Winner of ICC Twenty20 World Cup 2012- Is it Sri Lanka or Rain?

The fourth edition of “ ICC Twenty20 World Cup” comes to the subcontinent for the first time! Sri Lankans are fortunate to have this much awaited event in their home country. The inaugural event, the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, was staged in South Africa in 2007. After that England and West Indies hosted the tournament in 2009 and 2010 respectively.

In 2007 ,India has won the world cup by becoming the first World T20 Champions followed by Pakistan in 2009 and England in 2010.In 2007 Pakistan named as runner up .In 2009 Sri Lanka scored 138 for 6 wickets but that score did not prevent Pakistan to emerge as winners.

The 2010 England has won the cup be beating Australia by seven wickets. But still no any Twenty20 World cup has won by host country and interestingly for last four times the people of all host counties have to sit and watch the final game in their grounds which was played by different opponents.

This time it can be seen a tough competition between all teams. Following is the groups which play each other in first round.

Group A – England, India, Afghanistan
Group B – Australia, West Indies, Ireland
Group C – Sri Lanka, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Group D – Pakistan, New Zealand, Bangladesh

The analysts around the world are talking about India, South Africa, Pakistan, England, West Indies as well as Sri Lanka as favorites. But anyway you cannot underestimate Australia , New Zealand as well as Bangladesh. Even the Zimbabwean team might be young but they do have enough firepower to upset any major team.

Because unlike longer version of game even one over will change the entire scenario in the game of T20.Altogether this time we can expect a real tough competition with fine display of talents. But anyway Sri Lanka has an edge this time over other countries as they are playing in their own soil. Other than that “the three combinations” of Sri Lankan team can be considered as important. Mahela-Dilshan-Sangakkara combination in batting, Malinga-Herath –Mendis combination in bowling and Thisara-Mathews-Jeevan in all-round department can be seen as significant with their performance.

The crowd is always behind the team and it is one factor which we cannot ignored in these type of tournaments as well as in other games. Professional sports players often cite the support of the crowd as a benefit to their game play. This is a major part of the phenomenon known as the home-field advantage, where teams playing at home are more likely to win the game (Roberston,2011).

Anyway Sri Lanka is experiencing rain these days. The chance of rain is 50-60% in next few weeks and sometimes the rain will be the winner as it continues once the tournament progress. But in the list of venues the name of ‘Dambulla International Cricket Stadium” can be seen as missing. Actually the original rationale behind the “Dambulla international cricket stadium” (Situated in the dry zone) was to provide Sri Lanka with the potential to host one-day matches throughout the year. Nevertheless cricket fans around the globe are expecting (and praying) to see the excitement without any interruptions.

- Asian Tribune -