“Don’t Complain Now”: Sunil Gavaskar Slams Critics Over T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8 Pre-Seeding Row

The T20 World Cup 2026 has now reached the high-stakes Super 8 phase, but the tournament’s controversial pre-seeding format has sparked a huge debate. Amongst this, Sunil Gavaskar has baffled out on those raising voices.

The former Indian captain challenged the sincerity of the sudden outrage and asked why the critics kept quiet at the time the format was announced months ago. While the heavyweight teams of India, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the West Indies are packed into one “Group of Death, ” fans are worried about the top sides of the tournament being knocked out early.

Nevertheless, Gavaskar has issued a very firm statement in defence of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and has said that the pre-seeding was a transparent and quite normal planning decision that was made well in advance to handle the complexities of running an event in multiple countries.

Gavaskar Slams Late Critics Over “Group Of Death” Outrage in T20 World Cup 2026

Sunil Gavaskar was pretty blunt when he was confronted with a massive social media storm over the unbalanced Super 8 groups. The 76-year-old said that fans were angry that second-placed teams like England, Pakistan, and New Zealand had been put in a supposedly “easier” group, but Gavaskar questioned the timing of these complaints.

Why bring this up now? Why wasn’t this brought up before the start of the tournament? Gavaskar said, explaining that the pre-seeding slots were decided based on the T20I rankings long before any ball was bowled.

He implied that bringing up the issue only after the groups have been decided seems more like an afterthought than an authentic criticism of the tournament setup.

“Why bring this up now? Why was this not brought up before the start of the tournament? Those are the questions that need to be asked of the people who are raising these points now. The reason that I can think of, maybe the ICC can explain it better, is that the logistics, the tournament is being played in two countries,” Gavaskar said while speaking to India Today.

ICC Super 8 Pre-Seeding: Group Distribution At A Glance

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