i3j3Cricket :: A blog for fans of Indian cricket…

It seems like only yesterday that the most recent edition of the Twenty20 World Championship was over. In a move that is set to raise Andrew Symonds’ ire and displeasure, the Indian victory celebrations have not yet fully concluded — the victorious Indian team was felicitated by the Indian President and Indian Prime Minister of India only a few days back! Luckily, given that BCCI officials were not present, the Indian team took centre-stage — rather than back-stage — in this felicitation ceremony!

However, in amongst all of this, the ICC has released its groupings for the 2009 Twenty20 World Championships already! The 2009 edition of the ICC Twenty20 cricket World Championships will be played in England! The early decision on the groupings was apparently requested by the hosts (ECB) who wanted to complete the venue-allocation process — through a bidding process — followed quickly by ticket sales!

Defending champions India will be placed in the easy group A along with Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

This is really crazy in my view. To rank teams and place them in groups nearly two years prior to an ICC flagship event smells of opportunism and nothing else. A rankings-predictor based on the results of one tournament — the 2007 T20 World Cup — is just a nonsense. Who knows what will happen to the official rankings two years from now.

While India seem to have been placed in an “easy” group, we have ODI World Champions Australia in a group with Sri Lanka and West Indies. Try explaining that to the Sri Lankans!

For what it is worth, the groups are:

• Group A: India, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe
• Group B: Pakistan, England, Associate 1
• Group C: Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies
• Group D: New Zealand, South Africa, Associate 2.

– Mohan