(Source X)
Former England captain Michael Vaughan has accused the ICC of bias in organizing the 2024 T20 World Cup to benefit India’s team led by Rohit Sharma. Vaughan made these claims ahead of the second semi-final between England and India in the West Indies and USA. The match, scheduled at Guyana’s Providence Stadium, mirrors the semi-final clash from the 2022 edition in Adelaide, where Jos Buttler’s England secured a dominant 10-wicket victory over Rohit Sharma’s side before claiming the championship in Melbourne.
In this current tournament, India seeks vengeance against the defending champions and aims to advance to the final by defeating the tournament favorites. Vaughan implied that India has already overcome formidable opponents like Australia, and now faces England, the other strong contender, as a critical hurdle in their path to victory.
Should Rohit Sharma’s team triumph in their upcoming match, it could alleviate some pressure ahead of the final against South Africa, who are poised to make their inaugural ICC final appearance. Vaughan’s comments, laden with criticism towards the ICC, surfaced just a day before this highly anticipated showdown in Guyana.
During a recent episode of the Club Prairie Fire podcast, Michael Vaughan asserted that the ICC has heavily favored India in the T20 World Cup 2024. Vaughan’s comments suggested that he believes this tournament has been tailored to benefit the Indian team, pointing out factors such as India knowing their semi-final venue in advance and playing all their matches during the daytime. He expressed strong disapproval of such preferential treatment, particularly at the global stage of a World Cup, suggesting that if any favoritism were to occur, it should be confined to bilateral series rather than tournaments involving 20 competing teams.
Vaughan also criticized the rationale that the BCCI’s substantial financial contributions to world cricket justify such treatment, deeming it unfair. His remarks underscored a belief that fairness and impartiality should be maintained in international tournaments like the T20 World Cup, regardless of financial considerations.
“Well it’s their tournament, isn’t it? Literally, it’s their tournament. They get to play whenever they want, they get to know exactly where their semi-final will be. They played every single game in the morning so people can watch them at night in India. I get that.”
“I get that Money is a big play in the world of cricket and I get that in bilateral series. But you would think that when you get to a world cup, the ICC should be a little bit fairer to everybody,” Michael Vaughan said via Club Prairie Fire.
