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The cricket, which begins on Saturday with Scotland and India among those in action, will be entertaining over the next four weeks, make no mistake.<\/p>\n
Watching this sport in India, especially when the home team are involved, is one of the game’s thrills.<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka will offer plenty as co-hosts too and the expansion to 20 teams, which this time allows Italy to make their major tournament bow, was one of the triumphs of the 2024 edition in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n
But this tournament begins under the darkest of clouds.<\/p>\n
Bangladesh have decided not to be there<\/a>. Unless there is a late change of heart, Pakistan are not going to play India in Sri Lanka under instruction from their government.<\/a><\/p>\n Eight months ago, South Africa’s Heinrich Klaasen and West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran, two of the best and most sought-after batters in the T20 game, called time on their international careers.<\/p>\n Aged 33 and 29 respectively, they opted for the franchise world.<\/p>\n Would that happen so close to a major tournament if the draw of a World Cup was as strong as it once was?<\/p>\n A factor in these issues is, in part at least, the oversaturation of cricket’s major events.<\/p>\n Add in the 50-over World Cup in 2023, last year’s Champions Trophy and four women’s World Cups, there have been 10 such tournaments in little over four years.<\/p>\n But the wider mess, one absorbing an increasing amount of the subcontinent and which will threaten the future stability of the sport if not resolved, is a result of years of weak management.<\/p>\n Political posturing has not crept into cricket slowly over the past three months.<\/p>\n It has stamped all over it for a decade, all while the International Cricket Council stood and watched.<\/p>\n India played the Champions Trophy in Dubai rather than Pakistan as scheduled \u2013 an issue predictable from the moment the hosts were selected.<\/p>\n Bangladesh bowler Mustafizur Rahman was then removed from the Indian Premier League without explanation at the start of the year, kicking off this latest crisis.<\/p>\n The easiest option has been taken at every turn. This is the result.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n