No more blind slogging

Well a person who had made news for the right as well as the wrong reasons has decided to call it a day when yesterday the Pakistani slogger-Shahid Afridi quits international cricket. This would mean most of the major cricketing websites would focus on his three fastest hundreds that came against three sub-continent nations namely Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh. But, speaking facts, Shahid Afridi's absence in the Pakistani batting line up should boost up their middle order for, Shahid Afridi is no way better than some Shoaib Akthar or any other tail end batsmen when it comes to batting.

With so many beautiful shots out there like the cover-drive, the on-drive and much more, Shahid Afridi has had only one shot-just blindly whip the bat and in case it makes contact with the ball you have six runs added to your credit. And, in case the ball nicks the edge of the bat, the slip fielder would be having one more catch to his credit and that is all. In that regard, Shahid Afridi is a batsman one of his kind. Even tail end batsmen would think a dozen times before going in for a shot unlike Shahid Afridi from Pakistan.

We can remember the Australian nightwatchman Jason Gillespie who got a double hundred against Bangladesh which is too much for his standard as a batsman. It was just the helplessness of the Pakistan Crickat Board (PCB) which hardly had any option but to crown Afridi as the Pakistani captain for the 2011 world cup. Afridi should consider himself to be lucky for, he was the captain of the Pakistan side which defeated Australia after their unbeaten 36 match streak and made it to the finals after Waqar Younis and Inzamam (who were better captains compared to Shahid Afridi) could not manage.

Irrespective of the situation his team was in, Shahid Afridi took no serious responsibility of his team and used to slog blindly. The three fastest hundreds out of his six centuries should be nothing but fluke. On the other hand, his bowling had a good amount of variation and used to deceive even the most awesome batsmen which saw him bag two five wicket hauls and an equal number of four wicket hauls in the recently concluded world cup. When most of his fans expected him to showcast his power with the bat, he kept them in suspense when his ball listened to him rather then his bat.

Sri Lanka dare not to overstep

Well if one side of the incident where a Sri Lankan team bus gets targeted by terrorists on March 1^st 2009 makes us feel insecure, sometimes the same thing makes us laugh for the Sri Lankan team being so stupid to tour the trouble torn nation. No doubt that the match was heding towards a thrilling finish before the unexpected happened. This was one such situation where a match happened to be abandoned not due to rain or bad weather but due to terror attacks. The overall blame and responsibility totally lied on the Sri Lankan team for reasons mentioned above.

There was absolutely no reason not only for Sri Lanka but for anybody who is scheduled to play in Pakistan at that time when the country was fresh from major terror attacks and warnings regarding the same. That was the time when all major cricketing nations pulled themselves back from their tours of Pakistan that included the likes of Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, England and the West Indies. It was India who were about to tour Pakistan and after the Mumbai attacks took place, India became the 6^th country to join the elite list who didn't want to risk their lives.

It was more than one year from the date the attack on the Sri Lankan team bus took place that all the aforementioned nations canceled their tour to Pakistan that Pakistan had stopped hosting cricket on its soil. That is one such record that only Pakistan alone can boast of. Of course, India's reason not to tour Pakistan was rivalry between the countries rather than security concerns in Pakistan. It was in that tour that India was replaced by Sri Lanka and the unexpected expected took place at Lahore. Likewise, there has been egg throwing incidents in Australia when Muttiah Muralitharan happened to be a victim.

But, that could have been forgiven and so would have been the LTTE blast near the team hotel when a triangular series involving Sri Lanka, India and South Africa was scheduled to take place. And, two years after the incident has taken place, once again concerns are raised regarding the security situation in Pakistan by the same team that witnessed live horror then. If anybody can go through the latest news about Pakistan, the Sri Lankan team can look no further before deciding whether to or not to tour Pakistan. May be, if they do so, the players can never be given another chance to think.

West Indies get what they've begged for

Well it might have just come in as a surprise for all those curious fans of West Indies cricket out there when their favorite team inflicted a 10 wicket defeat on Pakistan yesterday at Guyana. But, to me who has been following the West Indies cricket from the past decade, this should come in as no surprise with the series already decided two one dayers back with Pakistan leaving absolutely no stone unturned in their approach against the West Indies. Of course, the West Indies earlier in the tournament beaten Pakistan in a game that was cut short at Bridgetown.

That was in the 4^th one day international by which time West Indies had already meekly surrendered to the Pakistan team no matter where they were playing them. West Indies had lost the series 3-0 to Pakistan after the touring country had taken an unassailable lead in the five match one day series. Added to that would be the fact that the game was truncated to 30 overs after Pakistan had scored 248 runs on the board. Though not enough in today's limited overs cricket, the total was far from enough when the opposition they were facing came into consideration.

