India had a gap of one whole week between their first two fixtures in the 2021 T20 World Cup. India kicked off their T20 World Cup campaign in the high octane clash against Pakistan in what is officially the most watched fixture across ICC events.
As luck would have it, the team suffered a heartbreaking 10 wicket defeat in their first match of the competition against arch rivals. The best-case scenario for them would have been to get back on the park after a couple of days and get a win under their belt.
However, as the schedule was sketched out, India had their next match on the next Sunday because of the amount of eyeballs on offer.
The broadcaster always wants the marquee Indian fixtures to be on prime time. India paid the price for it, having all the time to over think about their shortcomings and couldn't be brave enough against New Zealand.
Cricket analyst Simon Doull dissected the issue professionally and sincerely.
“I don’t know how to put this kindly, but there is a real air of arrogance around the scheduling,” Doull said. “The scheduling was put to the broadcaster of this tournament and that’s what they wanted. There was ICC involvement and broadcast involvement. They wanted that because it was the holidays and it was around Diwali and they wanted those games played at peak times, and there’s an air of arrogance around that, to say, ‘We’ll be fine, we’ll win those games anyway’. I believe Pakistan should have always been the first game for India, and I think that creates a massive buzz, but New Zealand should always have been the last game in that group."
"This should have been New Zealand tonight, New Zealand-India for a place in the semi-finals should have been tonight, and that’s how the scheduling should have worked. I guess it is being pretty blunt, and I’m not usually one to hold back, but there is an air of arrogance around the scheduling. The Indian team didn’t have anything to do with it. I’m not saying they did, because they didn’t have a thing to do with it. It was around the broadcasting part of it, that’s the reason. The fact that they didn’t play well enough in those first two games, that’s India’s own fault as a team, but the scheduling is not their fault.”
With the IPL or without it, Team India deserves a better schedule next time around.
