India has to win the World Cup, Day 24: Now we are very close to realizing the historic dream of T20 World Title

Delhi: So India reached the semi-finals of T20 World Cup. Those who were leaving no stone unturned in criticizing India in the name of this World Cup, got another point. Did India really reach the semi-finals with any external help?

Till now, despite being the main host, India has not taken any advantage of any ICC decision related to this T20 World Cup, which would say that India got an ‘advantage’ compared to other teams. The team struggled in the race for the semi-finals from the first match of Super 8, did not play in any one stadium and is the only team whose players had to endure the fatigue of traveling more than 10 thousand kilometers till the end of Super 8.

Even then, regarding this T20 World Cup, there are allegations of ‘not showing honesty’ and giving advantage to India. How true are these allegations? The biggest allegation is of pre-decided team seeding in Super 8. Why do those who make such allegations forget that this is not the first World Cup in which the seeding for the second round was already decided. So why blame India?

The second allegation is of fixing the draw so that the India-Pakistan match definitely takes place. The truth is that this is on the demand of the broadcaster and not on the demand of India. Besides, in the huge income that ICC earns due to this ‘big’ match, not only the cricket board of the country making such allegations also gets a share, the cricket board of those associate countries also gets money, which is called taking cricket to every country of the world.

A new allegation is that they did not play the last group match together. Due to these matches not happening simultaneously, the team plays cricket as per the requirement to qualify. Coincidentally, India played the last match in the Super 8, which further fueled this allegation. It is alleged that India’s semi-final venue has already been decided. This is also not a decision which has been seen in this T20 World Cup. So speaking of ‘sporting integrity’, those who are raising the issue of complete lack of it in the World Cup, they really did not do their homework properly. Therefore, it is not at all right to make baseless political allegations and allegations of changing the playing conditions for the benefit of the tournament.

An example from the FIFA 1982 Football World Cup is very interesting in this matter. Both West Germany and Austria then knew that a 1–0 win for Germany would give them an advantage and advance while Algeria would be eliminated. That’s exactly what happened and after West Germany’s early goal, neither team even pretended to try to score. Even then there was no noise, but in this T20 World Cup, when nothing is happening, there is noise.

Well, India’s campaign to win the World Cup paid off and finally India qualified for the semi-finals by defeating West Indies in its last match in the Super 8. If an attempt was being made to provide ‘benefit’ to India, neither Team India nor the crores of cricket lovers of the country would have faced so much stress. Did India play the last group match in Super 8 considering West Indies as weak? India got this victory because of its better cricket. Once again it was proved that no one knows who will become a hero when.

The other teams, except Pakistan, did not know what their semi-final venue would be, while India were scheduled to play in the semi-final on 5 March in Mumbai (provided one of the teams in that match was not Pakistan). This is not the first time this has happened. In the 2024 T20 World Cup, India were scheduled to play their semi-finals in Guyana and West Indies in Trinidad. India was not the host then.

There is no need to make any noise about the fact that India played every match at different venues, whereas South Africa played most of its matches in Ahmedabad only. No one is accusing South Africa of benefiting. Pakistan played all its matches in Sri Lanka and it was decided that it would also play its semi-finals there. Even then the noise is against India.

Well, such noise will keep happening. Team India is closer to its destination of winning the World Cup. Now only two more matches have to be won. With the support of the entire country, Team India. Mumbai is the next destination and this tempo of winning has to continue.

Fun Fact:

• Sri Lankan team caused huge loss to the economy of their country by showing Pakistan the way out of the tournament. If there had been semi-finals and who knows even finals, it would have been a huge advantage for the Sri Lankan board.
• One special thing is that the four teams that reached the semi-finals are from different continents.

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