Weather, atmosphere and reserve days aside, how can the World Cup format be improved. The tournament doesn't include all the cricket nations in the world so limiting the number of participating teams to 16 is arbitrary. Why not limit it to 8 teams?

There would be a greater chance of good contests between the top teams than matches involving minnow teams. My format would give the top 6 ranked ODI teams automatic inclusion in the Cup and the bottom four ranked ODI teams would have to playoff against the minnows in a separate qualifying tournament with two teams qualifying for the WC. The WC tournament would simply consist of the Super 8 stage, two semis and final. That's a total of 31 matches instead of 51 matches. If two matches could be played per day the tournament could be over in 3 weeks. The problem with that format is that two teams would play 9 matches in 3 weeks. If that is too difficult some rest days could be scheduled midway through the tournament. The tournament could still be concluded within a month.

The biggest changes needed are the ones Barry Richards was highlighting long before this tournament started:

1. Get rid of these ridiculous modern bats.

2. Insist on grounds with MUCH larger boundaries.

3. Require longer grass on the outfield.

4. Stop groundsmen producing roads with no seam movement.

Get the contest between bat and ball back to centre stage, encourage slow bowling and the rest will take care of itself: the format would be fine if the cricket was good enough to be worth following!

ps. I'd also return to 60 overs per side: the extra 10 overs would swing the game back towards the sophisticated accumulators - too many sides are treating 50 over cricket as an overgrown 20-20.

I would also like to return to 60 overs per side one day cricket, I remember the Gillette Cup was 60 overs and the batsmen had to play proper cricket, or the chances was they would not bat the 60 overs.

Larger boundaries would also be an improvement, but requiring longer grass in the outfield could prove slippy for the fielders, and also dry the runs up to much.

I would like to see in time the short format of the World Cup changed to every 4 years, with a Test World Cup in the alernate 4 years.

A Test World Cup would work with one round followed by a knock out stage, rather than a Super Eight type tournament.

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Ern

This World Cup has seen some great fielding... but on many grounds the ball went so quickly across the outfield that fielders frequently stood no chance of chasing it down. Commentators have noted that the grass was just cut too short: a bit more length would have made a huge difference. As a bonus, the additional length makes it harder to set a field to touch players (who then have more scope for singles to close fielders and running two to the deep fielders).

"Bats are bigger, boundary ropes have come in, and there is no doubt Twenty20 cricket has made players aware of how to play bigger shots. Years ago the bats we used had a sweet spot of a couple of inches. Now the sweet spot is the entire bat. Bats have a lot more wood in them, but they are just as easy to pick up." - Steve Waugh

The problem is that these huge tree trunks today's players call bats are taking all competition out of matches, bowlers are bowling wicket taking deliveries, only to see their efforts top edged for 6.
As for 20/20 cricket (if that's what it can be called) - it will ultimately end stroke play in favour of slogging, men with large physiques will be the new Bradman's and Hutton's of tomorrow.

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Ern

Exactly! I hate 20/20 cricket and these oversized lumps of wood cricketers call bats. For me Test Cricket is number 1.

Some of the grounds were ridiculous, does Kensington oval Barbados have outfield lights if it does why did'nt they turn them on ?

I'm OK with 16 teams and 4 x 4 in the group phase we should go straight into knock out finals 1st Group A v 2nd Group D etc in quarter finals then winners into 2 semi finals then winners into world cup final.

Seedings prior to cup eg. RSA 1 seed, Aus 2 seed line up opposite end of draw like Wimbledon.
Group matches could be conducted over 7 days then 3 day break quarter finals over 4 days then 3 day break then semi finals over 2 days then 3 day break then World Cup final 1 day.

All over in 3 weeks from start to finish, 3.5 weeks if you throw in some reserve days

Mandatory all world cup grounds have night rated flood lights.

Number one change required is to not allow the final to be dictated to by the requirements of TV channels and the vagueries of weather.

The final should be 50:50 regardless of the weather; both teams should be allowed to compete safe in the knowledge that their target will not suddenly change and have no idea what it changes to.

As I noted elsewhere: whatever happens in the knockout stage... the final should be a Timeless Test.