The majority of broadcast and commercial contracts are signed and sealed well before the start of an International Cricket Council event but there are always add-ons and bonuses. The cost of a package of 15-second advertising slots during semifinals and the final, for example, can vary by hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on which teams are competing.
The likely departure of India from the T20 World Cup before the knockout stages is a financial disaster for the game, never mind an emotional and spiritual one that will be suffered by their millions of supporters around the world.
Marginal favourites ahead of England before the tournament began, but well ahead of everyone else, India have been thrashed by arch-rivals Pakistan and New Zealand in their opening two games and will now have to thrash minnows Scotland and Namibia as well as a strong Afghanistan team — and hope that other results go their way — to scrape into the semifinals on net run rate. It is unlikely.
The West Indies are in a similar position for similar reasons. T20 cricket has become a science like no other form of the game. Whereas Test and 50-over cricket are long enough to allow for “organic” progression, teams need to ensure they have the right people in the right place at the right time for every over and, at the beginning and end of the innings, every ball.
But first of all they need to make sure they have the right people in their team. India and the West Indies made the fatal mistake of allowing sentiment and seniority to cloud their selection in both the squad and starting XIs. The West Indies arrived with “old men” Chris Gayle and Ravi Rampaul in the squad and one of the game’s finest all-rounders, Jason Holder, among the reserves. It was laughable, and all because Holder is a straight talker who tells the truth.
The entire Indian squad are T20 experts with thousands of games of Indian Premier League experience to call upon. They know all about playing in different conditions and the required changes in personnel that they require. But all of that knowledge and information was discarded when it came to the World Cup. The difficult decisions were avoided.
Captain Virat Kohli opens the batting for Bangalore because he knows he no longer has the “power game” for the middle overs, yet he batted at No 4 for India and made nine off 17 balls against New Zealand. KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma are regular openers who both start cautiously and accelerate once “set”, as Kohli does. To play all three in the top five made no sense — but ego trumped courage, as it did in the Caribbean planning department.
For all the twists and turns during the game, SA beat Sri Lanka to keep their own semifinal aspirations alive because they had the right man — David Miller — at the crease for the final over with 15 runs required. It certainly helped that fast bowler Lahiru Kumara’s tactics for the last six balls were horribly ill-conceived, but still — Miller is SA’s best six-hitter and he duly delivered.
If and when the time comes for difficult decisions to be taken, the Proteas must not flinch. Like England and Pakistan, they must be ruthlessly dispassionate about names and reputations. Like Kohli, and for similar reasons, Temba Bavuma is better suited to opening the batting to take advantage of the fielding restrictions in the opening six-over powerplay.
Like Kohli, Bavuma made a magnanimous decision to bat at No 4 from where he struggled to score at even a run a ball. It also meant his most in-form batsman, Aiden Markram, only appeared once the third wicket had fallen. If it is in the team’s best interests for the captain to open the batting, then he must not hesitate to consider playing Reeza Hendricks or even Quinton de Kock at No 3.
Batting orders in T20 cricket should be decided by overs, not positions. If Bavuma does not open and his team reaches the 13th over, or beyond, with close to 100 runs for the loss of only one or two wickets, he should also have the magnanimity to drop himself down the order to allow the power-hitters to get to the crease before him.
The tournament cards have fallen badly for India and the West Indies, largely through their own making. The cards have fallen sweetly for SA, who are placed second in their group on net run rate thanks to England’s annihilation of Australia. If they beat Bangladesh in their fourth game on Tuesday, they may not even have to beat England in their fifth group game to progress, provided Australia slip against either Bangladesh or the West Indies.
But they must not flinch when it comes to making the big calls.
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