The Vijay Hazare Trophy in its current form has fallen under the scanner after Punjab was denied the chance to go through to the semis following a washed out quarterfinal with Tamil Nadu on Monday (October 21).
Punjab, among the top five qualifiers from the elite group, wasn't yet given the bye, losing out to Group C toppers Tamil Nadu because the tournament rules say; the team with more victories preceding the knock-outs will go through in case of abandonment.
The issue with the rule, though, is that the combined elite group offers all team nine games each, while the Group C gives them ten matches, meaning even if Punjab had qualified with a clean slate it was always at the wrong end of the equation with Tamil Nadu actually doing so.
Read Also: Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh go through to semifinals after quarterfinals rained out
"Going out like this is very unfortunate and I think it's a very bad rule, to decide something like that," Punjab cricketer Mandeep Singh was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo. "Fighting it out in the A, B groups - the two groups that have the best 18 teams... Had it rained yesterday, Pondicherry would have qualified (ahead of Karnataka, in the tournament's first quarter-final). Doesn't make any sense, but cannot help it."
"Teams will prefer to play in groups C and D then, if the rules are like that. Very unfortunate and really not happy about this."
The rule effectively means if the Karnataka-Puducherry quarterfinal was also washed out, the Plate Group winners would've made it to semis. The two teams won seven games each in their respective league-phase campaigns but Puducherry had a better net run-rate than Karnataka.
Mandeep suggested the BCCI should introduce reserve days for domestic knock-out List A games. "For the knockouts, there should definitely be a reserve day," he said. "For the league stage, it's fine, though the BCCI did reschedule the games. But if there is a day [between the quarter-final and semi-final], then there has to be a reserve day for the knockouts."
The issue was quickly noticed by former Punjab and India batsman Yuvraj Singh who didn't mince words in expressing his feelings for the Vijay Hazare Trophy's rule.
"Again an unfortunate result for Punjab against TN in the Vijay Hazare tournament , again Punjab cruising and game abandoned due to bad weather, and on points we don’t go to semis ! Why don’t we have a reserve day ? Or is it domestic tournament it doesn’t really matter ? @BCCI" Yuvraj tweeted.
Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, another Punjab veteran, also lashed out hard at the "sick rule". "Why not reserve day for these tournaments @BCCI must look into this and change it," he asked.
(Inputs from ESPNcricinfo)
