Finally we are getting into a phase where we can expect some competitive cricket. After 5 days of minnow bashing, today we have in store an exciting match up between West Indies and South Africa. I expect some good and tough cricket to be played over the next 4 days. Tomorrow, Trans-Tasmanian rivalry will be played out between Australia and New Zealand. Saturday, we have an exciting match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka and finally on Sunday we have India Vs. England. So, some good matches lined up over the next 4 days and I am looking forward to enjoy all these matches. Sad, that none is being played in Kolkata though.
Over the next 3-4 days we will watching matches of the teams, out of whom anyone can eventually win the world cup.
Coming back to today's match, South Africa has one of the most balanced teams in this World Cup after Sri Lanka and one has to play out of the skins to beat them. In the batting line up, their top 5 (Smith, Amla, Kallis, Develliers and Duminy) is world class. They have a potent fast bowling attack (Styn, Morkel) and a couple of good spinners. West Indies lacks in the bowling department but they have individual matchwinners in Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Pollard, Chanderpaul and Sarwan. If Chris Gayle clicks, anything can happen and West Indies might well create an upset. But, I am most interested to see how Darren Bravo plays. Its being said he is the next best thing to happen in West Indies cricket after Brian Lara, hence, waiting to see how he performs in this World Cup.
Its very difficult to predict a winner today but if I have to, I will go with West Indies and the sole reason for that is Chris Gayle. Like, Sehwag, he also wishes to bat for 50 overs and if he does that, I shudder to think what he will end up individually.
Eitherways, an exciting match in prospect and I look forward to enjoy the match.
P.S. Only deterring factor could be the dew in Delhi since it gets pretty cold in the 2nd half of the evening. Lets see how it pans out at the end.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
A case for the associate nations
Ryan ten Doeschate is a name which very few people will associate with Cricket. But this soon to be 31 Dutch almost got England embarrassed yesterday. His innings of 119 yesterday was no flash in the pan. He has an ODI average of 71 with a healthy strike rate of 88. He is a pretty decent cricketer and as Mike Artherton said at the end of the match, he has seen him playing for Essex and he was not at all surprised with his performance. Along with Tendo (as Ryan ten Doeschate is fondly called) Holland also has a very talented opening batsman in Alexei Kervezee. Kervezee is just 21 years old and he is a regular with Worcestershire and had a fantastic last season with them. Kervezee's performance in the last season helped the team reach top division and Kervezee was offered a 5 year contract. Holland also has a middle order batsman, Tom Cooper who averages more than 60 in ODIs. The spinner, Pieter Seelar is pretty good as well. All this augurs well for Dutch cricket.
But to keep this performance going and to keep them motivated to play international cricket for Holland, ICC needs to create international matches for them. "A" teams from India, SriLanka, South Africa and Australia should be encouraged to travel to these associate countries and play top flight cricket matches. If ICC does not do so and stick with their formula of reducing teams for the next world cup then people like Kervezee will see more interests in turning up for England than playing for their motherland and over a period of time, Holland will no longer be visible in the international cricket map.
Hope this does not happen and ICC keeps on motivating these countries properly so that we get to see more innings like we saw yesterday from Ryan ten Doeschate.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
CWC 2011 - The associate nations debate
We have had 3 days of cricket till now, 4 matches to be exact (If you can call them cricket matches) with the 5th match to start in Nagpur in an hours time. Frankly other than the 1st match, the rest of the matches were too one sided though Zimbabwe did give a fight and ofcourse they are not an associate nation.
ICC has decided to have a 10 team world cup (i.e. the 50 over world cup) from 2015. Looking at the way the associate nations are getting hammered, I think its a fair call. I might still end up with eggs in my face if Ireland reaches the quarter finals. But, I am for the associate nations because if you do not give them the chance how will they showcase themselves? One should not forget, that right through the first 3 world cups, 1975, 1979 and 1983, SriLanka was an associate nation and they used to get hammered. Infact they were hammered in 1987 world cup as well when they were a full test side (remember Viv Richards' 186?). But this same country came back and won the world cup in 1996 and today they are one of favorites to win the cup again. Even Zimbabwe improved their cricket and during the late 90s they were a real force in ODIs. Same with BanglaDesh today. So what should be done?
According to me, having 4 associate nations in the world cup is a mistake. ICC should allow only the top 2 associate nations in the World Cup and that too should be decided on a 4 year cycle of who is consistent. Perhaps they should have a ranking system for associates just like they have for the full members. In this way only 2 best associate nations come in and we keep the same structure like this year, only difference being, 6 teams in each group in place of 7 as it is currently. Having 2 lesser teams will mean the tournament can be finished in less than 5 weeks which is about 9 days shorter than this world cup which is ok and secondly we will have more contested matches rather than the one sided affairs we have seen in the last couple of days.
What say guys? Appreciate your comments!
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