Unbeaten
India and Australia remain the only two unbeaten teams in the World Cup so far. And it looks like it will stay that way until Saturday at least.
The difference is that Australia hasn’t been tested yet.
Deep Backward Point
Blog against the machine.
March 7, 2011
Cricket and Baseball Meet at the Baseball Hall of Fame
Image via Wikipedia
This year, the Baseball Hall of Fame will host an exhibition on cricket and its common roots with baseball. It opens April 16:
On Sunday, April 17, special programs will feature the Haverford College varsity cricket team – the only one of its kind in the United States – in a variety of public demonstrations and presentations. Plans and programs are still in the development stages for the Hall of Fame’s Cricket Weekend, June 3-5, with additional details to be announced soon.
Highlights include equipment used and worn by “Derek Jeter and Andrew Flintoff, Bengie Molina and Adam Gilchrist, Kumar Sangakkara, Paul Collingwood, Robin Wallace and Charlotte Edwards and Shahid Afridi”. That’s a lot of ands.
March 4, 2011
The Part-Time Cricketer
Andy Bull writes about the nine-to-five heroes of cricket:
[Seren] Waters [..] is also just a 20-year-old university student, trying to keep up with a degree course in human geography at Durham in between his innings. [..] Bagai was working 14-hour days as an investment banker for UBS in the city of London. Mudassar Bukhari, who opened the bowling for the Netherlands against England, manages a branch of Burger King in The Hague. Bernard Loots, who finished that innings off, is an accountant for a mining firm.
Living the dream.
March 3, 2011
The Two Most Likely Upsets Play Today
Whoever planned the World Cup schedule had a demented sense of humor. Bangladesh play West Indies and Zimbabwe play New Zealand today in the most likely upsets of the tournament.
Except for anything that Ireland may be involved in.
∞
On a side note, Bangladesh actually outranks West Indies in the ICC ODI rankings.
March 3, 2011
Ask Not What the Associates Can Do For You
It occurs to me (and to ducking beamers before me) that we are having the wrong argument.
The argument should not be about whether the Associate teams (e.g. Ireland, The Netherlands) should play in World Cups every four years.
It should be about what we do in the interim to make sure they are better teams in four years.
March 3, 2011
England: Producing Excitement Through Mediocrity
There have been two good and two great cricket matches in the World Cup so far:
- England v. Netherlands: Netherlands bats first, scores 292 on the back of a ten Doeschate blinder and England falter a bit before winning.
- Sri Lanka v Pakistan: Sri Lanka fail to chase a total within their reach against a never-say-die Pakistan bowling attack.
- England v. India: India bat England out of the game. Then England almost walk away with it. Zaheer brings India right back. And it’s a tie.
- England v. Ireland: England bat Ireland out of the game. Ireland collapses, before Kevin O’Brien walks away with it.
Do you sense a pattern? England was involved in three of the four games. They’ve produced exciting matches by vastly under-performing.
On the other hand, two teams produced excitement by over-performing: Ireland and Pakistan.
∞
In fact, Pakistan and England have had diametrically opposite performances in the World Cup so far.
England: Top order fires, middle-order misfires and bowlers don’t show up to work.
Pakistan: Top order fails, middle-order rescues and bowlers save the day.
March 2, 2011
Ireland Makes a Fool Out of Me
I was afraid this would happen. Someone in the Irish dressing room has taken exception with my blog.
Ireland beat England today in what eclipses the India v. England match as the best match of the World Cup so far- thereby cutting to shreds two of my recent columns:
Associates should not be part of the next One Day World CupThe World Cup format is dull and the next five matches will be more of the same
I’m glad to be wrong, if it means we get more matches like this.
March 1, 2011
Everything That’s Wrong With World Cup Cricket
A clean shot to the head may be just what this tournament needs.
The big point everyone seems to be making this week is that the terrific India v. England match last weekend was an excellent advertisement for the sport, brought the tournament alive and proved that One Day cricket is alive and well.
Quite the opposite.
The India v. England match was the exception that proved the rule. It reminded us of how good a One Day match could be, but almost always isn’t.
We have now been through fourteen matches at the World Cup, of which only two have been good-ish and one has been great. That is an abysmal ratio. The India v. England match was the one great day in the first two weeks of the tournament. And that one day won’t even affect who makes it to the quarter-finals.
The next five matches are not very promising either: England v. Ireland, Netherlands v. South Africa, Canada v. Pakistan, Bangladesh v. West Indies.
Maybe we’ll get five more hat-tricks. That will be an excellent advertisement for the sport and bring the tournament to life.
And surely One Day cricket is alive and well.
Until the IPL begins next month.
∞
This is a tournament where the organizers have gone out of their way to make sure that all but one of India’s group matches are on the weekend. Let that sink in for a minute.
The only reason India’s match against the Netherlands is not on a weekend is that the tournament group stage spans five weekends, and India play six matches.
∞
The two good-ish matches I cited above were the Netherlands v. England and Sri Lanka v. Pakistan.
March 1, 2011
A Statistician’s Perfect World Cup
Statistician Anantha Narayanan spends some time looking back at World Cups past. But that’s not what’s interesting at that link.
In the comments section of the article, Narayanan describes the “best” format for a future World Cup:
However the best is the all-play-all and then nothing or a 3-match final.
This is a terrible idea. It’s a statistician’s idea of a perfect World Cup, wherein we would produce the most statistically perfect winner in an unacceptably dull tournament. Imagine that two teams dominated the first couple of weeks of the tournament– every other game would become irrelevant, since only two teams could get anywhere.
In other words, it would be a lot like the current World Cup– where we can safely ignore all matches until the end of March– but worse.
February 26, 2011
The Case Against Minnows in the One Day World Cup
Ryan Ten Doeschate of The Netherlands (by imogenhardy via Flickr)
Haroon Lorgat, the Chief Executive of the ICC, on keeping the Associate member teams out of the next world cup:
“The 50-over format is more skill-based and suitable for the top teams.”
His argument is that Twenty20 is less skill-based, and so a better format for the less skill-based teams.
This is precisely the argument used to keep Sri Lanka out of Test cricket thirty years ago. I can imagine someone saying then: “Test cricket is a more skill-based format.”
Twenty20 is a better ambassador for the game. It’s a shorter format, faster paced, easier for the casual viewer and an easier sell to a world that is used to watching a game after work and having a result by dinner.
If a Twenty20 match is as one-sided as the Sri Lanka v. Canada game last week, at least it’s over much sooner. And there’s a better chance that a single inspired batting performance can even the scales. Ryan Ten Doeschate is an exciting player when chasing 200 in 20 overs, but is a tragic figure when surrounded by the rest of the Netherlands team for 50.
Lorgat’s point is trite, elitist and careless. Skill has nothing to do with it.
∞
If, after all this, the only time Canada get to play a top team is every four years at a Twenty20 World Cup, then nothing has changed. A refocus to Twenty20 as the ambassador is acceptable only if it’s coupled with a clear path for promising teams like Afghanistan and Ireland to graduate to the big leagues.
Ordered by Lorgat’s mythical skill levels, we currently have six top teams, two close seconds (NZ, WI), two also rans (Zimbabwe, Bangladesh) and then a vast gulf before we get to the rest of the associates.
If the one-day World Cup pool is to be reduced, the single-minded focus of the ICC (besides making money for the BCCI) should be on closing that gulf.
Deep Backward Point 