One can see the West Indian cricketers rejoicing their thumping 10 wicket win over the sub-continent nation unaware of their losses in the previous three encounters prior to that and the one off game that proved to be lucky for the hosts. I can remember the West Indies beating Australia on three successive occasions in a 7 match series after losing to the Aussies 4-0 in the first four one dayers that preceded this. Then, the West Indians were responsible in stopping the 21 match winning streak of Australia that started from the VB series involving England and Sri Lanka and went on through the world cup 2003.

The very same thing happened in the test series when the West Indies miserably lost the first three tests and won the 4^th test which made news for the highest ever run chase in a test match that stands even today. All credit to Brian Lara who bought out the best from the worst from his team. If West Indies were even a little bit serious about their cricket, they should have had at least one win before handing out a series to the touring country. A consolation win is the last thing that any team ever dreams about. However, this was far better than a 5-0 whitewash.

Will Pakistan experiment or play serious?

It has been less than a month since Pakistan inflicted a crushing defeat on the West Indies when the touring team lost all 10 wickets for a mere score of 113 on the board and on the other hand failing to strike even a single time. Of course, even England lost the match to Sri Lanka by 10 wickets despite England putting up a total in excess of 200 in the quarter finals. May be, had the West Indies scored above 200, a Pakistani wicket would have made it to the score card. That was just another loss for West Indies and nothing more.

With that apart, news and schedule has it that Pakistan is set to tour West Indies or are already in the country that is facing a lot of trouble in cricket. No prices for guessing the result of the series for even a kid can claim that West Indies are set to lose the series or worst come, may end the tournament without even a single win in both test as well as one day cricket. Couple of days back, news had its say that Gayle may be unavailable for the series, with the current West Indian squad speaking otherwise.

One can see the names of Chanderapaul and Sarwan along with Gayle. In addition to the presence of Chris Gayle and co, one can expect the return of Marlon Samuels for people who are familiar with the name and a chance for people who don't to get to know who this average cricketer is. Since Samuels is not some Mohammed Asif or Shane Warne, his return would hardly bother anyone-not even the WICB. But, the million dollar question is whether Pakistan will go ahead with a full fledged team to face the enemy or will they experiment with their players?

Had I been the Pakistani selector, I would have rested some or most of the key players from the tour though the series is away from home. Teams like Zimbabwe and West Indies (but rarely Bangladesh) can prove to be of some use to viewers only when key players and inform players take a break. Than, one can see a balanced match wherein both teams fight it out on the field. I remember Dhoni resting Schin Tendulkar in one of the games to see how things work with the absence of a star player. That was the reason for Australia to dominate the world cricket for so many years.

Pakistan's dream bigger than the world cup

Well it was just 6 days after the 10^th edition of the ICC world cup got over that the multi million dollar IPL kicked in and no doubt, this time as well the excitement happens to be the same despite the likes of Sanath Jayasuriya and Anil Kumble missing out. Likewise, such a grand event can happen only in a cricket crazy land like India and may be a little bit in Pakistan that too if it is equivalent to an Indo-Pak match. Or else, the flavor seems to be missing in most part of the globe with people hardly finding any time outside their busy schedule to watch a game that lasts for 6 hours.

One can imagine if all people in the world go jobless and cricket crazy at the same time, what would happen to these cricketers. It was evident in the recently concluded ICC cricket world cup the way teams like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand lost their way inbetween. There was Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting etc from Australia with the South African squad involving Jacques Kallis, A B deVilliars to name a few. But their world cup dreams never lasted more than the quarter finals. The aforementioned teams were better ones compared to New Zealand, who went a step ahead to make it to the semi-finals.

The sole reason for such a debacle can be nothing but the lack of motivation that the teams from the sub-continent were found to be enjoying. Sri Lanka didn't rely on Muttiah Muralitharan and they dropped Chaminda Vass and Jayasuriya from the world cup squad despite their statistics speaking strongly for them. But, the main news other than these is that Pakistan wants to launch a cricket league of its own may be naming it as the PPL. The name itself rivals the IPL with India being replaced by Pakistan. Is this in return for what the team franchisee have done regarding Pakistani players?

Is this owing to the reason that India are the arch rivals of Pakistan and don't want to be anyway behind them at least in cricket? As said earlier, Pakistan is also a strong cricket crazy nation like India and hosting a similar league there would not be a bad idea. Will the current players from the Sri Lankan team feature themselves in the tournament who have experienced the worst on their last tour to the country? Will players from Australia, New Zealand, England, West Indies and South Africa undo the precaution what they did when they were to tour Pakistan earlier? But, one thing can be a good idea- hold the tournament somewhere else outside Pakistan.

Btw shall we move on with farmers' markets?

Did India win or Pakistan lose?

This was one threat that Pakistan would have been facing with the semi-finals being held at an Indian venue. Pakistan, though would have been physically fit to face their arch-rivals, are not so mentally. The Pakistan players might have well prepared themselves for their assault of Indian players on the field but not with the crowd off the same. Afridi and co can only send the ball rolling across the ropes or above the heads but not bottles and paper rockets. Stopping the Indian batsmen consisting of Sachin and co would be much easier than to stop water bottles from striking the deep fielders.

