World T20 demands a tweak

When the ICC bigwigs sit to review the 2012 World T20, they can pat their backs for conducting a successful event that had riveting games and a grand finish. But after the self-congratulations, they can spare some time to address a few complains that surfaced during the events.

The argument that India, which won four of their five games, deserved to advance to the semifinals isn't a jingoistic chant of a fan in blue. It's a call to reward consistency. The fact that West Indies got the last four spot for winning just two out of their five group games means things were genuinely not fair.

It is clear that the rules that don't allow a team to carry forward points from the first group stage to the Super Eights were largely responsible for India's exit.

The use of the Super Over in non-knockout games instead of allowing the teams to split points has also come in for flak.

New Zealand were involved in two tied games in the Super Eights stage — versus both finalists Sri Lanka and West Indies — but went onto lose both of these in the one-over eliminator, despite being as good as the two finalists over 20 overs.

The question also needs to be asked if the Duckworth-Lewis method, used to determine results in rain-affected ODIs should be used in T20 games. Australia's 17-run win over West Indies when they still would have required another 92 at 8.76 calls for different rain rules for every format.

As for those who are still wondering how the group toppers of the first round — Australia, Pakistan, South Africa and India —were all clubbed together in the second stage; the answer is simple, the last eight teams were divided based on pre-tournament rankings and not their group placings. It was so to helps fans to plan their travel during the event.

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