A question of fairness: ICC’s World Cup format needs some formatting

All good so far, but the problem (at least from a neutral fan's perspective) comes after that.

- Ashish Magotra

India's captain Suryakumar Yadav (R) and his SA counterpart Aiden Markram at the toss.

(PTI)

The four groups of five teams each meant there was little chance of a comeback after a single poor result. This meant that among the last round matches of the league stage, instead of being the most exciting, many were dead rubbers.

But that was that, as the Super 8s were expected to ramp up the intensity. To borrow from India spinner Varun Chakravarthy, “Asli (Real) tournament starts now... dogfight very important.”

However, there is a flaw here as well. All the table-toppers from the group stage - India, South Africa, Zimbabwe and West Indies — are in the same Super Eight group.

The ICC decided to reward staying unbeaten in the group stage with another round of matches against each other while bundling all the second-placed teams into the other group.

The irony of it all was not lost on India skipper Suryakumar Yadav. “I don’t know anything about pre-seedings or who does it but if 1 am in that situation, I will tweak it,” said Surya on Saturday.