Mitchell: Trophy changed our game
For all the discontent that surrounded the confirmation two years ago that the 50-over World Cup would be reduced from 14 teams to 10 from 2019, there is no denying that the upcoming Champions Trophy, featuring the top eight sides in the world, is a more digestible, understandable and eagerly anticipated event than previous World Cups.
In the era of short, sharp T20, the 50-over game needs to position itself in a way that is easy for the spectator to understand and follow. This Champions Trophy, with its two groups of four, semi-finals and final, spread over just three weeks, does just that. Every game has an enormous influence on a team’s progression.
In 2009, just after the launch of the IPL and the success of the first two World T20 tournaments, the 50-over game was coming under huge pressure. It was deemed slow and unexciting, the middle overs were boring and there were just too many meaningless matches. By 2009 its very existence was being questioned, until an enthralling, punchy Champions Trophy in South Africa in 2009 reinvigorated the format at international level. It gave ODI cricket a new lease of life. Whilst it is desirable to stage a larger World Cup that sends out a message to the sporting world that cricket is a growing game, pragmatically, only ardent cricket fans keep up the enthusiasm to follow a six-week tournament meaningfully. One – or at times two – 50-over matches nearly every day for 44 days stretches the attention capacity of most sports fans. How are new followers drawn in to that on a mass scale?
The argument against the smaller number of teams at the 2019 World Cup was not to exclude the Associate and Affiliate nations from having the chance to perform at the highest level on the global stage. Far from being an exclusive club for the full member countries, though, there is a meritocratic qualification system for the 2019 event whereby the host nation, England, together with the top seven teams in the 12-country ICC ODI rankings (which includes Afghanistan and Ireland) will gain direct qualification.
The bottom four countries will drop into the 2018 World Cup qualifying tournament, where they will play the top four sides from the 2015-17 ICC World Cricket League and the two finalists from the 2018 ICC World Cricket League Division Two. Whoever reaches the final of the qualifying tournament will go on to play in the World Cup. It could mean that a Test playing nation misses out on the World Cup for the first time. Or, that no Associate and Affiliate teams qualify. The point is that every country at the qualifying tournament has the opportunity.
As for the tournament that is now underway, I’m tipping England, Australia, India and South Africa as semi-finalists.
By now, England’s campaign will already have begun with a game against Bangladesh. If they manage to keep their heads and play judgmentally aggressive cricket (ie not repeat the mistakes they made with the bat against South Africa at Lord’s), they ought to have started with a win.
Having won eight ODIs in a row before Monday, and, in the last 12 months having batted first and scored in excess of 300 on 10 occasions out of 11, they are well placed to achieve what no other England team in history has done, and win a global 50-over event. Jason Roy is the only player with a poor run of scores behind him. The positive trickle-down effect of an in-form captain in Eoin Morgan should not be underestimated, and all England fans will be hoping Ben Stokes’ knee doesn’t flare up.
When it comes to Australia, the ‘glass half full’ approach is to say that their side may be distracted by the ongoing pay dispute with Cricket Australia. However, the players look even more united as a result, and the pace attack of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson will provide a formidable precursor as to what England will be contending with come the Ashes.
On the batting front, beware the ‘Reverend’ David Warner. His nickname reflects a more mellow personality off field, but he remains just as aggressive in the middle, churning out eight ODI centuries in the last 12 months.
India don’t possess the same quality of pace attack as Australia, or indeed England or South Africa, but they have a well balanced bowling unit. With the bat, the explosive dynamism of Virat Kohli could put them into the semi-finals alone, but couple that with the guile of MS Dhoni, the
Whilst New Zealand will find it harder to get out of their group, they would be my pick to spring a surprise