Blatant scheduling bias!

Afghanistan beating Australia and eventually reaching the semifinals of the T20 World Cup constituted a major upset but it wasnrsquot a surpriseAfghanistan is a competitive side that made their intentions clear in the 2010 Caribbean T20 World Cup ldquoWe are not here to make up the numbersrdquo they said and then lived up to that lofty claim Afghanistan has continued to improve and they are mentally strong In addition to producing some worldclass cricketers Afghanistan continues to challenge the better teams This is not always the case with minnows or even some Test playing nationsmdashtake Bangladesh for instanceBangladesh have threatened improvement at times but they regularly fail at the big hurdles You could never accuse Afghanistan of being overawed by their opponentsAustralia have refused to play Afghanistan in the past because of their Taliban rules especially regarding women which would only add to the satisfaction of beating the former T20 world champions It also doesnrsquot help that Australia have a reputation for succumbing against good spin bowling This is an unwanted flaw that is quickly understood by opposing teamsAlso Read Exile to excellence Rashid Khans evolution into Afghanistans World Cup iconAfghanistan then produced a magical win over Bangladesh albeit it clouded by controversy to make the semifinals The controversy concerned a playerrsquos cramp and brought into focus the position of the coach in this case former England player Jonathan TrottRashid Khanrsquos disapprovalA persistent concern of mine around the position of coach is that they can favour their own interests retaining a coaching contract over those of the teamrsquos priorities This appeared to be the case when team captain Rashid Khan made clear his displeasure with the Afghanistan playerrsquos anticsThe important thing was the result as Afghanistan earned their semifinal spot However the integrity of the tournament was flawed from the moment it was decided India was playing the second semifinal in Guyana whether they finished first or second in their group This blatant scheduling bias accommodated the morning start time of the second semifinal which favoured Indian prime time televisionThis was further confirmationmdashif any was neededmdashthat the bottom line is a major deciding factor among cricketrsquos administrators Cricketrsquos financial integrity will continue to be a problem as long the imbalance remains with India providing at least 70 per cent of the financesAfghans prove their strengthAfghanistanrsquos magical run came to a sudden halt when South Africa avoided their trademark World Cup semifinal meltdown by producing a bowling masterclass They dismissed Afghanistan cheaply and then batted sensibly to enter the finalIn the other semifinal India proved to be far too strong for England as skipper Rohit Sharma led the team with a typically brave batting performance The spin bowlers with the revived Kuldeep Yadav displaying his vast improvement then dismantled the England batting and India were safely into the finalThe India versus South Africa final is a battle of two unbeaten sides and most importantly the best teams in this competitionThe hope in a major tournament is that the final will feature the two best teams and they then provide a spectacle worthy of the occasion South Africa have blatantly focused on T20 cricket lately so theyrsquoll claim this is vindication of that policy but they still have to overcome their bad habit of wilting in major World Cup matchesA different SA teamIf that South African trait continues India will win comfortably Nevertheless South Africa maintain that this team is a different proposition and its captain Aiden Markram has already experienced World Cup success albeit at the under19 level in 2014India on the other hand have plenty of World Cup big match experience and a captain in Rohit who has a pedigree of success Both teams have well balanced pace attacks but Indiarsquos spin bowling is superiorA lot will depend on the way South Africa react to the pressure of a final In the compressed nature of T20 a mistake can be terminal and judging by South Africarsquos previous World Cup history India are the team most likely to be lifting the trophyThis was written before the start of Saturdayrsquos T20 World Cup final