T20 World Cup purely set up for India: Vaughan

Former England captain Michael Vaughan blasted the ICC for the scheduling of the ICC T20 World Cup, which he believes was tailormade to ensure India goes all the way in the tournament.

On Thursday, India defeated England in the second semifinal in Guyana by 68 runs to set up a final with South Africa on June 29.

However, unlike other teams, it was decided beforehand that India would play their semifinal at the Providence Stadium in Guyana if they made it to the semis no matter where they finish in their Super Eight group.

This knowledge allowed India to plan ahead for the conditions in Guyana, which is also known as one of the most spin-friendly tracks in the Caribbean.

Vaughan, during a podcast with former Australia cricketer Adam Gilchrist on the YouTube channel Club Prairie Fire, said that the entire tournament was scheduled to favour India, which is highly unusual for a global event like the T20 World Cup.

“Well, it’s their tournament isn’t it? Literally it’s that. You know that. They get to play whenever they want, they know exactly where their semi-final is, they play every single game in the morning so people can watch them at night, obviously in India on the television,” said Vaughan.

“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.

“When you get to a World Cup, there can’t be sympathy or any kind of sway towards one team in this tournament, and this tournament is purely set up for India. As simple as that,” Vaughan alleged.

Before the Super Eight phase, India played all of their Super Eight match at the same venue, the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, free of the travelling hassles most other teams had to endure.

The only other team which got to play all of their first round match at the same venue was South Africa also in New York.

Former India batter and current commentator Sanjay Manjrekar also agreed that India had a distinct advantage in the tournament.

“Clear advantage. Rohit [Sharma] has to say that. He can’t say it was an advantage. India would’ve picked their side based on it. India’s problem has been semis and finals and when you know you’re playing in Guyana, if you’ve been wondering why they’ve got four spinners in their squad, this could be the reason,” Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo’s Timeout show.