World Cup Thoughts - March 20th

Finally the league matches come to an end. But in the end it can be said that they were not as bad as had been expected. Coming to today's matches.

• Wondering if this is the last time we are seeing Kenya on the big stage. They certainly look on the decline. And the worst of all the Associates which have turned up. Not a single performance can be said to be memorable. Sad state of affairs really.
• Goodbye to Steve Tikolo. One of the greatest batsman from an Associate country. This was a World cup too many for him. But he had a long and good innings.
• Unlike Kenya, Zimbabwe seem to be back on track. They are returning to Tests later this year. Won comfortably against Canada & Kenya and lost easily to the big boys.
• A Test series between Zimbabwe and Ireland would be an interesting idea. Would give Ireland test status and help Zimbabwe ease back into playing Test cricket. But I am sure ICC would have none of such "progressive thinking".
• Zaheer Khan after the West Indies game said: "As a bowling unit, I think I am doing well". Was probably unintentional but said the truth about the state of the Indian bowling. A one man bowling attack, with support in the form of Yuvraj Singh. And this team might go on to win the World Cup.
• India collapsed again at the end (though as Dhoni said 51/7 is certainly an improvement from 29/9). But West Indies out-collapsed them.
• Darren Bravo definitely reminds of a certain Brian Charles Lara. Should achieve great things.
• Sachin Tendulkar walked off today though the umpire had signaled not out (Aside, Should that be considered as dissent?). Ricky Ponting yesterday did not walk off though he knew he had nicked it and waited for the review. Both right in their own regard. But nothing can stop us Indians gloating and taking the moral high ground.
• West Indies have a selection headache in picking between in-form Roach and Rampaul. On the other hand, India have to pick between out-of-form Nehra and Munaf. Unfair.
• All Quater-finals lined up. Now over to the business end of the tournament. 

World Cup Thoughts - March 14th

4 consecutive one-sided matches in a row. Someone somewhere has really goofed up with the scheduling. Here are some thoughts after that.

• Group A situation is clear. The minnows (Kenya, Canada & Zimbabwe) are out. The Big boys are through to the quarters. Only relative positioning to be decided. But given the murky situation in Group B, its still pure luck whom they draw in the Quarters.
• In Group B, Netherlands are out of contention, while all the other 6 are in line for a quarter final place as well as losing out on a berth. Almost every game will have a bearing. And England are the first ones to face a Do or Die situation against the West Indies. The permutations and combinations are covered pretty well here)
• Nothing much to write on about the cricketing action which went on.
• Collins Obuya's missed century reminded me of the century missed by Kennedy Otieno against the Aussies in the 1996 World Cup.
• Zimbabwe have a good fielding side, a good wicketkeeper batsman, a handy group of spinners. Batting and pace bowling still dodgy though.

Now to round off with a Kamran Akmal joke (his keeping was decent today though) 

A for Akmal, B for Ball, Ca for Catch, D for Drop (via a comment on cricinfo)

P.S. In other news, there is Jharkhand Premier League going on and it is being telecast live on Ten Cricket (Is the Indian viewers' appetite for cricket insatiable?)

World Cup Thoughts - Feb 25

Writing this while New Zealand & Australia are facing off for the Chappell - Hadlee Trophy (preview here).The 7th wicket pair of Nathan McCullum and Jamie How are trying to stage a recovery as the Kiwis are now at 118/6 in the 28th over. Now for the previous 2 games.

• Kenya are on the wane. Sad to see them reduced to such a state.
• Pakistan are mercurial and now I consider them to be the dark horses for the tournament. But then you never know with Pakistan. Though the team is playing as a unit these days.
• West Indies don't look like having any sort of bowling attack. And if the batting misfires then the game is as good as over.
• Darren Bravo is probably the best batting talent to have emerged from the West Indies for quite a few years.
• AB de Villiers was awesome.
• South Africa played 3 (yes THREE) spinners, one of whom opened the bowling (Still cant think of anything to say about that)
• Imran Tahir lived up to the hype. It was a good performance on debut for the cricketing nomad.
• My Fantasy cricket team had a few nervous moments with the rains but they stopped and ABdV (also my trump player) completed his century and got the Man of the Match.
• And why has ICC scheduled a day match (and a big one at that) on Friday and only one game each on Saturday & Sunday.
• Today's predictions - Australia to win Chappell - Hadlee Trophy, while Bangladesh will beat Ireland (Aside - Ireland & Netherlands certainly are in the wrong group)

As I write the 7th Kiwi wicket has fallen.

World Cup Thoughts - Feb 20th

The ICC has decided to reduce the number of particpating countries to 10 in the next World Cup. A decision which has been universally slammed. Today Kenya & Canada did everything to justify ICC's stand.

Kenya crashed to 69 all out which the Kiwis chased in 8 overs and the match got over before lunch. In the 2nd game Canada got thrashed by 210 runs. Two heavily one-sided games on a Sunday.

