Yuvraj, Harbhajan Criticize BCCI For The Knockout Rules In The Vijay Hazare Trophy

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Vijay Hazare Trophy is going on in the Indian domestic circuit at the moment and some quality cricket has been played in the tournament so far. While, some young sensations have come through and have caught the eyes of the fans, some of the experienced players have put on high class performances as well.

The tournament is in its knockout stage now and a couple of results in the knockouts have sparked controversy. The game between Punjab and Tamil Nadu and the game between Mumbai and Chattisgarh were affected by rain and had to be abandoned without a clear outcome.

Generally, in most of the tournaments at the senior level, there are reserve days for the knockouts, but the rule that the BCCI had set for the knockout round of the Vijay Hazare Trophy was that if a match gets called off, the team with more no. of points in the league stage would advance to the next round.

Both Punjab and Mumbai were in a position from where they could have pushed for a victory against their opposing teams, but since the game couldn’t be completed, they suffered the exit from the tournament as they hadn’t won as many matches in the league stage as their opposition had won.

Many people thought it was brutally unfair on Punjab and Mumbai. Firstly, the performance of the teams in the league stage and their performance in the knockouts shouldn’t be associated. Secondly, there were some groups in the Vijay Hazare trophy where the teams played only 8 games, while there were some groups where the teams played 9 games.

The teams which played 9 games would obviously have the opportunity of collecting more points than the teams which played only 8 games. So, how is it fair that the teams with more points are allowed to go through in case of a rain-curtailed incomplete game?

Some of the former cricketers took to twitter to criticize the BCCI for this weird format in the knockouts. The Indian legends Harbhajan Singh and Yuvraj Singh were not pleased at all that their domestic side Punjab was unfairly eliminated from the tournament. Harbhajan called it a “sick rule”.

Here are the tweets of Harbhajan and Yuvraj –

 

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