Yahoo News 
Sport360° view: ICC must review selection process for international tournaments
The ongoing World Twenty20 in Bangladesh has seen some exhilarating cricket, with a handful of close encounters keeping the fans on the edge of their seats.
Teams have won by margins of two, three and five runs which shows the battles, at least some of them, have been intense. But what has also been obvious is the impact the conditions have had on many of the games.
Some of the performances, like that by Sri Lanka against Netherlands in which they bowled the minnows out for a record low 39, were down to excellent team and individual performances. But more often than not, the affect of dew on the proceedings has been too profound to be fair to the teams bowling second, especially in Chittagong.
In the last three matches at the venue, England came within three runs of overhauling South Africa’s score of 196, the Kiwis eased past Netherland’s score of 151 and Alex Hales smashed a whirlwind ton to help England sail past Sri Lanka chasing 190.
In both games involving England, there was excessive dew on the ground and captain Stuart Broad bemoaned that it was like bowling with a bar of soap, with the seam of the ball getting almost impossible to grip.
Teams like Pakistan have started training with completely wet balls to simulate match conditions but that doesn’t take anything away from the fact that teams bowling second have been short-changed and even though some of them have managed to eke out close wins, their bowlers have had to move heaven and earth just to bowl the ball straight.
Another issue that has cropped up during the tournament is thunderstorms. During the UAE’s game against Ireland, the power was cut off by the local distribution company due to an impending storm. Such has been the unreliability of the power supplied, the venues have installed generators for the floodlights but matches continue to be hampered.
What all of this has taught us is that scheduling of such multi-team tournaments is still not the International Cricket Council’s forte.
One can’t help but recall the 2002 Champions Trophy that was held in Sri Lanka in September – their rainy season. The final was washed out on the match day as well as the reserve day as India and Sri Lanka shared the trophy.
Hosts for ICC events are decided on a rotational basis with all teams getting a chance to have such tournaments on their turf.
The period of March and April is very convenient to hold them as it doesn’t interfere with the cricketing season much. But the ICC must realise that the weather and playing conditions vary alarmingly in some parts of the world and such high-profile events can’t be slotted in with fingers crossed.
The vagaries of nature bring their own charm to the game, but in this day and age, with so much at stake in an event like the World T20, a lot more thought should have gone into the scheduling or even the timing of the matches; early starts would have made the dew factor redundant.
Until these issues are sorted out, cricket will continue to look up to the heavens.
