Former England cricketer and renowned commentator David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd has said that the repeated drawing of India and Pakistan in the same group for every major ICC event is a form of match-fixing that needs to be stopped. Being one of the high-profile fixtures of world cricket, India and Pakistan are automatically scheduled to play each other in almost every ICC event in recent years. Lloyd, who is also a former England coach, called out the system, labelling it as fixing, and also went on to criticise the pre-seeding seen during the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Appearing on talkSPORT Cricket‘s ‘Bumble and Kimber’ show, Lloyd said: “We talk long and hard about fixing. That’s fixed. It’s just fixed, for a major event!”
“There’s a romance between the two teams being drawn, and then it becomes an event. You can’t fix it,” said Lloyd.
“The independence of the fixtures is the most important thing in sports. If we fix the fixtures, it’s a form of corruption every single time,” said Australian cricket writer Jarrod Kimber, who appears alongside Lloyd.
“That’s only part of what is being fixed. Look at this World Cup (2024 T20 World Cup),” said Lloyd, speaking about the pre-seeding format in the ongoing T20 World Cup.
For those unaware, the top eight teams had already been pre-seeded ahead of the tournament to allow travelling fans a clearer picture of which game to book tickets for in the latter rounds.
When the anchor questioned the possible fixed nature of an India-Australia tie, Kimber said:
“Are they (India and Australia) not highly ranked? There’s no ‘seeding’. They want Australia and India to play each other, and they make sure that happens,” said Kimber.
“India had extra spinners because they knew they had to play in Guyana. How’s that fair?” said Kimber further.
India will face England in the 2024 T20 World Cup semi-final at Guyana on June 27.
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