Cricket World Cup 2023: Gap widens between top and weaker teams amid evolving ODI format

Australia beat the Netherlands in the World Cup 2023

When five-time world champions in the 50-over format Australia crushed The Netherlands by 309 runs in Delhi last month, it was the biggest victory by runs in World Cup history. It did not come as a surprise as Australia is ranked second in the world in ODIs and  is hovering at 14th.

A top nation that has been playing ODIs since it was formulated more than five decades ago downsizing an associate nation was only along expected lines, especially when you have two centurions including one who posted the fastest century in World Cups (Glenn Maxwell, 40 balls).

Australia have two of the three largest wins by runs in the World Cup – the one mentioned above stands atop and their 275-run win against Afghanistan in the 2015 World Cup ranks third.

But, on Thursday last, when former world champions Sri Lanka were humiliated by the all-conquering Indians by 302 runs after being skittled for just 55, their lowest World Cup score after having participated in all 13 editions so far, it became a matter of concern.

The first thought that came was, ‘Is Sri Lanka going the West Indies way?’, ‘Is Sri Lankan cricket on the decline?’

A look at the largest margin of victories only by runs indicates that in the 37 matches till the India-South Africa match on Sunday, 11 have been in excess of 100 runs. In the 2019 edition, there were only five victories by 100-plus runs margin while the corresponding figures in the entire 2015, 2011, 2007 and 2003 editions were 13, 11, 12 and 8, respectively. These figures are after the advent of T20 cricket at the start of this millennium when the batsmen began to play unorthodox shots and the bats have become thicker with so much meat in them to send the ball soaring into the stands.

Looking at the ODI World Cups before the T20 era and in the six editions between 1975 and 1999, only 21 wins by 100 runs or more have been registered, and most of them were against the weaker sides and the associate nations. The 1979 edition had no 100-plus run margins.

‘WE HAVE BELIEF WE CAN ACHIEVE BIG’

Once an associate nation, Afghanistan have come up the ranks the hard way to gain direct entry into the World Cup based on their rankings. From winning only one game in 15 matches in the 2015 and 2019 World Cups, Afghanistan have registered four victories, including three against former champions in this edition alone to be in contention for a semifinal spot.

Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi replied to a question from Moneycontrol on Monday whether the gap between his team and the top teams has reduced: “We did not have a good World Cup history, winning only one game before coming to this tournament. Coming to this World Cup, we believed that we can do better. I feel we are on par with the top teams. We are still learning. Talent-wise, we are a good team. Besides talent, we are constantly working hard. And more importantly, we have the belief that we can achieve bigger things. That is the important thing in the team. Our mindset is to win, it doesn’t matter if the opposition is Australia, India, England or The Netherlands. We were good enough earlier but we started thinking how to improve and how to compete.”

Former Australia captain and a key member of the team in this edition, Steve Smith, said that his team would not take Afghanistan lightly, though. To a question from this scribe on Monday, Smith said: “Honestly, I have not paid too much attention to the deficits. It’s just about playing the game. We have obviously had a couple of big wins, which have been nice for us. For us, it is just about focusing on what we can do out in the middle. We have a game here on Tuesday against Afghanistan, who are a dangerous side on their day. We certainly won’t be taking them lightly.”

Smith added that Afghanistan “are a good side and they've come a long way in the last five or six years. So, I think they're a tough side and you've got to play well to beat them”.

While Afghanistan has been on the rise, a few other teams are on the decline. One of the Afghanistan wins came against the 1996 champions Sri Lanka. The Lankans did not gain direct entry into the World Cup 2023 but had to go through the qualifiers in Zimbabwe earlier this year. It was from these qualifiers that Sri Lanka and The Netherlands made it to the tournament while the West Indies, winners of the first two editions in 1975 and 1979, failed to make the main tournament for the first time.

Sri Lanka’s assistant coach Naveed Nawaz replied to a question from Moneycontrol if this was the start of the decline of Sri Lankan cricket: “Well, it's a cause for concern, for sure, but I don't see it as the decline of Sri Lanka cricket. We've got a young group of players. We've got only a few guys who have played over 100 ODIs here in this group as well. So, I think it's a rebuilding stage where we have a couple of new players who are still learning the trade, I would say. So, we have some exciting prospects back home and also in this group, and I hope they'll take every opportunity to learn from their mistakes and move forward and do well in the future. So that's the only hope that we have.”

