Several interesting things happening that are worth thinking about.
Pakistan played Pakistani cricket recently when Razzaq conquered South Africa. Since Miandad and his last ball six, we have seen everyone from Salim Malik to Manzoor Elahi and Azhar Mehmood and Shahid Afridi do the houdini act. The world needs Pakistan cricket to be healthy. Unfortunately, they get "distracted" too easily. But an encouraging sign none-the-less.
Chris Gayle stated that the West Indies would "rally around Sammy". Who's Sammy? Not literally, but c'mon Sammy??? Really??? While Gayle's statement is encouraging, there is little substance there to see a spark of revival in calypso cricket.
I remember saying after the infamous 2008 Sydney test that Clarke will face the fate of Kim Hughes. Ponting is not done yet, but it does look like the Aussies will take a while to regroup. Clarke's day is yet to come. His penultimate over to Sri Lanka in the last ODI did suggest that Pup is up to it as a captain. SL may win the series, but the teams are not evenly matched.
Whenever Tendulkar or Laxman don't get big scores, the press (including Cricinfo) talks of a middle order "collapse". India has scored more than 400 runs already. They will not lose from here and there was no "collapse". Yes Raina and Dhoni didn't get going, but it ain't no collapse. Harbhajan's effort makes it clear that one of the NZ batsman is going to score huge runs. My money is on Taylor. But Ryder too seems determined and may deliver.
On another note, my feeling is that India's domination of cricket administration is killing world cricket. Unless, they seriously take some lessons from the NFL on how to level the playing field and create true competition, India seems hell bent on killing the golden goose.
My ashes prediction England 2-1. Australia might actually win one.
Cricket wise the Ashes is unlikely to reach high quality levels and I am not convinced that England have a stomach for it. The media however will hail the series as the "saviour of test cricket"
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what you are referring to when you ask BCCI to emulate the NFL.
Collapse here is relative. Especially given how strong we are as a batting team, the start we were given and the assumed quality of bowling. From 380 odd for 3 to 412 for 8 is technially a collapse
You will get a kick out of this
ReplyDeletehttp://wisdencricketer.com/blogs/blog/2010/11/05/sam-collins-is-michael-clarke-the-new-kim-hughes/
My point is that the BCCI's brazen attitude and "non-crickety" focus - marketing, IPL, moneybags, egos, sleaze, corruption etc. is turning people off. When there is not sufficient audiences in WI or England for cricket, India with it's sufficient muscle can infuse much needed funding into WI cricket to revitalize it. Likewise with Pakistan and England. In addition, by winning the bullying war in the post-Sydney fiasco we may have turned a generation of Aussie cricketers away.
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