Former England international Mark Butcher has criticised the pre-arranged schedule of the 2024 T20 World Cup, along with the ICC's apparent policy of muffling official broadcasters. 

The format of this tournament, the first 20-team T20 World Cup, consisted of a first round with four groups of five teams each, playing each other once. The top two teams in each group qualified for the Super Eight stage, but with a catch. The top eight teams in the tournament were seeded ahead of time, giving them prior knowledge of which group they would be in for the Super Eights.

In addition, it was announced pre-tournament that India would play the second semifinal in Guyana if they qualified, rendering their finishing position in their Super Eights irrelevant, as long as they were first or second. The reason stated for this decision was to ensure that India would play at a time convenient to the Indian television audience.

The other teams placed in the other Super Eight group were not provided this surety of venue, and will play the first or second semifinal depending on where they finish in the group. 

 

'It's extraordinary': Butcher criticises T20 World Cup format

On the Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast, Butcher was severely critical of the tournament's structure. He said, "That whole thing from start to finish, from the idea that whether you finish first or second in the group stage didn't matter in terms of where you ended up in the Super Eights and then the idea that one team knows which group it's going to be in in the Super Eight and where its semi-final will be, meaning that the other team finishing in second in the Super Eight also knows where its semi-final is going to be is extraordinary.

How do you organize a competition around [that]? I'm presuming it's because of the TV times for an Indian audience that one team knows exactly should everything go to plan, that it will be playing its semi-final on a particular day at a particular venue. Everybody else in the opposite group has no idea, which is exactly how it should be. You shouldn't have any clue of which venue you are going to be playing in, which group that you're going to end up in."

Butcher then bemoaned the lack of pushback on this design flaw on official broadcasting channels, saying, "You won't [hear anything from the broadcasters] because they're working for the ICC and the ICC won't allow any form of dissent from the people that it asked to come and work for it so you don't hear any criticism of anything. It's not allowed, banned."

The current lineups for the Super Eights are as follows: India, Australia, Afghanistan and Bangladesh in Group 1 and USA, England, West Indies and South Africa in Group 2. USA and South Africa are set to face off in the first fixture of the round on June 19.

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