Dean Jones was part of Allan Border’s Australian team that won the 1987 World Cup final defeating England at the Eden Gardens.
The 58-year-old has been a familiar voice for many years in IPL tournaments and internationals featuring India. Talking to The Hindu at the CEAT awards, Jones said: “When I began coaching a team in the T10, I thought that was the worst format I have ever been with.
“But I loved it in the end. Trust me, the T10 would be the format for the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.” Excerpts:
How will the Twenty20 leagues played around the world impact the forthcoming World Cup?
Massive. The teams will try to keep their wickets till the 30th over and play the last 20 like Twenty20. Is that good for the game? It is.
England and Pakistan are playing an ODI series in England. Would you say they will get some advantage leading up to the World Cup?
England has won eight out of its last nine ODI series at home. So they are the favourites by miles. They play a bullying style of cricket. Their top three are bangers. They have Joe Root, the glue, and then they have three bangers again. But in a World Cup, there is pressure and anything can happen.
Your thoughts on the World Cup format
I don’t like the way they have scheduled it. Can you imagine India winning nine games, going on top and qualifying for the knockouts and then losing the toss and Duckworth & Lewis coming in... it takes four years of hard work and sometimes even 20 years to get a player ready for the World Cup and a team can be done in by the weather.
I like the Asia Cup format with a round-robin league, Super Four and then the final. Or, the IPL playoffs format. It’s time to have a best-of-three finals at the World Cup.
I like the format with each team playing the other. But it’s too long a tournament. The FIFA World Cup Finals is 32 teams and all done in one month. The cricket World Cup is over 50 days (including the warm-up games). People start to lose interest. I am even for cutting down the teams to eight. We need quality, not quantity.
What about Australia’s chances. They won 3-2 in India and thrashed Pakistan 5-0. David Warner and Steve Smith are back in the team now...
I don’t think they are in the top two or top three, really. Australia will have its chances if the momentum comes its way. In 1987, we lost five games coming into the World Cup. It all comes down to what your role is and executing it. We took singles and won the World Cup.
