After a day's break, Asia Cup is back in action today as India will meet Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka will play the game to be almost in the finale. On the other hand, India find them in a do-or-die situation.
But there is a bit of an odd question, why is the break? What was the necessity of this interval in action?
You might find it easy to answer as India played on Sunday. So it only makes sense that they will have a day break.
However, it is not as simple as it looks on paper.
The fact that teams having two consecutive matches should have a break is not followed for everyone.
Afghanistan will play their 2nd match of Super 4 against Pakistan on 7th September. The next game of Super 4 also features them with no break in between.
After Pakistan, they will jump into action the very next day, on 8th September, against India.
In addition, the fact that this is happening in their game against India raises more questions.
This Asia Cup is being played in 2 venues. Dubai and Sharjah. Every team has played/will play in both venues.
But 1 team is playing only at one venue, Dubai. Guess the name? It's India again.
It means that they'll be playing all their games in a single venue, leaving them off of the hassle of travelling and at the same time adjusting to a new pitch.
It should also be mentioned that India, by default, got the qualifier team without any certain criteria in the first-round draw.
Understandably, India being in the tournament till the last day is of maximum benefit for the organisers, considering they provide the biggest market in cricket.
Yet, such biases are ugly and tarnish the beautiful game's reputation.