Verbal abuses from say Sreesanth can be stopped by the match officials but not from spectators who'd be waiting for a Pakistani batsman to step out of the dressing room. I wish Andrew Symonds would be the right person to tell you what happened in the finals ODI against India in the seven match one day series in 2007 when viewers got him out for a duck. Sri Lankan team led by Arjuna Ranatunga in 1996 semi-finals would be the right person to convince Afridi as to what to do in India and what not to do. All these if Pakistan is on the verge of victory.

This was the 2^nd time a world cup semi-final was held in Mohali after Australia played West Indies in 1996. With that being a secondary issue, coming to the point, though India won their 5^th world cup match against Pakistan, explanation regarding dropping of 6 catches is still not satisfactory. No foolish fielder on earth would ever drop Sachin Tendulkar four times and that too in a world cup semi-final match. Pakistani players did everything to see their team lose without giving anybody a chance to point their fingers towards their performance on the field. Afridi's cleverness deserves a lot of applause.

Big partnerships between Hafeez & Shafiq, and Misbah & Umar Akmal stay live and get broken when the situation demanded. A total of 261 can be chased down by India against Australia in quarter-finals but not by Pakistan in semi-finals. There would be a 5 wicket-taker from Pakistan and all Indian bowlers end up with no more than two wickets. That was a rare match where spinner stuns a sub-continent nation with 4 wickets and 1 over maiden. But at the end, the situation is better than what would have happened had India toured Pakistan for any match let alone the semi-finals of a world tournament.

The match might have bought both health and wealth for Afridi with them traveling back safely to Pakistan.

Is Mohali (India) the right venue to host semis?

Well as an Indian and an avid cricket fan, I am also eagerly looking forward to the fifth India-Pakistan match in world cups (barring T20 world cups and ICC champions trophies). This will be the second time Pakistan will have to tour India to play a match against the hosts after the famous 1996 world cup quarter finals played at Bangalore which was Javed Miandad's last show on the international stage. Needless to be said, India won that battle by 39 runs despite a threatening start from the Pakistani openers namely Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail who saw Pakistan reach 113/1 after 13 overs.

Anyway, that is history and then things were not that serious as is the case now. Things were not anticipated then in the match at Bangalore, with India winning the match unlike what happened in the semi-finals against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens. Now, Pakistan is once again cursed to tour the venue which he last prefers to. So would be the case for India, for whom the ghosts of the 1996 semi-finals might haunt again in case they give a sign a being defeated. This has happened earlier in a tri nation tournament with Pakistan having a high upper hand and people start hurling bottles on Pakistan players.

Luckily for captains of both teams, there was no India-Pakistan match until 1992 which averted something similar in 1987. In 1996, though there was nothing unexpected in the quarter-finals at Bangalore, what happened in the semi-finals was nothing compared to what would have happened had India won that semi-finals against Sri Lanka. The finals of the 1996 world cup was held at Lahore which might have made the then India captain Mohammed Azharuddin think many times before winning the semis. Anything might have happened had India toured Pakistan for the finals in case India managed to do so. Though this was not the reason for the defeat, it cannot be completely ruled out.

Since then, Pakistan has never been a venue for any world cup tournaments be it the world cup, the T20 world cup or the ICC champions trophy. Pakistan has been canceled to host an ICC champions trophy in 2008, which was canceled completely with the ICC not deciding on the venue to host the tournament that year. And then, this time Pakistan was denied to host any matches of the ongoing world cup which would have made Indians smile to a greater extent compared to other countries. Afridi may just think upon going back to Pakistan rather than be the target for bottles and paper rockets gifted by angry fans for having his team trounce India.

One can just see paint colors in Afridi's face with dilemma whether to go in for the kill or save his life from people's anger.

Bangladesh goes missing

With the second round of the 10^th edition of the world cup being over, it is just fascinating to see that all three teams from the sub-continent have qualified to the semi-finals of the tournament. This has happened for the first time and teams had come close to doing so in the 1987 world cup where Pakistan and India had qualified for the semi-finals with Sri Lanka being just as good as today's Bangladesh and Bangladesh being absent from world cups. Perhaps! Had Bangladesh been a little decent, may be New Zealand would have missed out from entering the semi-finals.

If one can take pains to go to the recent past, Bangladesh have beaten whitewashed the Kiwis 4-0 on their recent tour to the sub-continent nation. They managed wins against Ireland and England when all odds were against them all these in addition to a win that was guaranteed against Holland. Bangladesh had equal number of wins as had West Indies with three wins each. It would not have been a mismatch had they won against the Caribbean country, with both teams standing an equal chance to come out victorious. May be that was the reason for the fans' anger which resulted in them pelting stones on the team bus.

