The long-drawn format, sans Caribbean flavour

But this argument of Speed doesn8217;t quite hold water when one drags into the debate over the comment made by someone who is expected to be in the Caribbean till the April 28 final. Aussie opener Matthew Hayden came out and said how this World Cup is a long drawn affair. Speed rattles a few facts to counter it. He says how 8220;a team that gets through to the final will play 11 matches in 47 days and that is one match every four and-a-quarter days.8221; That is about half the amount of cricket a player plays during a bilateral series during the same time.

Reacting specifically to Hayden8217;s comment he says, 8220;If he wasn8217;t playing the World Cup here, then he would have been playing four Tests and seven ODIs over 10 weeks. Instead of that he comes here and plays games that are televised all over the world and have huge prize money. And he plays one match every four days.8221;

Speed vehemently backs the new format while saying that 8220;this World Cup is shorter than the one in South Africa.8221; He points out how round robin is the strength in this Super Eights tournament structure. 8220;The first match in the group stage counts for the round robin. Then you play six other teams so you can have two bad days,8221; he says.

About the time factor he says, 8220;When we get to the Super 8s stage we want to have each match televised and a reserve day for each game. We don8217;t want to see with a World Cup like this that a team gets eliminated or seriously disadvantaged because of bad weather. Besides, the finances of the sport are now largely driven by television.8221;

That brings up the question of gate revenue and exorbitantly priced tickets. The ICC CEO distances himself from the debate saying that they 8220;don8217;t take one penny of gate revenue that is set by the West Indies board after talking to the local organising committee of each county.8221; But he does say that in future, 8220;the feedback we will be giving to countries will be to have full stadiums rather than empty ones and get your pricing right.8221;

The newly built stadiums that Speed refers to as 8220;five-star8221; seem to have impressed the ICC the most. 8220;What I like about these stadiums, and we don8217;t see much of this in India, is that they are new. They are low maintenance. The VIP and media facilities are great,8221; he says.

But thoughts about these mega stadiums lacking the typical Caribbean flavour are alien to Speed as he sees this is 8220;looking for negatives.8221;

8220;The Caribbean flavour which you were talking about is that the stadiums were falling down. Bourda in Guyana for example. Queens Park was refurbished, Sabina Park was pretty well rebuilt. Some of them didn8217;t exist. I don8217;t quite see how you can build a modern stadium with a West Indian flavour,8221; he says.

And as a counter question he asks: What is a modern stadium with an Indian flavour? He waits for a response and answers: 8220;Uncomfortable seats?8221;

In four years time, the comfort level of those seats will be tested, but nothing much about the World Cup is going to change. Neither the duration nor the format and nor will the moans of the countries be eliminated early.