International
CLOSE-IN: T20 World Cup format needs a radical change

The announcement of the T20 World Cup schedules and format to be held in Australia in October/November 2022 requires a radical change.
Maybe it is late to do so, but the ICC have to seriously look into it as well as into their other upcoming World cricket tournaments, to make them more competitive amongst the teams that count.
The format announced has been finalised with 16 teams in the fray to finally settle on 12. The T20 WC 2021 tournament has clearly indicated that the minnow sides are still way below the qualifying mark at present to compete against the top cricket teams. Although, one understands the importance of spreading cricket far and wide, the matches turn out to be a complete farce. This may extend the tenure of the tournament, but it significantly reduces the quality of it.
The formation of two groups and then for the two top teams of the groups to qualify is a concept that is ancient. This was a format when cricket World Cup ties came into existence — one that was followed in 1975 and in 1979. It was in the World Cup of 1983 when ICC realised their folly and teams although grouped, played each other twice.
This gave teams a chance to recover even if they had lost a match. India may not have qualified to win the World Cup, if the earlier format had been followed.
The ICC seems confused about their approach. On one hand they are trying to increase participation, while on the other hand they seem to be in a hurry to complete their tournaments in what one can term as “to tick the box”.
The World Test Championship was a good example of it. How can one recognise a true winner if all the top Test-playing sides have not played against each other? The paucity of time and scheduling is always the excuse. It is better not to conduct a tournament rather than to do so in an unstructured manner.
The T20 World Cup should have the 10 top teams playing against each other and similar to the Indian Premier League (IPL) the top-four would qualify wherein the top-two play initially to get into the final and the winner of the bottom-two play the loser of the first match. In the recently concluded T20 WC tournament both England and Pakistan may have benefitted from it.
Unfortunately, the two top sides in the league stage of their group lost their semifinal match and did not compete for the trophy. Australia did win the trophy having earlier lost to England. One wonders if that was a fair conclusion.
The T20 format is short and quite unpredictable, especially amongst the top-eight sides in the world. On a given day, any of them could beat the other.
The grouping of teams never justifies this and so the top-eight or 10 teams need to play against each other to truly reflect a true winner.
India beat both England and Australia in their warm-up games. They did not play them in the final draw of the T20 World Cup 2021 because of being put into another group. This is a prime example of the incorrectness of the way in which the tournament was conducted.
A World Cup should be played where all the top teams need to get an equal opportunity to display their capabilities against each other. So the ICC should not worry about completing a tournament but should focus on a system that is fair in identifying the winner.
The T20 needs teams to be flexible and agile. Teams adjusted to this in the best manner they could in the UAE. The ICC refused to alter their playing conditions, even though everyone was shouting their heads off about the advantage to the team that won the toss because of the dew factor. Aaron Flinch, the Australian captain, summed it up beautifully, when he said that one of the major factors that went into their winning the cup was that he won the toss six out of the seven times . “The toss was the boss,” he said.
The matches could easily have been made to start an hour earlier so that the toss advantage would have been tossed out of the equation.
These are the subtle changes that need to be made by not only the ICC but also the host country administering the tournament.
The ODI World Cup in Australia in 1992 was a wonderful example of the format of the top sides playing against each other. Unfortunately, the ridiculous mathematical calculations that came into force for a rain-interrupted match became the black mark of it. However, the structure was perfect in which the top-eight sides played one another.
Sourav Ganguly, the President of the BCCI, has now also taken on the responsibility of heading the Cricket Committee of the ICC, a position that he takes over from Anil Kumble. One hopes that as a former cricketer and his immense cricket administrative knowledge that he structures the ICC World Cup tournaments in a way that has more meaningful quality and not quantity to it.
One needs to herald and respect a true champion side as worthy winners. That can only happen when one has battled against each of the opponents and come out with flying colours.
International
Murder of Hindu leader: India slams Bangladesh, says killing follows pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities

New Delhi, April 19: India on Saturday issued a sharp condemnation of the abduction and brutal killing of Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a prominent Hindu community leader in northern Bangladesh, calling it part of a “pattern of systematic persecution” of minorities under the country’s interim government.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal voiced India’s grave concern, stating that the incident reflects an alarming trend of targetted violence against Hindus and other minority groups in Bangladesh.
“We have noted with distress the abduction and brutal killing of Shri Bhabesh Chandra Roy, a Hindu minority leader in Bangladesh. This killing follows a pattern of systematic persecution of Hindu minorities under the interim government, even as the perpetrators of previous such events roam with impunity,” Jaiswal said in a post on social media platform X.
He added, “We condemn this incident and once again remind the interim government to live up to its responsibility of protecting all minorities, including Hindus, without inventing excuses or making distinctions.”
India has previously expressed similar concerns over rising attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, but this latest incident has drawn particular attention due to Roy’s prominence in the Hindu community.
Roy, who served as the Vice-President of the Biral unit of the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, was abducted from his residence in Dinajpur district on Thursday evening. According to police and family accounts, he received a phone call around 4:30 p.m., after which four unidentified men arrived on motorcycles and forcibly took him to Narabari village. He was reportedly assaulted and later found unconscious. He was rushed to a hospital in Dinajpur, where he was declared dead on arrival. His wife, Shantana Roy believes the attackers used the call to confirm his location before carrying out the abduction.
Opposition leaders in India also slammed the shocking incident in the neighbouring country.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge highlighted that religious minorities, especially Hindus, are being persecuted in Bangladesh.
“Attacks on other religious minorities are also continuing. Recently, the Chief Advisor of Bangladesh made a very condemnable and disappointing comment about the northeastern states of India. The persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh, human rights violations, and the attempt to erase the memories of the 1971 Liberation War are efforts to weaken the relationship between India and Bangladesh. From 1971 till today, India has always wished for peace and prosperity for all the people of Bangladesh. This is in the best interest of the subcontinent,” he said.
International
Death toll from US airstrikes on Yemeni fuel port rises to 38: Houthis