With the match against West Indies being played on home soil, Bangladesh should have made that one count but which was however not the case whatsoever. Moreover, Bangladesh rather than winning the contest against the West Indies, made it look half dead with the home team losing all ten wickets for 58 runs on the board. Bangladesh managed to pile up 283 runs in the opening encounter against India when they were chasing 371 to win and didn't end up losing all ten wickets. This proves the Bangladeshis caliber not to panic under pressure. Neither was their performance any bad against the remaining teams barring RSA.

The debacle against South Africa can well be understood but not the one against West Indies. Now, the remaining three teams from the sub-continent qualifying to the quarter-finals, it would have been a delight to see Bangladesh as well in the contest. Of course, Bangladesh would not have made it to the semis with either Pakistan or Bangladesh having to quit after the quarter-finals. Previously, in the 1996 world cup, all three teams from the sub-continent had qualified to the quarter-finals and two among them went to the semi-finals. Bangladesh were yet to make their international appearance and even if they did, their dreams would not have been beyond the league stages.

Should this mean that I should look out for some jophilsuperman stuff? Not at all.

Bangladesh would have been a better opposition

Bringing all my frustrations in, I totally reject the West Indies team that not only fared so badly but also made the competition so boring. If not the Pakistani players, there would be no 2^nd player who would be happy with the way the West Indies team played in the 1^st quarter finals of the world cup yesterday. Had I been the person in charge, I would have stripped the West Indies team of its test status. Not even the Bangladesh team made me go mad with their bad performance. This I fear is the worst defeat for any team in the world cup knock out stage.

It has to be some bloody miracle that bought the West Indies team into the 2^nd round of the competition with Bangladesh standing an equal chance of making it there. If one can go through the points table, it would be evident that both Bangladesh and West Indies had three wins against them. West Indies had wins against Bangladesh, Holland and Ireland while Bangladesh had a win against Ireland in addition to wins against Netherlands and Ireland. But, it was the net run rate that all made the difference for both the teams. At least Bangladesh had a win against England.

But, the West Indies didn't manage even one victory against a major opposition. They could have won their games against India and England after the former lost all their ten wickets and the latter piling up only 243 on the board. Any team that can better this record can be only a non test playing nation like Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ireland etc in case by chance they manage to do so. With such a daring start against England if the West Indians could not win, a thorough scrutiny of their test status is necessary I suppose. Despite India losing 7 wickets for 41 runs, a target of 270 proved too much for the West Indies.

I can't just recall when last West Indies put up a decent performance in world cups. In 2007, the only match worth mentioning for West Indies was against Pakistan which was the 1st match of the tournament. That was followed by losses against Australia, Sri Lanka, England, New Zealand and South Africa. In 2003, they won against South Africa by 3 runs with the South African innings reduced to 49 overs owing to slow over rate. That was followed by losses to Sri Lanka and New Zealand but was somewhat bearable compared to their present post-Lara era. Had Bangladesh qualified, there would have been 4 sub-continent teams in the quarter-finals.

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Bad grouping of teams evident from the quarter final line up

Well keeping in mind the quarter finals of the world cup, this just seems to be a mismatch with Pakistan not only having an upper hand against the Caribbean but also the West Indies might never ever be able to regroup once the quarter finals against Pakistan be over in the next 8 hours to come. Also the other side would be Sri Lanka who are scheduled to face England on Saturday. No doubt that both these teams would enter with minimum or no effort into the semi-finals of the world cup. But, is this right on the part of the ICC is a million dollar question.

There is no particular team like the Aussies in the past two world cups to have a birthright on the world cup. And neither have Bangladesh and Zimbabwe been underdogs as they have been expected. But, if things are given a close look at, it looks that group A is gifted with weaker teams compared to group B. Group A has two teams from the sub-continent namely Sri Lanka and Pakistan who always have an upper hand being the hosts and enjoying home like conditions. I all blame it on Australia to have deceived the ICC who came out with such grouping of teams.

In group B, only India is a team worth having anyone's bet into. Though South Africa have emerged on the top of the table, it was India who gifted them with a victory by losing 9 wickets for 28 runs with all odds predicting a 350+ total at the end of the Indian innings. Added to that, there were mismatches in England's games against Ireland and Bangladesh which reduced England's chances that in turn favored South Africa to end as the top team. Had England won against Ireland and Bangladesh, they would have been on the top and not the Proteas.

Teams like Zimbabwe, Kenya, Canada and Holland never made their presence felt. However, Ireland and Bangladesh did. Both Ireland and Bangladesh were far superior compared to Kenya, Canada and Zimbabwe in group A. One has to take a deeper look to Explore reality. West Indies on the other hand proved a 2^nd chance for teams like England and India. In group A, All four teams played to their potential with minnows aside. Pakistan beat Australia which in turn beat New Zealand. If I was in place of Lorgat, I'd have put Australia in group B and South Africa in group B and Bangladesh in group A while Zimbabwe would have been in group B.

