but will make new ones.
This time around, adult tickets will range from £20 at Trent Bridge to £90 at Lord's, even though Under-16s will be able to watch the final for as little as a tenner.
Then there is the schedule - 27 games in 15 days with no allowance for the rain. Plus back to back games on all match days until the semi finals means no leeway with the playing schedule in case of disruptions.
Imagine a situation where all of India's games get rain affected.India goes through to the Super 8's without having played a game and then gets eliminated in the Super 8's on account of not haviing played a game - imagine the repercussions on ad revenues and sundry other items if this were to happen.
Then there are the hours of play - all of which are targetted for prime time audiences in the UK. But the prime time audiences in the UK will have to pay to watch the T20 World Cup, given that it is on Sky.
And what about the audiences who bring in the dough?
Sat 6 
18:00 local, 17:00 GMT 4th Match, Group A - Bangladesh v India
Trent Bridge, Nottingham
Wed 10
17:30 local, 16:30 GMT 12th Match, Group A - India v Ireland
Trent Bridge, Nottingham
One game begins at 12:30 AM IST on Sunday, the other at 12:00 AM IST on Thurdsay.
Nice!
PS - Thanks Q for pointing it out. And apologies to my maths teachers over the years. I am incapable of doing simple addition!
The Hours of play are 22:30 IST and 22:00 IST.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
World T20 won't repeat mistakes of World Cup
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18 comments:
17:00 GMT is 22:30 IST
16:30 GMT is 22:00 IST
Added 2 hrs did u?
doh! :(
Imagine a situation where all of India's games get rain affected.
I just imagined that.
OMG!!!
Scary eh, Leela?
Cheers,
You might approve of this - http://cartoonistsatish.blogspot.com/2009/05/will-trend-repeat-in-ipl-2010.html
Scary indeed Homer. Don't wanna live thru a 2007WC type tournament one more time!
far fetched thought. Pessimism!! This is INDIA team. not a azad maidan or kanga team XI....
Suresh,
If that was directed at me... I was reacting to team India being kicked out due to "rain-affected matches", not talking about its capabilities!
Suresh Patel,
Are you suggesting that just because the Indian team is on the field, it wont rain?
I mean, really?
Cheers,
Thanks much Vijay Kumar. Much appreciated :)
Cheers,
A glance in 2007 edition of Twenty 20 WC, you find India almost sneaked through back door in the super 6 with game against Scotland washed out and a bowl out win against Pakistan.
Why on earth only India's games would be washed out? Looking for a scientific premise here. Tough to expect ?
Not at all Suresh Patel. The point I am trying to make is that the schedule is so tight that there is really no leeway in case games get washed out.
India was a case in point - being the biggest market there is fro cricket, if India's chances to progress though the tournament were jeopardized because of rains ( and because there is no other slot to fit those washed out games in), the subsequent fallout will be huge, both monetarily and otherwise.
The same could happen to other teams too - something the WC schedule does not factor.
Cheers,
Monetarily is pretty much obvious. I dont get hold of otherwise fallout.
Any team which gets its matches rained out would loose out on the points and the chances for it to proceed far in the competition would fade out eventually.
But then weather is something we dont have control on. Its beyond our circle of influence.
In a short tournament of 16 days you cant expect a leeway for a league match. We have already ridiculed ICC of a long no hop world cup in 2007. I assume the schedule is just fine. Best they could come up with as the English focus would be more on Ashes than the T20 pie.
Suresh Patel,
First off, pardon my initial rudeness, thanks for your comments and welcome to the blog.
Secondly, it is recession time in England. Plus it is the Ashes year. And the TV rights are on pay per view. And the ticket prices are fairly high.
Factor in teams getting screwed because of weather, with no recourse either to extend the game on the particular day or to move it to the next ( all the way through to the semis) and it becomes apparent that weather has not been factored at all in the overall schedule.
The T20 WC is a cash cow for the ICC. It is surprising they dont treat it that way.
Cheers,
"far fetched thought. Pessimism!! This is INDIA team. not a azad maidan or kanga team XI....
"
I know one blogger who talks like this, Homer ;-)
Am I misunderstanding, or would the TV rights deal already be sorted? So any loss in tv revenue would be born by the broadcasters, not the ICC. The weather might affect crowd sizes, although I don't know whether the ICC is following the ECB refund policy.
The prime time live audience is probably the aim of scheduling of India games, rather than tv audience, although there is still a nod to tv with no concurrent games. Instead of making the tournament long, they have sacrificed some games to unusual timeslots.
Having said that, the rain issue is simply rejecting the 2007 'solution', not a new 'mistake'. Fitting as much in without any room for rain has been part of cricket, particularly in England, as long as it's been played. It might matter less in three day contests, but good weather could have avoided many draws, Pakistan winning the 92 WC, and so on...
Making allowance for rain could make for a more satisfying tournament, but there are so many factors in scheduling that I don't think there is an easy solution. Mind you, cash or no cash, the ICC should never rely on any particular team reaching a certain level - that's just not sport!
Raj,
That blogger is persona non grata as far as I am concerned, although that has not prevented him from frequenting this blog and commenting, using different handles.
You were spot on when you commented on his lack of ability to comprehend :)
Cheers,
Jonathan,
The biggest problem of the WC2007 was not so much the scheduling but the fact that people were priced out of the games and for those who could afford it, there were restrictions on what was and was not allowed inside the stadia.
Concession stands selling over priced stuff, no conches or other musical instruments allowed - the ICC took away the fun element from the spectators.
Take away the local crowds and take away the two teams with the most fanatical support there is and the tournament was always going to be a dud.
Add to that the excessive number of minnow teams and the number of one sided games and it was a recipe for disaster.
I think the ICC have gone the other extreme this time in trying to fit as many games as possible in as few days as possible.
Also, as far as I know, the deal the ECB had with Sky ( 5 years 330 million pound) covered all cricket in England m including the T20 WC. I am not aware if the ICC has a separate deal with ESPN or some other broadcaster to carry the feed outside of the UK.
Cheers,
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