Magic numbers

Guest poster Joe Donnelly gives us his thoughts on how the 2015 World Cup could be structured:

I am not sure just how much hip hop band De La Soul knew about cricket when they decided to release the single “Magic Numbers” but surely somewhere in their psyche they knew of the magic trinity that is India, Australia and England.

The 3 cricketing powerhouses, and India in particular, control the global finances of the game through the value placed on them by Television companies. It is this wealth generating capacity that means all the remainder have to tap into it, by competing against them in televised competition to ensure their survival.

It is unfortunate however that this had lead to the introduction of one more magic number ‘Ten’.

In numerology ten is the higher octave of the number 1 and signifies the end of a cycle and in cricketing terms this holds true as well. Ten the number of ‘Full’ Members of the ICC and ten the number of teams to be allowed to compete in the sports next global showcase event.

The significance of the end of the cycle is borne out in the exclusion of all but the self professed elite, those who play test cricket. CWC2015 as things stand will be the 1st world cup in the history of the event where no country outside of that elite will be permitted entrance.

This is shameful even, given that in my lifetime 3 of the magic ten gained their entry to the elite based in a large part on their performances in the competition. Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Cynics will say at least one of those admissions has more to do with voting patterns than cricketing ability, but that is an argument for another day.

Ten though has one other characteristic, one that makes it unique in mathematical terms. In order to calculate the sum of all the numbers in the range of 1 through 10 simply divide 10/2 and write the answer down twice (10/2=5) so the sum is 55. Try it on a calculator – no other 10 number sequence has this result.

And thereby perhaps Pythagoras, Descartes and all those other mathematicians of yore are trying to tell us a simple solution to our problem.

If ten is indeed the magic number and we truly want to commit ourselves to the turgidity of a 48 game world cup pre-ordained to last for 6 weeks in an already crowded cricket schedule as demanded by TV rights holders then perhaps 5 should qualify directly, the semi-finalists of the previous competition and the hosts of the next, and the remaining 5 places should be qualified for? If associates are such walkovers surely the test nations ranked 6 – 11 in ODI cricket have nothing to fear from playing off against them.

However if numerology is to be believed then there is one more, far more potent number, the number 12.

12 is the number believed to symbolise a whole, a perfect a harmonious unit. Throughout history 12 has been the symbol of good: 12 apostles, 12 tribes, 12 sons, 12 gates, 12 constellations of the zodiac, 12 Nidans, 12 labours of Hercules, the 12 Imams, 12 months of the year, and 12 was used in many early religions to express the Divine Mother.

12 may also be a solution to the world cup as well, 12 teams competing allow for all the magical elite to compete yet still allows the tradition, and the right, of the non-elite to strive to participate in crickets showcase event.

12 May be the number to heal the schism between the haves, and the have-nots in world cricket, a number that allows the Full members to retain their dignity by not having to prove they belong in a world cup and yet to allow the 90% of the member nations of the cricketing world a route to showcase their talents on a truly global stage in the Cup that Counts.

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