A real nightmare for viewers

I had earlier written a couple of posts regarding the ICC scheduling the world cup 2011 with the initial days consisting of matches involving just the weaker teams in an attempt to curb a legal match fixing. However, unlike what was expected, things didn't turn out to be just a bore with the results being as expected that the so called stronger teams would thrash the weaker teams. This has been the matter of the past with some batsman scoring 36 runs over a minnow and lots of the batsmen having their highest scores against these teams when they are found to flatter against a stronger lot.

That however didn't turn out to be the case this time with England losing to Ireland and an Irish batsman scoring the fastest hundred in the history of the world cup and a non test playing team, once again Ireland not only chasing a 300+ total successfully but also became the team to have chased down 326 runs on board beating the older record of 313 by Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe way back in the 1992 world cup. This stands on the top of all huge run chases in world cups. If these were delights to watch, nightmares would be to see India thrash Bermuda by 257 runs after scoring 413.

That was the highest team total in a world cup surpassing 398 that Sri Lanka scored against Kenya in1996 at Kandy. But, the same team lost both their games in the group stage to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Highest individual score in the 2007 world cup was by a Pakistani batsman against Zimbabwe when he scored 160, which was two runs more than what Mathew Hayden managed against West Indies. But, where was Pakistan in games against West Indies. That apart, another nightmare is to watch games between two minnows which evokes no interest like it happens in matches between Kenya, Canada, Netherlands, Ireland and Bangladesh.

A win or a loss for either teams would make no difference to the teams playing unless the team has been victorious against any other string opposition which makes them stand a chance to make it to the next round. That has also been evident with teams like Kenya, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Ireland making it to the super sixes and super eights of a world cup respectively. But, viewers will definitely complain for lack of tough competition and lack of any cricket action. Yesterday there was a match between Kenya and Canada for its unimportant result. Worst is the case when such games are held on weekends.