The preacher gets it wrong again

He would not be the only one to complain about how the tournament is starting to rival the main event five months from now. There was also time to slip off home to the family while for the Australians they got a chance to head for the Maldives, and England discovered an early departure for the cold, forbidding shores of Blighty. As for the rest, it was a matter of waiting their turn for the revolving door system. This is the one where the countries, having drawn the shorter of the straws, wait a week or longer to go through the routine of playing a game which is as appetising as curried custard with ketchup.

New Zealand, having lost to Australia on day four, waited another eight to complete their schedule.

Under the watchful eye of the ICC’s anti-corruption unit Johnnies, being chained to a hotel in South Asian city which offers a juxtaposition of entertaining night life and beaches, Colombo can be a temptress to the bored and adventurous. Did not Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak find this to his cost? Slipping out of the hotel undetected and ending up with a damaged collarbone in a private hospital was one of the more arcane events.

Almost three weeks in another town, as it were, required some ingenuity for those left to their own devices. Was the exercise worth it? For the finalists, sure it was. For the also-rans, well, it is a matter of opinion. And perhaps the players might question, as would Ganguly, Ricky Ponting and even Sanath Jayasuriya, the value of lengthy breaks between matches. Too much idle time can become a devil of a problem.

So what if Bangladesh waited eight days to get their first game and another eight to complete an exercise in futility? Had they not been a Test nation they would have been lucky to get an invitation to this gathering of the clans. So were the Dutch. Both were outplayed and out-classed by opposition whose second side would have done the job just effectively as the seniors.

Although the ICC would not accept the accusation, the designers, working on the seedings, might not have looked too far into such matters as long days off. Perhaps it was too esoteric for the average administrator to fathom while glib CEOs and secretaries offer unctuous grins. It is all a matter of more money for the gravy train. The timing as well, was well judged. September is a quiet enough month.

The argument is that it should be run every two years and in the current climate that might be two years too soon. To run it between each World Cup certainly has its advantages. But in what format? A twin league system might seem too close to the World Cup programme. The alternative could be for this tournament to be given over to those sides qualifying for the Super Sixes in the World Cup. At least, it would cut down on the length of the tournament and the knockout idea which no one seems to agree is the ideal system.

Apart from eliminating such teams as Bangladesh, Kenya and the ICC Trophy qualifying sides such as, in this case, Holland, it would turn it into an elite tournament.

This, of course is not at all what the ICC would have in mind. But it is worth a thought, for the costs of sending teams to one venue for three weeks, apart from fattening someone’s bank balance creates a problem. Under the current climate and tax laws, India are not going to stage the tournament. And with the next one being held in England, the initial idea of giving it to one of the developing countries has lost currency, unless of course England are now considered a developing cricket country. Dr Ashish Nandy, author of the Tao of Cricket, can well smile at the thought.