Sanaa, April 18: The death toll from US overnight airstrikes on the Yemeni fuel port of Ras Isa has increased to 38, with 102 others wounded, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported on Friday, citing Houthi-controlled local health authorities.
According to al-Masirah, the casualties include five paramedics who were killed upon arriving at the scene, when the US military launched another wave of airstrikes on the port just minutes after the first on Thursday night.
More than 14 airstrikes on the fuel port were reported during the two waves, igniting massive fires in tanks storing imported fuel. The fires were extinguished within hours, said the report.
The US Central Command said earlier in a statement that it struck and destroyed the Ras Isa port on Thursday to “eliminate this source of fuel for” and “degrade the economic source of power of” the Houthis, Xinhua news agency reported.
In mid-March, US President Donald Trump ordered “decisive and powerful military action” against the Houthis after the group announced plans to resume attacks on Israeli vessels in the Red Sea, citing Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza as the reason.
Earlier on April 17, Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi had said his group had launched 26 attacks against Israel and 33 strikes on the US aircraft carrier and warships in the Red Sea since March 15.
In a televised speech aired by the group’s al-Masirah TV on Thursday, the Houthi leader said the attacks on Israel were carried out using “30 ballistic missiles and drones,” while those targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier and its escorts involved “122 ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as drones”.
However, the Israeli military has reportedly intercepted many of the Houthi projectiles before they reached targets, Xinhua news agency reported.
The US Central Command dismissed the Houthi claims of daily attacks on the US aircraft carrier as “outlandish” in a post on the social media platform X.
Meanwhile, the Houthi leader noted that the US military had conducted more than 900 airstrikes against his group’s positions across northern Yemen during the past 30 days.
Tensions between the Houthi group and the US military have escalated since Washington resumed airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15 to deter the group from attacking Israel and US warships in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, which control much of northern Yemen, said their attacks aim to press US-backed Israel to stop the offensive against the Gaza Strip and allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave.
Israel’s Channel 12 News reported last Saturday that a Yemeni drone was intercepted near the Dead Sea within the Jordanian airspace before it could reach Israel.
The Jordanian army confirmed later last week that an unidentified drone entered Jordanian airspace and crashed in the Ma’in area of Madaba governorate, near the Dead Sea, and no casualties were reported.
Even since Israel renewed its intensive strikes in March across the Gaza Strip, the Houthis have been launching frequent attacks against Israeli and US targets.
Earlier last week, the Houthi military spokesperson claimed fresh attacks against the US aircraft carrier, USS Harry S Truman, and other US warships in the northern Red Sea.
International
Houthis say 123 civilians in Yemen killed in one month of US airstrikes

Sanaa, April 15: A total of 123 civilians have been killed and 247 others injured, mostly women and children, since the US military resumed airstrikes across Yemen in mid-March, Houthi-run health authorities said in an statement.
The statement was issued following US airstrikes against a ceramic factory on the western outskirts of Yemen’s capital Sanaa late on Sunday night, which killed seven people and injured 29 others.
The health authorities’ previous statement on April 9 put the death toll from the renewed US air raids at 107 and the number of injuries at 223.
The Houthi group rarely discloses casualties among its fighters. However, the US military has repeatedly said the strikes have killed dozens of Houthi leaders, which the group has denied, Xinhua news agency reported.
Earlier on Sunday, Yemen’s Houthi group announced that it had shot down another US MQ-9 drone, the 19th it has downed since November 2023.
“A US MQ-9 drone was shot down while carrying out hostile missions in the airspace of Hajjah province” in northwestern Yemen, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea said in a statement aired by Houthi-run al-Masirah TV.
Sarea added that the drone was downed by a locally manufactured surface-to-air missile, stressing “the ongoing US aggression” has not crippled the group’s military capabilities.
The statement affirmed the group’s support for the Palestinian people, saying its operations will continue “until the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip stops and the siege on it is lifted.”
The US resumed its air campaign against Houthi forces on March 15, stating that its strikes were aimed at deterring the group from launching attacks against Israeli and US naval assets in the Red Sea.
The Houthis, who control vast areas of northern Yemen, have been attacking Israeli targets since November 2023 to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip.
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