The 1996 Indian fortune

Well the last time the world cup was held in the sub continent was in 1996 needless to be said and the cup should have been something special for India which included the highest wicket taker and the highest run getter in the tournament when Anil Kumble took 15 wickets and Sachin Tendulkar scored 523 runs. Another interesting fact is that they not only beat arch rivals Pakistan but also expelled them from the world cup after a thumping 39 run triumph against the sub-continent nation. Finally the semi-finals at Eden Gardens against Sri Lanka is worth mentioning which turned out to be a match which yielded no result.

Another interesting fact would be that India never toured any other country despite Pakistan and Sri Lanka being the co-hosts. India started off with their first match against Kenya at Cuttack followed by their match against West Indies at Gwalior. Then, the third match against Australia was played at Mumbai with the fourth against Sri Lanka played at Firozshah Kotla stadium Delhi. Last but not the least the match against Zimbabwe was played at Kanpur. The remaining two matches namely the quarter-finals against Pakistan and semi-finals against Sri Lanka was played at Kolkata (then Calcutta). That was the end of the tournament for India.

Nothing can be done regarding the pool matches which were scheduled in India whenever India was playing. Perhaps! Had the India-Sri Lanka league stage match been held somewhere in Colombo, may be Sri Lanka would have walked away with another win without having had to take to the crease like it happened in the matches between West Indies and Australia against Sri Lanka. Even the league stage matches might have been held either in Pakistan or Sri Lanka and God knows what made the ICC go in for only Indian pitches when Sri Lanka and Pakistan were made to cross the border. For a change, I thinking about nurse's thoughts.

Pakistan played India in Bangalore and Sri Lanka in Delhi and Kolkata. Even the league stage matches for Pakistan were played in Pakistan until the quarter-finals. But, take a look at destiny. India could have qualified in the 4^th place which would have seen it play a team in Karachi which eventually witnessed the biggest upset of the world cup-the West Indies-South Africa match. Likewise, had India emerged on the top, they would have played England in Faisalabad. However, with both semi-finals being held in India, there was no chance for India to move out of the country. Had India qualified to the finals, then, they would have had to tour Pakistan for the match was held in Lahore.

Long gaps in world cups

I just happened to come across a JMF Bloogger before I could point out long gaps in cricket world cups wherein a team has not won a single match against a particular opposition or has been a long time since a team has had an upset in a world cup. A couple of Saturdays before, Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 11 runs, which was Pakistan's 8th victory over the island nation in the history of a world cup keeping the world T20 apart. Sri Lanka was awarded the test status in 1983, partially considering their win over India in a prudential cup.

Matches between Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been played in 1975, 1983, 1987,1992 and 2011 offlate with Pakistan meeting Sri Lanka twice in 1987 and 1983. Viewers had to wait for 5 world cup to see a Pakistan-Sri Lanka match which was last played in 1992. Similar results include India's victory over Pakistan in all four meetings since 1992 till 2003. And then, India's last win over Australia was in 1987 when the Mohammed Azharuddin led team beat Australia by 56 runs at Delhi. Since then, India have lost 5 matches to Australia with two in the 2003 edition and one each in the others.

The best part being that in their 1^st encounter, Australia reduced India to their lowest world cup total of 125 and in the other Australia notched their highest world cup total against India or India conceded the most number of runs in a world cup when Australia ended their innings at 359/2 at Centurion. In 2007, neither did India face Pakistan nor did they play Australia. As mentioned in one of my earlier posts recently, New Zealand needed 28 years to find a win against Pakistan in a world cup match. The Kiwis had last won a match against Pakistan in 1975.

Of course, matches between a test playing nation and a non test playing nation cannot prove any different results unless the strong team underestimates the weaker opposition. New Zealand last won a game against Sri Lanka in 1992 when the Martin Crowe led New Zealand chased down the Sri Lankans' total of 207 with 6 wickets to spare. New Zealand since then have lost to Sri Lanka in 2003 and twice in 2007 with Jayawardane's captain's knock being the famous one in the semi finals of the 2007 world cup. Prior to 1992, Sri Lanka's games are as good as those involving today's Bangladesh or Zimbabwe.

Why is the ICC disgusting at times?

Well yesterday there were two matches of the world cup being held, one of them being between Australia and Kenya and the other one involving Canada and New Zealand. As expected Australia and New Zealand notched up their wins against the minnows. This is no something to complain about. But, one thing that is not worth tolerating is that these matches are held on weekends rather than conducting on weekdays where there are little takers for the match. Unable to tolerate this boredom, I had to go through brain blogs, areman, areman's brain blogs to satisfy myself rather than go through the same.

