WC quickie 2 - ICC's schedule faux pas

A friend brought this article to my attention today. In short, in the official schedule that ICC has published for the Super 8 stage, our beloved ICC has already predicted who the super 8 teams are going to be, even before the first ball has been bowled and the first swear word has been uttered. Is the ICC being so smug and supremely confident about the 'quality' of the lower ranked teams or is it just being practical and making sure it schedules the BIG matches well to maximize revenue? This usually involves scheduling India's matches on weekends, which is exactly what ICC has done. What happened to the "encourage the minnows!" and "spread cricket" catch phrases that ICC has been trumpeting around? I'm sure ICC will correct its faux pas once this snowballs into a full-fledged uproar. But for now, its just fun to sit by the sidelines to see an 'official' body making a fool of itself. If ever it wants to land on its foot from this episode, it definitely needs to look for the pre-mentioned foot in the deep recesses of its own ass.

Here are a few excerpts from the article:

And if you are planning on catching all of India's Super Eights action, and were waiting for the end of the group phase before making your bookings, don't bother: India will play Australia on Saturday March 31; New Zealand on Monday April 2; South Africa on Saturday April 7; England on Wednesday April 11; and the West Indies on Thursday April 19.

How do I know? Because the ICC the global body that conducts the World Cup -- told me so, right here on its official site.

There you go, the entire Super Eight schedule, all nicely laid out for you -- so now, you don't have to bother going through 13 sleepless nights, and 24 pointless games, to figure out when the big boys play each other.

You do realize the irony, here? The ICC conducts this tournament; the ICC picked the teams and drew up the schedule; the ICC brought together 16 teams and, per its schedule, will spend the first 13 days of the Cup, and 24 matches, to decide who the eight teams in the Super Eight round-robin stage should be.

And the selfsame ICC, by publishing this schedule, effectively tells you it is all eyewash; that eight of the teams in the only global competition cricket has are there purely to make up the numbers; that they are so below par that even before the first ball is bowled in the World Cup, it has drawn up its schedule for phase two.