The general feeling after the 2007 WC was that it was 'too long and too boring'. I think there was around 50(??) matches played and the quality of the matches was not that great as well. I did'nt like the format as well because all that the team required to be knocked was one bad match as both India and Pakistan experienced.
This time for the 2011 they are planning to shorten the format they have 14 teams divided into 2 groups of 7 each. They will have a round-robin match within the group and then the teams play the knock-out rounds(QF,SF,F).
So the total no. of matches would be (6+5+4+3+2+1) x 2 + 4+2+1 = 49 matches , out of which (6+5) x 2 = 22 matches will be played by the minnows, around 45% of the matches.
I think WC should have just 12 teams and lots of competitive matches. This is how i think the format should be made so that we will have good competitive matches
- 2 Groups, Group A(GA) - 6 teams, Group B(GB) - 6 teams
- Out of the 2 non-test playing teams one will be in GA and the other in GB
- Each group will play round-robin matches within their own group(Total 30 games)
- Top 3 teams from GA(GA1,GA2,GA3) and Top 3 teams from GB(GB1,GB2,GB3) qualify fro the next round, say Super 6
- GA will play round-robin only against teams in GB(GB1,GB2,GB3)...so total (3x3) 9 matches.
- Top 4 teams will qualify for the SF
So as you can see we will have about 30+9+2+1=42 games , and the number of games that the non-test playing nation will play is 18 around 41% of the matches.
Also the team which will eventually win would have played all the top teams of the tournament atleast once. So i feel this formant is crisp and compitative.
Comments are welcome!!!!