If one can take a look at the entire schedule of the world cup, it is interesting to see that there have been 4 Sundays and an equal number of Saturdays starting from 19^th February. The matches held are as follows: 19^th Feb saw the only match between India and Bangladesh while on 20^th there were two games, both of which were involving minnows Kenya and Canada. Though 26^th February saw a tough fight between Pakistan and Sri Lanka, on 27^th Feb things once again took a backseat with there being only one match between India and England played at Bangalore.

Coming further in this regard, next on the list is the matches between England and South Africa on one side with India battling Ireland on the other. One of them were worth watching while the other was not really. Owing to bad luck and rains, the match between Sri Lanka and Australia had to be called off which left another Saturday with viewers cursing. That was the first match to be washed away by rains and one has to no doubt curse the rain Gods for choosing an odd day and an odd match to play a spoilsport in Sri Lanka.

Traveling still further on the schedule, there was Australia playing Kenya and New Zealand playing Canada. Even if the next couple of weekends are considered, the matches scheduled hardly evoke any sort of interest. Luckily, Pakistan plays Australia and India plays West Indies the coming Saturday and Sunday respectively. With the Pakistan-Australia match scheduled in Colombo, one has to pray God that rain doesn't do another Sri Lanka-Australia there. Following that, only one out of four quarter finals are scheduled on weekends and the final. As a matter of suggestion, England-WI and Pakistan-NZ could have been held on weekends with India-Ireland and Australia-Kenya held on weekdays.

Can anyone tell this to the ICC?

New Zealand break the jinx

Despite the world cup going on so smoothly, god knows what on earth made me to go for Bare & Barren. But, that didn't take much time before I could switch back to blogging about cricket which is now going through its all time high with the 10th edition of the world cup keeping all eyes glued to the television sets. Yesterday, there was a rare match between Pakistan and New Zealand which needless to be said New Zealand won convincingly by 110 runs. This would not have been the case had the match been played somewhere in Pakistan rather than at Pallekele.

I just can't last remember when New Zealand had defeated Pakistan in a cricket world cup. I have been watching the event since 1992 and since then, the teams have met on five occasions, all of which have been pocketed by Pakistan. The jackpot struck twice in 1992 and 1999 world cup when Pakistan had two wins against New Zealand, the former being responsible in seeing Pakistan lift their maiden world cup and the latter their second entry into the finals of a world cup. In 1999, it can be said that Pakistan had their maiden runners-up tag which is not too bad.

If anyone comes to the decision that Pakistan are lucky in case they encounter New Zealand in the knock stages of the world cup, I'd like to add an exception citing Pakistan's loss to the Kiwis in the champions trophy 2009 when the Kiwis ran the Pakistanis out of the contest as well as the trophy when they beat them at Johannesburg by 5 wickets. If not for that, all is well for the Pakistanis for they beat them in two world cup semifinals and in the world T20 2007 at South Africa. But, this time things have been different compared to the last 5 world cups.

It was way back in the 1983 world cup that New Zealand had last beaten Pakistan at Birmingham by 52 runs. Pakistan didn't face the Kiwis in 1975, 1979 and 1987 world cups. And, the last they played each other was in 1999 and since then it has been three world cups since they have met each other. Things may be or may not have been different had they played in those world cups as well. But, the victory would have been a delight for the Kiwis which saw them beat Pakistan after 28 years or 7 world cups including this edition.

A bad format

I should have written this post long before the world cup began and my sincere apologies for not having done that earlier. I was just going through the fixtures of the world cup when something else struck my mind. Of course, it was nothing related to Balitang Kalye but was all related to the world cup itself and more precisely speaking the time table of the same. It is no doubt that the world cup has started well on time with the season being perfect for the mega event with chances of rain being comparatively less. But the same is not true regarding its fixtures.

As it has been the case since the 1996 edition (barring the 2007 edition), this time as well the teams have been divided into two groups with 7 countries in each group. Needless to be said, four from each group will advance to the quarter finals of the tournament. And that is where the problem starts which shows that the format is a lot unfair like it happened in the 1996 world cup. Unlike in the last three editions of the world cup, this time there are three knock out stages unlike it being two in the last three editions.

One can imagine the world cup held in the sub continent with the quarter finals in place. All teams from one group namely India, Sri Lanka, Australia and the West Indies qualified to the semi finals with none from group B advancing. Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand and England had to end their world cup dreams there itself. Despite winning all five matches in the league stages, South Africa were forced to return home after losing to the West Indies who were outplayed by Kenya a couple of weeks earlier. So was the case with Pakistan who had lost only one game to South Africa before India shattered their dreams.

Finally the world cup was won by a team who didn't lose a single match en route to the finals. But, at the same time, Sri Lanka didn't play matches against the West Indies, Australia (in the league stage), Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand. Doubts definitely would arise whether Sri Lanka would have emerged victorious had they played the aforementioned teams. The only major victories for Sri Lanka in that trophy was twice against India- one in the league stages and the other in the semis and the quarter finals against England and the finals against Australia. This also reduces the number of matches with most of the major encounters missing out.

