Something about

It’s been sometime since I wrote, well the reason was that I was busy having fun and cricket is slowly dying a sport. Let’s see what has happened in recent times:

 Ford snubs India; well I guess we deserve it as the BCCI is the most unprofessional organization run by a few individuals as their family business. It does not even have a website (And we call it the most powerful organization in cricket)
 Sachin is back in the Indian ODI team (Give me a break, when Brian Charles Lara is dispensable, I think this guy deserves to be dropped)
 England wins Wisden Trophy, well did not expect anything else but Harmy is still wayward, hope he finds his form.
 Mali is the new ICC President (Sonn passed away) and he claims that Zimbabwe still is a force to reckon with……I think Mylapore should apply for test status!
 I personally feel that Ireland should be given test status (Rumour has it Rankins could be called into the England A side). They any day better than Zimbabwe and now a 2 time Intercontinental Champions.
 Afro-Asian cup concluded in Chennai with Asians winning 3-0. Shaun Pollock played as a batsman with half the team filled with Zimbabwean and Kenyan players.
 Former Pakistan Coach is said to have died of natural causes. Jamaican Police is sure good at investigating.

Irish cages the Tigers!

The Irish team is having a time of their life as the team managed to beat another test team Bangladesh by a convincing margin. The Irish are on a rise and it is up to the ICC to support them and make sure they play enough crickets. With sufficient exposure I am sure they can even beat teams like England and West Indies on a regular basis. For the so called people who were against the minnows in this world cup, well for starters I don’t see a point of having 8 teams playing an event and then calling it the world cup. Cricket is fast becoming a minority sport and the only way out is to get more countries involved which is happening now. If the ICC has a proper plan, by 2020, ICC should have as many as 16 countries wit permanent ODI status.

Learn from the Irish

The problem with Indians as such is that we just cannot take a stand. I remember after the loss to Bangladesh and the subsequent exit from the World Cup, every other Indian including some former so called legends of the game complained that the problem was that of too many endorsements means that the players are highly distracted. Now the same group are complaining that the recent landmark decision of the BCCI is hurting a player’s right to living. Yes the constitution has this provision but I don’t think that a guy’s earning reducing from 30 crores to 10 crores is going to make a big different. It does for him but hell playing for a country is a great honour and given a chance I would do it free of cost. For all those who may not be convinced about this very particular statement, well I rowed for the Tamil Nadu state and rowing as a sport is not funded much. We guys during most cases spend money from our pockets. Why do we do it? It’s because we are passionate about what we do and we don’t care about the money. This one incident has proved that these people prefer making money rather than giving it all out for the country. The Irish team is made up of mostly amateurs except for 2 or 3 who have contracts with county teams. These guys here are not for the money, they are here for the game and they are proud in representing their nation. For those who are not well aware of the historical fact, the Irish team is made up of two nations (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). With all the history between them, they still play as one single unit with no bickering. It’s time that these so-called super powers of cricket learn the true sense of sportsmanship from the Irish team.

Made in South Africa

Not only do we have South Africans playing for South Africa (Dah….Obviously), we also have these chaps representing a lot of other teams.

England - Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Strauss
Netherlands - Ryan ten Doeschate, Eric Szwarczynski and Billy Stelling
Scotland - Dewald Nel
Ireland - Andre Botha

Thank You Bob

It was a sad day for cricket after the demise of Bob Woolmer. He was 58. Woolmer first coached Warwickshire to unprecedented successes in the English domestic circuit and later on went to coach South Africa during its most successful period ever. He then became a high performance manager coach for the ICC coaching out the associate nations. He became Pakistan’s first foreign coach and his death was great loss. He was known for his innovative coaching style and is one of the first coaches to use the modern techniques. We will miss you Bob.

St. Patrick to the rescue

A great day for the smaller teams as neighbors India and Pakistan was stunned by Bangladesh and Ireland respectively. It was a great day for the Irishmen as they are most certain to qualify to the Super 8s while Pakistan has just crashed out of the tournament. Bangladesh is closer to qualification and if India loses to Sri Lanka, which is likely to happen the way they are playing, I guess India and Pakistan can share the flight back home. Sachin before the match was thinking about the 2011 WC, the way he played yesterday, I think he should think about his immediate future and plan a dignified exit. Its time Sehwag should be permanently dropped from the Indian team. Also Mr. Chappell should be let go and he has not done anything to the team so far. India should ban cricket and get going with its life. It’s time we stop paying these guys the huge sum of moneys which can be used for the development of other sports.

Ireland Ties Zimbabwe

In the battle of minnows, Zimbabwe who at one stage managed to win the game easily just lost the plot and managed just to tie the game. This is a pathetic performance and I still don’t see the point in ICC not suspending Zimbabwe when they can do the same thing to USA. I guess Namibia or Denmark would have benefited more than Zimbabwe playing this tournament.

Combined Team

Ireland giving South Africa a run for their money is one of the biggest news so far with regard to the warm up games for the World Cup. This shows that minnows if they are given the right assistance could be capable of taking on the best in the world. The ICC instead of giving them a handful of ODIs for the four year period that they have the status after the ICC Trophy can actually draw a well structured plan where they should be playing a minimum of 30 matches not only among themselves, but they should atleast get 7 to 10 games against test nations. Only this would make them better. Another thing is like how the West Indies is made up of many small island nations, they can have a European XI (excluding England), an African XI (excluding South Africa) and an Americas XI (Canada, Bermuda and USA). Though logistics could be tough but in reality this would be the most logical way for these nations to not only improve but also play as a competitive side. The European side can have players from Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, Denmark and some other highly talented players from other Associate teams. Imagine an African side with the best players from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Namibia and Uganda. They will be highly competitive and could beat half the test sides’ atleast in ODIs. This would reduce the number of teams playing in the World Cup and it would also improve the game in these nations as the places will be limited and competition for them will increase. This would be an amazing European XI; I decided to include Ed Joyce though he plays for England now. The final XI - Ed Joyce (C), William Porterfield, Bas Zuiderent, Eoin Morgan, Ryan Watson, Gavin Hamilton, Ryan ten Doeschate, Niall O'Brien (WK), Amjad Khan, Dougie Brown and John Blain.

Do We Need Minnows?

Michael Holding recently made a statement that having minnows in the World Cup are a waste of time. Well I would disagree, if cricket ever wants to compete on a global level, it should expand further and the ICC is doing a great job by promoting cricket in countries like Scotland, Ireland, Netherlands, Canada and Bermuda. The problem is that all the major test playing nations for the last 30 years failed to develop cricket in their neighboring countries. England had it helped out countries like Scotland, Ireland, Holland and Denmark some 50 years back, now these countries would have become a powerful force and some may have become test nations. Look at Nepal, at Under 19 level they are able to beat South Africa, but a club side from SA could trash their national team. India could possibly help them by making their national side play in Ranji Trophy and other events. One of the main reasons why Zimbabwe was pretty impressive during their early years was that, they used to play in the South African Domestic Tournaments. Now due to various political reasons, their side has become a joke, but just brings back the Flowers, Streak, Goodwin, Johnson and Price; they once again have a side capable of competing against the best of nations. It’s time the test nations start helping other smaller countries to develop their cricket programme otherwise in another 20 years cricket may just be played by the same old 8 nations.