No scope for cornered tigers

Imran Khan at the 1992 World Cup. Pakistan got a second wind there, but not at this Asia Cup, because of a flawed bonus-point rule © Getty Images

In 1992, when Pakistan had won just one of their first five matches in the World Cup, Imran Khan inspired his men by telling them to fight like cornered tigers. If Imran was captaining Pakistan at the current Asia Cup, he would not find a way to be inspirational. The tigers aren't cornered, but buried, after just one solitary defeat. They lost a game to Sri Lanka, and the tournament to a bonus-point system that was set up for all the right reasons, but is having quite the wrong impact.

One-day cricket is unpredictable, and no team should be penalised for having one bad day. In any tournament, thus, a single loss does not put you out of the event - there is always a way back in. And in the Asia Cup, with three teams of approximately equal strength, you'd expect each to beat one other and lose to the third. It's happened before, and it will happen again. It normally then comes down to net run-rate, but Pakistan won't be getting out their calculators if they beat Bangladesh on Thursday, and match India and Sri Lanka on wins - they'll be packing their bags.

This is how the bonus-point system works in this Asia Cup. A team gets five points for a win, but if it gets a bonus point - beating a team with a run-rate greater than 25%* - then it gets an extra point. Fair enough. But the losing teams also get a point, unless they concede a bonus point, in which case they gte nothing. So when Pakistan lost the bonus point to Sri Lanka, there was actually a two-point swing (Pakistan losing one, Sri Lanka getting one). Sri Lanka 6, Pakistan 0. And when India lost to Pakistan but saved the bonus point, it was Pakistan 5, India 1.

This system is skewed, and the penalty for one bad loss is too harsh. Bob Woolmer is justified in being upset about it. If a bonus point system is kept in place, there should just be a one-point swing, and the margin of victory should be reconsidered - to be penalised for winning by 'only' 59 runs, as Pakistan did, is too harsh.

It is not as if the previous system was perfect. The net run-rate system meant that the team playing the last game knew what margin of victory it needed, which is also unfair. Ideally, as in the socccer's Euro championships, and many others, the last matches of a league should be played simultaneously. But commercial considerations rule that out. A bonus-point system is fine, but the weightage needs to be corrected. Cricket would be poorer without cornered tigers.

* Correction - I had originally written 20% here, calculating that the 60-run margin for the bonus-point in the India-Pakistan match was 20% of Pakistan's total of 300. But Pakistan's total actually needed to be 25% greater than India's, which is why they needed to restrict India to 240, as 60 is 25% of 240. My mistake, sorry. Back to article