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David Lloyd, the former England cricketer and coach, questioned the International Cricket Council (ICC) for scheduling India versus Pakistan in every World Cup in the last decade. The 77-year-old spoke about how the aforementioned fixture is just fixed for the major event, which is wrong in his estimation, notwithstanding the financial implications of it.
Notably, since the 2012 edition of the T20 World Cup, India has always faced Pakistan in the group stage of a world tournament in both limited-overs formats. In the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024, the Indian cricket team got the better of Pakistan by six runs at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, USA.
David Lloyd slams ICC for scheduling IND vs PAK clash in every World Cup
In the latest podcast episode on talkSPORT, David Lloyd was asked about whether eliminating the pre-scheduled India versus Pakistan match in World Cups would be a loss, to which he remarked, “Not in the slightest.”
“We talk long and hard about fixing in cricket. That's fixed. It's just fixed for a major event. The game itself is an event. You can't fix it. And that's only part of what we fix. We fix loads of stuff. In this particular World Cup, you're just trying to manipulate. It's just wrong,” he added, as per the Times of India.
David Lloyd wasn’t quite pleased with how the two semifinals of the T20 World Cup 2024 have different rules. Notably, while the South Africa versus Afghanistan semifinal has a reserve day, the India versus England match doesn’t have one.
"It just isn't fair (to the teams). We're just manipulating the tournament for the benefit of a few. If you look at the TV audience in India, they would watch anything there and anytime. It is a religion. It is the be-all and end-all. They would watch it and so it must have some commercial value, that overrides the competition itself," remarked the England legend.
