Allegations Of BCCI, India Getting Undue 'Help' From ICC In T20 World Cup Criticised: "Dimaag Khali Hai?"

The T20 World Super 8 grouping has presented an interesting scenario. All the toppers in the group stage - India, South Africa, West Indies, Zimbabwe - have been placed in Group 1. Group 2 consists of the four teams that finished second in their respective groups - New Zealand, Pakistan, England and Sri Lanka. This structure guarantees that two of the tournament's best-performing teams from the first round will be eliminated before the semi-finals, while a team that only managed to finish second in its group now has a theoretically "easier" path to the final four. However, the grouping were decided based on the rankings of the teams before the T20 World Cup. Only Zimbabwe took Australia's seeded place in Super 8 as the latter could not advance from the group stage.

The imbalance in the T20 World Super 8 grouping got further amplified with the marquee event being played in two countries - India and Sri Lanka. Add to it the fact that Pakistan won't travel to India for any of its matches, which makes matters more complicated for the schedule makers.

Former India opener Aakash Chopra, however, said there is no reason to believe the social media claims that the schedule has been done in such a way so as to favour India.

"This tournament is happening in two countries. So, India have to play all their matches in India, and Sri Lanka and Pakistan have to play all their matches in Sri Lanka. So, it is mandatory to keep Sri Lanka and Pakistan in one group, and India must be in a different group. Nahi toh kaam kaise chalega?" Aakash Chopra said in a video.

"Many people are saying that all of this is favoring BCCI, and is happening to favor BCCI only. To those people, I want to ask something, Dimaag khaali hai kya yaar? (Is your brain empty?) Why would we want to keep South Africa and West Indies in our group? How does it help us anyway which way? That Australia would lose, who knew? And Zimbabwe topped the group. So, don't consider it as the weaker group. Do some research at least. Faltu ki baatey mat kiya karo, sobha nahi deta (Don't talk rubbish, it does not suit you)."

Chopra also gave the instance of the 2012 T20 World Cup where all group-stage toppers were clubbed together in the Super 8.

"People are saying that how can you do this and all, what is this pre-seeding here, there is no advantage of topping the group. But we have to understand that this is not happening for the first time. This happened in 2007, 2009, 2010, and even in 2012. In 2012, the exact same scenario as now unfolded where the table toppers were together in one group," the former player said.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team BCCI International Cricket Council Pakistan Cricket Board Pakistan Cricket Team New Zealand Cricket Team T20 World Cup 2026 Cricket