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Simon Doull has blamed the “arrogance” of the broadcaster of the T20 World Cup for India’s tough schedule at the tournament, with Virat Kohli’s side knocked out at the Super 12 stage.
India had, on paper, their two toughest encounters first up, and defeat to Pakistan and New Zealand was enough to consign them to an early exit. Doull, an ICC commentator at the event and a former New Zealand seamer, told Cricbuzz Live that this was because of a desire to have games played at “peak times”. The ICC’s global broadcast partner is Star Sports, an Indian outlet.
“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’.”
Doull put forward his views for how the schedule should have been structured. “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.”
He also made clear that the India team were blameless as far as the tournament’s schedule went. “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.”
