T20 shake-up aims to reduce token games In the last World Twenty20 finals, a week was wasted while two big countries knocked out a token minnow in each of the first-round groups. Thus England beat up Afghanistan, then India beat up Afghanistan, and it was irrelevant that India then beat up England because both had qualified for the Super Eight stage. So the next finals, in Bangladesh in 2014, will see a qualifying round involving Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and six associate countries such as Ireland and Afghanistan, of whom two will go through to the second round. There they will be joined by the eight major Test-playing countries, in two groups of five. Bangladesh will have home advantage but that does not guarantee they will qualify for the second round. They went home after the first round last time, having lost to Pakistan and New Zealand. England will welcome this new format because the main part of the tournament will be several days shorter for them and the seven other main countries. England were knocked out before the semi-final stage in Sri Lanka, when West Indies went on to win the tournament, but won the previous World Twenty20 finals in 2009. It remains their only global trophy.