I certainly hope so.

It's not just the cricket teams, but the spectators too don't seem enthused by the event anymore. And it has nothing to do with the blatantly exorbitant ticket rates at all.

The empty stands reveal what in ICC myopia can be termed as forgetting the importance of the interests of the paying public. Also such mindless scheduling and timing of the event 6 months ahead of the world cup also seems to have gone against it. Teams all along have been haing issues with this event. The sponsors anyways will lose money if teams like India or Aus crash out early which will effect the TV viewership drastically as well.

Just what is the point of this ICC farce anyways? Why not have it 2 years after the World Cup with no 'qualifying teams' and just the top 6 ranked teams in the fray just like they do in Hockey Champion's Trophy? That was having top 6 teams going round robin would actually give all the good teams enough matches to come good and might actually get viewers assured of top games.

Also this ICC stranglehold on the revenue at the expense of the hosting country will eman that the capable Cricket boards like India, Aus, Sa or Eng might not want host it in the future. You will need to keep playing it in Dhaka, Nairobi or Colombo all the time in the future.

Champs Trophy? Naah. No way. Chump's Trophy is more like it.

still scheduled for Sep 2008 and April 2010. *sigh*

And here I was thinking they got the format right at last...

quote:

Originally posted by mynah:
And here I was thinking they got the format right at last...

Yeah but imagine just having the top 6 teams like Aus, SA, Eng, NZ, India and Pak in the current ICC rankings, playing a round robin phase against each and every team.

That would translate into almost the same number of matches as the current tourney. That would mean 15 quality one day games with equal opportunities for all teams instead of the current 18 JAMODIs seen so far including the farcical 6 'qualifying' matches that are of zero value.

A proper 6 team event would see 15 days of main cricket. This could be followed by the semi finals between 4 top teams with the final. Or a straight away final between the top two teams in the touney minus the semis and a play off for positions 3,4,5 and 6 between the rest.

Now wouldn't that be better, than having to see the likes of Kenyans, Bangals, Zimboks and Windies going to toe to toe and doing nothing for either the spectators or the sponsors?

If 6 teams is too less than they should at least get the top 8 teams in without any dud qualifiers. Then have top 3 teams from Group 'A' playing teams from Group 'B' and have a semi-final/final play off. Even that would be better.

If you are asking a hardcore cricket fan like me then i would say no the more crickert the better and like last time i would go to most matches if it were held in England because i love watching cricket.

But then again not everyone is a hardcore fan, we still have seen some good matches.

quote:

If 6 teams is too less than they should at least get the top 8 teams in without any dud qualifiers.

I agree with that - at least with the gap that exists between the top eight and the last two at the moment. If any team outside the top eight should inporve to the point where they could seriously challenge the others, one might think of a play-off - but that should happen separately, not at the tournament itself.

Make it a knock out comp again...8 teams, 3 rounds, 7 games...all over in a week.

I find this format much more interesting - but that may be because all those minnows have been shed, and everyone had at least a chance of reaching the semis.

quote:

and everyone had at least a chance of reaching the semis.

Apart from England of course, who don't care about ODIs you know.

I think it's been good. The crowds for the non India games have been poor but who cares? The only thing is they shouldn't have it so close to the WC.

I wasn't looking forward to the Champions Trophy, but apart from the hapless Zimbabwean 3rd XI playing as 'Zimbabwe' every game I've watched has been decent viewing.

The original poster has also been very harsh on the Windies considering they've beaten Australia and look like beating India today. In fact all of the Top 8 sides will have won at least 1 game apart from England so it's been a lot less predictable than past tournaments, and more enjoyable as a result.

I think this is a good format.

People won't come to watch games where India don't play.... thats how it has always been in India. Thats how fans in India are....

The purpose of this tournament is to raise money for the ICC. In that, the tournament has been an total success.


Nobody is going to watch New Zealand play Pakistan..... especially Pakistan right now. Indian spectators were cheering for New Zealand.

The mood has changed since 2004.

West Indies have been a good ODI side for a long time now.... They have consistently been mid-table in my rankings.... which are a better reflection of the state of ODI cricket.

I have New Zealand at 3 in my rankings, they kept dropping off in the ICC Rankings simply because they had a lean schedule.....

As it turns out, my assessment of New Zealand was right - they've beaten South Africa and Pakistan, and lost to Muralitharan.

quote:

Just what is the point of this ICC farce anyways? Why not have it 2 years after the World Cup with no 'qualifying teams' and just the top 6 ranked teams in the fray just like they do in Hockey Champion's Trophy? That was having top 6 teams going round robin would actually give all the good teams enough matches to come good and might actually get viewers assured of top games.

Yea i like that idea a lot better because the current edition is far too similar to the World cup! I say that they do it the hockey way and have it once every 4 years sandwiched between the world cups

quote:

West Indies have been a good ODI side for a long time now.... They have consistently been mid-table in my rankings.... which are a better reflection of the state of ODI cricket.

if you say so....

IMO this tournament has been infinitely more watchable than those excruciating triangular tournaments consisting of an endless number of games including two strong to reasonable teams and either Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. Everyone knows who'll end up in the finals - yet 12 or so games are played before these are reached.

Get rid of the ICCCT and play the World Cup every two years.

Then every region gets to host the world cup once a decade.

Is ICCT not better than those 5 and 7 match ODI series where the series gets decided quickly and you have a bunch of dead rubbers.

I don't know why everyone is moaning we have seen lots of close matches and very entertaining plus it get's boring when the same teams play eachother 7 times in a row.

It is fashionable to moan about JAMODI tournaments. Gets you membership of the cool fans society

quote:

Originally posted by Makaveli:
I don't know why everyone is moaning we have seen lots of close matches and very entertaining plus it get's boring when the same teams play eachother 7 times in a row.

To be honest, there have been very few close matches

quote:

Originally posted by 12thman:
It is fashionable to moan about JAMODI tournaments. Gets you membership of the cool fans society

quote:

Originally posted by fcxx:

quote:

Originally posted by 12thman:
It is fashionable to moan about JAMODI tournaments. Gets you membership of the cool fans society

sounds like zimi has been stuck in the fridge again

quote:

Originally posted by Kartikeya:


People won't come to watch games where India don't play.... thats how it has always been in India. Thats how fans in India are....

yeah must admit the indian crowds have been a huge let down, we hear all the time that india is cricket mad but you get the feeling a lot of the fans don't know much about the game other than tendulkar sehwag dhoni and 6's and 4's.

quote:

Originally posted by shakes:

quote:

Originally posted by Kartikeya:


People won't come to watch games where India don't play.... thats how it has always been in India. Thats how fans in India are....

yeah must admit the indian crowds have been a huge let down, we hear all the time that india is cricket mad but you get the feeling a lot of the fans don't know much about the game other than tendulkar sehwag dhoni and 6's and 4's.

Must be the (cricket) diet they've been brought up on.