How come Murali speaks?

Well it is indeed fascinating that the retired Sri Lankan off spinner has come out to throw out his words in the ongoing spot fixing issue that involves Pakistani players to a greater extent. Muttiah Muralitharan seeks life ban for all players who are and were involved in the spot fixing. Of course, there is nothing wrong in Muralitharan making the world know his views for, he was one among those fine cricketers who would be known for as long as the game lives for his awesome off spin and bent elbow more than anything else. That is just not enough.

This would not have made news had it been some other players barring a few like Shane Warne and of course Muttiah Muralitharan. Muralitharan himself was on the verge of losing not only his place in the side but also a life ban, which Muralitharan now insists that the players who are involved in the ugly episode be given. Despite repeated justifications by the Sri Lankan off spinner regarding the bending of his elbow during delivering the off spin, the world was not satisfied with those justifications. The bent elbow episode made news once Muralitharan reached 500 wickets in tests.

That was the time when Muralitharan was a threat to the Aussie leg spinner Shane Warne who was not only closing in on claiming the record but also managed it a couple of times. There was every threat to Muralitharan's career that may be shortened had his bent elbow thing not been set right. News suggests that Muralitharan was fined a no ball repeatedly in the test against Australia in the initial stage of his career for reasons not to be mentioned specially and the then Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga had to bring him to the other end to settle down things.

This is no Mumbaitee | Make Money Online Blogging site for anybody to just follow a procedure and reap the benefits. Once Muralitharan reached the 500 wicket mark, all efforts were made from the Australians' side to stop advancing any further to claim the record which the Aussies had taken it for granted to be theirs. Later on, Muralitharan was also asked by the ICC not to bowl the doosra which was for reasons best known to the ICC considered to be an illegal delivery despite his elbow bending by the same angle as his off spin does. Now, if Muralitharan want a life ban to be imposed on the guilty, he has to look back at his own past to see what a threat of a life ban is all about.

Victory despite all odds for England

Well it was a match between the current world T20 champions and the former world T20 champions - Pakistan who fought it out yesterday at Cardiff and the result can be more clearly told you by none other than the scorecard of the match. However, it need not be specially sited that this blog in particular does not deal with the scorecard or the winners and losers of a match but does deal with the way things have happened regarding both the teams out there. At this point, I don't recommend Shannon's Introspections . However, needless to be said, the onus was on Pakistan to do well.

Until the 1st T20 match between the teams mentioned above, it was only the bad performance by Pakistan in the past 8 months or so which was haunting them. But now, there is the new devil called match/spot fixing which is turning its head towards Pakistan mostly. Though there have been teams like India, England, Australia and Sri Lanka off late mentioned, Pakistan no doubt has a greater in it. And, losing yet another match to some team will just add fuel to the fire and Pakistan have done just that. Scorecard suggests that Pakistan lost only 4 wickets in the first innings.

The entire Pakistan innings never had even a single hit out of the ground. Not even from the blades of Shahid Afridi. In fact, Shahid Afridi came in at number six position when he should have made it to the crease in the top order. Nevermind that even the present position was also not bad though. Should this be considered as a bad performance by Pakistan or a decent one from England with the news speaking about match fixing most of the time? Such matches have happened in the past as well not only for those involving Pakistan but also other teams.

Being known for his hard hitting abilities, Shahid Afridi should have been seen striking the bowlers at will but, instead of that Shahid Afridi was found taking two out of the five wickets that fell during England's batting innings. Another interesting fact from the match is that both teams bowled just 2 extras and what is more! Both the teams gave away one run in the form of wide and another run in the form of leg bye. Well, this may not be owing to some fixing thing and is agreed to be purely coincidental. But, why did even the England innings also didn't contain a single hit out of the ground? Don't worry, even that is not fixed.

Mohd Aamir just 18

Well, not much cricketers would have achieved the name and fame what the 18 year old Pakistani cricketer could manage in the beginning of his international cricketing career. This was just his 14th test match and see what he has been able to do in just one year of his cricketing life. Well before coming to his exclusion from ICC awards list, one has to acknowledge his inclusion for the list before his exclusion. It is a dream come true for many aspiring cricketers to emerge as the award winner of the one mentioned at such an early age and early life as well.

Of course, it would be a new comer who would be the winner of the award for the most emerging player of the year and but need not be at such an early age as is the case with Mohammed Amir. moreover, the player who might just win the award for the test cricketer of the year need not be at an early age and for Mohammed Amir to have been one of the contestants for that award is a pride in itself. However, the world has to feel sorry for this young leg for not making it to the elite list and being expelled from the same.