‘IF YOU DON’T GET MOMENTUM, YOU STRUGGLE’

Kiran More, former India wicketkeeper and chairman of selectors, agreed that the gap between the stronger teams and the weaker ones is marginally increasing. More told Moneycontrol: “Look at Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Even The Netherlands have done well, defeating South Africa and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka has gone through a lot, losing quite a few players to injuries. Sri Lanka’s standard of cricket has gone down. The team that won the World Cup in 1996 and runners-up in successive editions in 2007 and 2011 is not looking at their best. Bangladesh has gone down big time.

“We expected England to do well. They were the favourites but have not performed well. They never got their rhythm going at all. In the World Cup, if you don’t get the momentum, you struggle. They could not find any solution to win a game. A favourite team going down so badly is a cause for concern.

“Having said that, South Africa have done outstandingly well. They have been brilliant. That is a positive sign. India and South Africa are actually dominating overall in this format because of their bowling strength. Both have got five bowlers who can take wickets at any point of time in the match.”

More said that it was up to the individual cricket boards on how they wanted to go about the 50-over format. “I don’t think there would be any problem with the future of the 50-over format. It is how the nations want to go about it. It is not even about the International Cricket Council. It is about how the nations want to prepare. Everyone tries to do well. You need to find the talent. That is very important,” said More, who played in the 1987 and 1992 World Cups.

“The gap between top and weaker teams is marginally quite high. India, South Africa, and even England have dominated, though England has not done well in this tournament. Pakistan have struggled. But the surprise package has been Afghanistan. They have done very well to stay in contention for the semifinals, winning against three world champions – England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.”

The Netherlands registered two victories including one against South Africa by 38 runs, after which the African nation switched gears crushing almost every opponent along the way to seal their semifinal berth. However, South Africa were stopped in their march by India in Kolkata on Sunday. India bowled out the Proteas for 83 and won by 243 runs, handing Temba Bavuma and his men their heaviest defeat in ODIs, let alone the World Cup.

While the match in Kolkata on Sunday was expected to be a closely contested one, it turned out to be another one-sided contest in this tournament. While this one-sided contest cannot be generalised as South Africa is a weaker team, it exposed the African nation’s weakness against the Indian spin bowling in particular and the accurate Indian bowlers in general.

‘WE AREN’T HERE TO HAVE FUN, WE’RE HERE TO WIN’

The Netherlands’ head coach Ryan Cook said earlier in the tournament that they have come to this tournament through the qualifying rounds to make the semifinals, at least. Though they did not meet that requirement, they did try their best and should be proud of their performances here.

Cook said after the upset win against South Africa: “After qualifying, we were pretty quick to set our minds to what we wanted to do at this tournament. Yeah, and we weren't coming here just to have fun and enjoy it. We're here to win games of cricket and give ourselves the best chance to make that next stage. So, yeah, South Africa is obviously a very strong side. If we want to be amongst it, we've got to beat sides like this.”

While The Netherlands are out of the race for the semifinals and the gap between them and the top teams may not have immediately narrowed, with the right encouragement and exposure against the top teams, the gap can be reduced. Otherwise, the associate nations will only be playing amongst themselves and the standard would remain poor so that they would be brutally exposed in global tournaments.

The Netherlands batsman Teja Nidamanuru put things in perspective for the associate nation. He said recently: “The challenges of associate nations’ cricket are that there is less funding, there is less sort of opportunity and there is less exposure. There's a difference between us and someone like Australia, India, England, South Africa or even New Zealand. They're always playing with each other. The exposure and sort of the know-how, it's not a huge secret because they are competing against each other all the time. So, when you do come up against them, you’ve really got to rise to the occasion. But if we were playing like the other teams do, I'm sure that would be up to par in terms of how it goes. So, if you say, hey, we play someone like New Zealand 10 times, I'm sure we'd be able to win at least four or five games out of that.”