Thoughts for the Day

• Tournament Scheduling - Why couldn't we have 2 big teams playing on a Sunday rather than such lopsided encounters.
• I hardly watched the games today. Not much off the Kenya-New Zealand game (there wasn't much on show either). And the Sri Lanka - Canada i saw 2 balls off the Canadian innings. Rizwan Cheema faced off against Murali and hammered one big six. So at least I did get to see somethingcome true.

Now hoping Australia - Zimbabwe is not as lopsided as the other games. And I expect Australia to run over Zimbabwe though hoping for Zimbabwe to show some fight.

The World Cup Memories - 2003

The 8th edition of the World Cup was held in South Africa in 2003. This time around I was living in a hostel for my engineering course. Saw almost all the matches in the hostel common room, which was filled to capacity throughout the duration of the cup. Have to say watching in a room stuffed with almost 100 people was pretty near to the stadium experience. Most of the matches started in the afternoon. Quite a few second half classes were missed. Bunking classes had to be done with extreme care to ensure that the attendance did not fall short in any of the papers. This was also the cup where the pre-match shows went on for hours and hours and Mandira Bedi became a cricket presenter (?)

The Indian team was now being referred to as the Men in Blue. They had come off a disastrous tour off New Zealand where 100 runs per innings seemed to be the par score for the entire team. The after effects of this series continued with the first 2 games. But after the bad start the Men in Blue picked up and went from strength to strength to reach the finals, where they lost to the Australia. This has been the most successful Indian campaign in the World Cups that I have watched. The team also provided quite a few moments to remember for their fans. The victory against Pakistan which included the upper cut sixes by Tendulkar of Sohaib Akhtar; Tendulkar's pulled six off Caddick, Ashish Nehra swinging out 6 English wickets and then puking on the ground, Ganguly's minnow bashing with 3 centuries against Kenya & Namibia, Zaheer Khan's misplaced sledging in the finals. But above all this would be the memory of the Indian team huddle (which has since been copied by every other team).

The Australians continued their dominance in the World Cup winning all their matches to win the cup inspite of losing Warne in a drugs scandal. South Africa choked again. In 1992 it was the rain rule, 1996 it was Lara, 1999 there was a tied match. In 2003 all the factors jumped in together. Lara smashed another 100 against the Proteas, Duckworth Lewis jumped in to help New Zealand beat them while the game against Sri Lanka was tied because of rains & wrong reading of the Duckworth Lewis chart. The sight of a dejected looking Shaun Pollock after the Sri Lankan game summed up another great South African choke.

With the tournament expanded to 14 teams the established ones indulged in lots of minnows bashing. However sometimes the so called minnows dished back the same medicine. Top of the list would be Kenya reaching the seni-finals. And there was John Davison of Canada hammering the West Indies but the rest of the team could not sustain the momentum provided by him.
For all the on field action there was none which could compare with the black armband protest by Andy Flower and Henry Olonga. Their actions to protest against the "death of democracy" in Zimbabwe effectively ended their playing careers but was definitely amongst the bravest messages ever sent out by a cricketer through his actions. 

In all, this was one memorable world cup. The good performance by the Indian team combined with the viewing atmosphere in the hostel was an experience which I do not think will come again.

Next Stop - West Indies 2007

The World Cup Memories - 1996

The World Cup came to India (and Sri Lanka & Pakistan) in 1996. In a sense it has been the most relateable World Cup so far. This time around I was in Jamshedpur having just completed Std. 8 and entering Std 9. I remember our final exams having been shifted a week or so early so that we were not distracted too much (:D). I remember the fat world cup special supplements which had arrived with almost all the newspapers and magazines. And it seemed to me that almost everyone was sure of an Indian victory as well. But it ended with a complete heartbreak.

Now for some memories from the tournament. The joint India-Pakistan XI which played in Sri Lanka in a (not so successful) bid to declare Sri Lanka as a safe location for matches. The opening ceremony which was well, a fiasco with a much hyped laser show. The Indian campaign was a quiet progress to the quarter-finals and then it moved from the absolute high of an amazing win over Pakistan to the despair and heartbreak against Sri Lanka in the semis in Eden Gardens. The India-Pakistan encounter also gave the most memorable moment of the tournament, the Aamer Sohail-Venkatesh Prasad encounter with the bowler coming out trumps. The most roller coaster campaign definitely belonged to the West Indies. They lost to Kenya and then beat Australia and knocked out South Africa before somehow managing to lose against the Aussies in the semis. And the last memory would be of Arjuna Ranatunga lifting the cup in Lahore.

Everyone seemed to be in a world cup mood at the time. I remember Asian Paints running a "Mera Wala Blue" print campaign featuring the India shirt on all India match days. For the finals however they switched to a Sri Lankan shirt with the tagline, "Tumhara Wala Blue".

Next Stop: England 1999