India won the T20 World Cup 2024 title without losing a single game in the competition.
It was a huge achievement for the Men in Blue as they produced some brilliant performances to break their 11-year-long ICC trophy drought.
However, the win was not without its fair share of controversies as some former players accused the ICC of favoring India in the showpiece event. In particular, ex-England skipper Michael Vaughan was quite vocal about it.
After Rohit Sharma’s team outclassed England by 68 runs in the second semi-final of the tournament in Guyana, Vaughan called out the venue bias for India. He claimed that the Guyana pitch was the most suitable for the Indian team.
Earlier, Afghanistan’s nine-wicket defeat against South Africa in the first semi-final led to Vaughan expressing concerns about the T20 World Cup scheduling. He attributed Afghanistan's semi-final loss to the biased schedule favouring India.
Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar, however, labelled the allegations as 'laughable' before highlighting that the scheduling of most marquee tournaments are done keeping the Indian audience in mind as they make up a major chunk of the ICC's revenue.
"There were some comments about the scheduling of the ICC T20 World Cup from some former cricketers from the old powers that were laughable, to say the least. They seemed to forget the fact that the major, if not the only, source of sponsorship for the ICC comes from India. It is therefore understandable that the timing for the telecast will be at a time that is good for Indian viewers. Indian TV has bought the rights for three billion dollars and so, obviously, would want to cash in on that with prime-time viewing for the millions who follow the game in India, which, just for information, would be more than the combined population of both the old powers," Gavaskar wrote in his column on Sportstar.
Gavaskar also pointed out that no one talks about any kind of favouritism when the United States TV channels buy rights for broadcasting the Olympics at a time that is suitable for their viewers.
"American TV buys broadcast rights for the Olympics for billions of dollars and so has all the marquee events at the Games at a time that is good for its viewers. We haven't heard a squeak from anybody from the old powers that this favours the U.S. athletes, have we? But then, with them being poodles of USA that would be unwise. The double standards are no longer shocking to the discerning in the subcontinent because, by now, they know what to expect from the old powers. Nothing but jealousy and frustration that they no longer call the shots," he added.