3 reasons why special 'reserve day' for India-Pakistan match is wrong
In an unprecedented move, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and Asia Cup 2023's host Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) added a reserve day for Sunday's Super Fours clash between India and Pakistan at the R. Premadasa Stadium.
None of the other four Super Fours matches have such a luxury. The only other game in the tournament with a reserve day is the final on September 23.
The second innings of the first match between India and Pakistan in Pallekele was washed out. When rain was predicted for Sunday at the R. Premadasa stadium as well, there were initial attempts to change the venue of all Super Fours matches. When those failed, a reserve day was added only for this game.
Although coaches of both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (the other two teams in the Super Fours) expressed worry about the move and said they weren't informed, their boards released near-identical statements supporting it.
The signs of unfairness were already there in the Asia Cup 2023 but this reserve day drama, reportedly at the request of the broadcasters, has taken the ludicrousity to another level. Here are three reasons why it's wrong for the sport:
#1 The reserve day is unfair to other teams
Let's imagine - Pakistan already has two points after beating Bangladesh. Now the first day of their match against India is washed out but they beat them on the reserve day but lose to Sri Lanka to end at four points in the table.
Sri Lanka get beaten by Bangladesh but have to be happy with just one point against India despite having an advantage at the halfway stage of the match because of rain. Then later, India beat Bangladesh by a massive margin.
So India and Sri Lanka end with three but the former goes ahead to the final because of their better net run rate. Had the Sri Lanka-India game also got a reserve day, Sri Lanka would have made the final easily with four points.
This is one of the many scenarios where the reserve day simply favors India and Pakistan in the competition. By simply valuing money over rules, the ACC has made the Asia Cup unfair for two participants.
From the onset of rumors last week which eventually turned into reality, this move reeked of greed. The India-Pakistan clash, though mostly friendly in nature on the field, carries a massive hostile political burden and thus derives more eyeballs (so, more advertising money) for broadcasters than other games.
And as the two teams don't play each other bilaterally, their rare clashes in multi-nation matches bring even more attention. To use that, the ACC had designed the tournament's schedule to make sure they played each other as much as possible.
The ACC kept India and Pakistan in the same group with the weakest team, Nepal. They envisaged (correctly) a win for the two senior teams which allowed them to contest again in the Super Fours stage. This might not have been possible had Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, or Bangladesh been there in the group instead.
Even the International Cricket Council (ICC)'s schedules were tending to keep India and Pakistan in the same groups in the last few years. However, what ACC did was unfair to Nepal, who don't play enough cricket against the best sides.
That only brought murmurs of opposition because it was done before the tournament. A change of rules to favor just two teams in the middle of a tournament makes no sense at all.
#2 The reserve day is disrespectful to other teams, and the tournament as a whole
There's a difference between fairness and respect.
The ACC has clearly sent a message to other teams: "Welcome to Asia Cup 2023. This is just a tournament where we want to see as much of India-Pakistan as possible because that brings more money. We can't make the two countries play against each other in bilaterals because, well, how do we push forward our politics then, haha? You are just here to fill slots so it looks like a mult-nation tournament but it isn't. Don't get all angry, the tournament doesn't matter anyway."
In any other sport, in any other competition, teams in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka's position would have forfeited the tournament or at least protested. But they just don't have the resources to go against the all-powerful BCCI and the ACC, which is also under the control of the Indian board's secretary Jay Shah.
By changing the rules midway, the ACC has jolted its own tournament's credibility. It might not mean much now as most fans won't care about morals in front of watching a good India-Pakistan match. However, long term, it won't be a surprise if they don't invest in the tournament as seriously as before.
This will not only have long-term monetary implications for organizers and broadcasters but also will hurt the sport as a whole intangibly.
#3 The reserve day sets a wrong precedent
This brings us to our final point. The reserve day addition has threatened to set a horrible precedent for the sport's future. With a 10-team World Cup and a revenue model set up in favor of the already rich money-minting boards, international cricket was already favoring bigger teams off the field.
This shows that if the rich boards want, they can also buy on-field advantage if things are going against them. Who's stopping them from giving reserve days only for India-Pakistan, Australia-England and New Zealand-South Africa matches at the World Cup? Who cares if it brings discrepancy in tallying of points?
The ICC didn't step in now. They might not step in if the home board decides to change the rules of a World Cup in the middle of the tournament. Allowing the faulting boards to get away with it this time might also give broadcasters more power and control over the rules than they've ever had before.
Surely, the sport runs because it mints money and rules have always been changed to favor money-making (the entire ODI format is an example) and it has always been unfair to smaller teams who need time to catch up.
Changing rules in the middle of the tournament to cover up a gross error (keeping the tournament in Sri Lanka during rains) shows a decreasing breathing space for the passionate but deprived cricketing nations.