Cricket World Cup Super League holds out promise of being step to greater fairness in...

[ASFN Admin]

Five years ago, Pakistan were worried that they would miss out on qualification for the Champions Trophy, and the West Indies would clinch the berth instead. There was only one thing for it: they had to cancel their upcoming one-day internationals in Zimbabwe. By doing so, Pakistan could prevent themselves from losing ranking points and missing out on Champions Trophy qualification. The only defence for the Pakistan Cricket Board’s actions is that every other board would have acted in the same way. The same is true of other sports: Wales and Poland famously gamed FIFA’s rankings by realising that teams stood to lose points by playing friendlies, helping them rise up the rankings and get kinder draws. But the PCB’s actions showed, once and for all, that deciding qualification for global events by rankings is nonsensical and unfair. All of which helps explain why England are currently in South Africa for their second limited-overs tour of the year, and about to play a three-game ODI series to go with the one they played in February. The first series was part of a standard bilateral tour, taking in games in all three formats. This series is different: the three games are part of the 2020-22 edition of the Cricket World Cup Super League. This features 13 sides, who will each play 24 games - three-match series against eight different opponents. The tournament started in the summer, with England’s series against Ireland, but the launch was understandably overlooked. Only six teams have yet played any games in the competition - South Africa will become the seventh on Friday. As cricket’s awkward middle sibling, the ODI has often felt short of love. While the format has been eminently capable of producing gripping cricket in the World Cup, too many games in between competitions have meant too little, with sides resting players and a meandering schedule driven by commerce not cricketing needs. As ESPNCricinfo’s Dan Brettig has observed, Australia essentially ceased taking ODIs seriously for three years after the 2015 World Cup, at times short-changing fans by resting their entire first-choice bowling attack. The Super League creates a new imperative to treat these games as serious international fixtures: with their full strength attack, Australia have already secured series wins against England and India to top the table.

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