T20 World Cup is too late?
“The reason that I can think of, maybe the ICC can explain it better, is the logistics. The tournament is being played in two countries,” he said.Gavaskar pointed out that international travel and team management complexities make last-minute changes extremely difficult.“There’s international travel, there’s immigration, and there’s customs, all those things to be taken care of. There is still the question of airline and hotel bookings,” he explained.Highlighting the varying sizes of touring parties, he added: “Not every team travels with the same number of people. Some teams travel with a support staff team of 15, so maybe they need 35-40 rooms. Some teams may travel with 20-22 people altogether, so they may need fewer rooms. All these things need to be taken into account, and perhaps this is the reason why the pre-seeding took place.”The ICC had assigned Super 8 slots even before the tournament began, based on T20I rankings, a move designed to streamline scheduling but now under heavy scrutiny.
