Quote:
Originally Posted by BoyBrumby
100% agreed re the format; it was the fact that quarter-finals meant the group stages were rendered, to all intents and purposes, redundant in 1996 that lead to the creation of the "Super Sixes" in 99. But after India and Pakistan failed last time the ICC obviously feel the need to cook the books again to (pretty much) guarantee the big 8 all safely advance. & even if one of the big countries contive to eff up they're guaranteed 6 games.
In 96 we qualified for the quarters by beating the might of UAE & the Netherlands; this time we can safely lose to India, SA & the Windies & as long as we beat the Irish, the Dutch and the Banglas we'll be right.
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I hardly think its cooking the books here. The '99 format would have done just as well to avoid an early exit if that was the aim of the organisers. The quarterfinals exist because the BCCI loves knockout games, thats all.
I reckon there's a lot of people reading into the format what they needn't.