Whether the allegations against Mohammed Aamir are true or not being a different question, for now, if the decision taken upon by the ICC in Aamir is considered, it definitely gives the world an impression that there is a hand of Amir in the ongoing spot fixing controversy involving Pakistani cricketers mainly. Keeping in mind his age and his performance, this might not be the case also. Mohammed Aamir was awarded the man of the series jointly with England's Ian Trott in the recently concluded Pakistan - England test series despite Pakistan not only ending as losers but also losing all their ten wickets for a score less than 100 on 3 occasions.

Had there been a hand of Amir in spot fixing, he wouldn't have emerged a success in that series if one side of the coin is considered. There too, Amir made news but that time for the right reasons when he became one of the few cricketers to have been awarded the man of the series at such an early stage and also for ending as a losing team player. However, if any one wants to know How To Make Money? here it is and one need not go in for any unfair means like it is seen by the ongoing controversy called spot fixing.

And not at an early age of 18 with so much cricket left on you. Take guidelines from Azharuddin who ended his career by making money by unethical means.

Finally Pietersen gets his due

Well yesterday I had written a post regarding the inclusion of England captain Andrew Strauss and hard hitting but temporarily out of form Kevin Pietersen in favor of them. As mentioned in the post, England's selection committee could not risk the place of the captain by passing over the reins to some inexperienced and unreliable person just because Strauss is not in good form as a batsman. However, that cannot be the case with Kevin Pietersen for, there are better batsmen right now whose form is consistent compared to Kevin Pietersen. However, it would be tough for England to find a batsman of the class of KP.

Reports suggest that this was the first time in his international career that Kevin Pietersen has been dropped from the international side since his entry into the international arena some 5 years back in the series against South Africa. In that particular series though England lost the 7 match one day series to the Proteas by a 5-1 margin, Kevin Pietersen was awarded the man of the series for his three centuries in the 6 games that he featured in. And among the three centuries he scored against the Proteas, the final one came in just 69 balls which earned him the man of the match award despite his team ending on the losing side.

However, the game of cricket is no modeling to go through the Guide to Fashion, Fashion Blog, Discover Fashion,looking for fashion trends or tips but is the game where consistency holds the key. But still, I'd rather go with Kevin Pietersen for, a replacement for the same will hardly do any good for the England team. Had England been able to find more of Andrew Flintoffs and Kevin Pietersens more frequently, then may be by this time England would not have lost atleast two out of the three world cup finals against Pakistan in 1992 and Australia in 1987.

This should not bother England for, even India have dropped Sourav Ganguly and Dravid off late and is still not repenting. However, as it goes in most cases, the replacement for an out of form batsman will always turn out to be greater failure than the dropped player and this time as well, the situation looks no different. Pietersen has been replaced by some Steve Davies who is just 2 ODIs old. Can this man do the job and prove to be the right substitute for England is an awaited question. In case this happens, then Pietersen's return will be delayed until another batsman loses form.

How long will this continue?

Things were not as simple for Pakistan like it would have been trading on sasono site for, sport is not gambling. But, the Pakistani team has made their cricket look like a gamble since the days when all major cricketing nations started boycotting their tour to the trouble torn country. That apart, coming to yesterday's 4^th day of the test match between England and Pakistan, that was one last blow for Pakistan when they fell one run short in ending up their 2^nd innings score twice of what they could manage to do in their 1^st innings at London. No prizes for guessing.

On the 1^st day's play, it was as though that Pakistan would continue to rock the series the way they did in the 3^rd test which they eventually won. The 1st day's play saw England ending the truncated day with 39 runs for the loss of one wicket. This was not a problem with 9 more batsmen still to go at that time. But, it was later in the day that followed that misery stared for England. England lost 7 wickets for a score just above 100 on day 2 which spoke for itself. But, as the scorecard suggests, Stuart Broad and Jonathan Trott settled things for England.

In addition to praising the duo who bought England back into the game, it would not be wrong to blame Pakistan for allowing a number 9 batsman to settle down and settle his team as well at the same time. One cannot expect someone like Mohammed Asif and Saeed Ajmal to do the same for Pakistan. If Broad scores more than twice the total put up by Pakistan team, the caliber of Pakistan should be under scrutiny. One can recall the way India got back into the game against Australia at the Eden Gardens Kolkata in 2001 after allowed to follow on by Steve Waugh in a situation similar to the one under consideration.

But then, it was Laxman and Dravid, two notable batsmen from the Indian side and not some Venkatesh Prasad or Debashish Mohanty. There has been a nightwatchman who has scored a double century when Jason Gillespie did it against Bangladesh. But, the team against Stuart Broad did the feat was a team that has had a world cup triumph against its name. No matter that even Australia's collapse for 88 recently would have made people think likewise. But, Pakistan has been doing it since past one year or so. England required just four bowlers to get all ten Pakistani wickets unlike 6 bowlers from Pakistani side.

There was some Umar Akmal who scored 79 runs at a strike rate of 116 as though it was a LOI game. With this sort of approach, the results can get only worse.