T20 World Cup: Harry Brook and Brendon McCullum need a good tournament in India

Cricket, which starts on Saturday with Scotland and India among the participants, will be entertaining over the next four weeks, make no mistake.

Watching the sport in India, especially when the home team is involved, is one of the thrills of the game.

Sri Lanka will have plenty to offer as co-hosts too, and the expansion to 20 teams, which this time allows Italy to take part in the major tournament, has been one of the triumphs of the 2024 edition in the Caribbean.

But this tournament begins under the darkest clouds.

Bangladesh decided not to be there. Unless there is a late change in stance, Pakistan will not play India in Sri Lanka under instructions from its government.

Eight months ago, South Africa’s Heinrich Klaassen and West Indies’ Nicholas Pooran, two of the best and most sought-after players in the T20 game, called time on their international careers.

At the ages of 33 and 29 respectively, they have chosen the world of franchising.

Will this happen so close to a major tournament if the World Cup draw is as strong as it used to be?

One factor in these issues is, at least in part, the oversaturation of major events in cricket.

Add to the 50-over World Cup in 2023, last year’s Champions Trophy and four Women’s World Cups, and there have been 10 such tournaments in just over four years.

But the wider chaos, which is absorbing an increasing amount of the subcontinent and which will threaten the future stability of the sport if left unsolved, is the result of years of poor governance.

Political posturing has not crept into cricket slowly over the past three months.

This has been printed all over the place for a decade, all with the International Cricket Council standing by and watching.

India played the Champions Trophy in Dubai instead of Pakistan as scheduled – a matter that was predictable from the moment the host nation was chosen.

Bangladeshi footballer Mustafizur Rahman was then dropped from the Indian Super League without explanation at the start of the year, sparking this latest crisis.

The easier choice has been made at every turn. This is the result.