Stupidity of ICC (and Haddin) at its best!

I don’t think I have to tell you too much about the incident, so check it out. The commentary sounds like someone speaking into a tin-can, but it’s the best video that I could find on YouTube.

Though Benn’s been charged with a Level 2 offense (possibly a 1 match ban), I think it’s grossly unfair.

You’ll notice that it was Haddin who unnecessarily started things. It was a collision between Johnson and Benn and even Benn wasn’t perturbed by it. However, Haddin decided to be a smart-ass about it.

Also, you’ll notice that Johnson’s the one who pushes Benn away. Since he initiated physical contact, I suppose that he’s the one who should be slapped with the Level 2 offence rather than Benn.

Haddin and Johnson have been slapped with a Level 1 offence, which is lower than a Level 2 one.

I’m not crying ‘racism’ here, but it just shows how stupid the ICC and their employees are.

To emphasise my point about their stupidity, look at their decision to have a World T20 cup just 11 months after the one in England? Any similarities?

Edit:Got a better quality video up, thanks to Sujan Rao, who posted it in the comments in one of the posts on BCC!.

Ricky shoving Bravo should have definitely copped a Level 1 fine, at the very least. Just saw it on the above video. He sure acted like a prat. On the other hand, Dwayne Bravo should’ve had a word with him, rather than just leaving it alone. I know, cricket’s supposed to be a gentleman’s game but, frankly, with Ponting, it really doesn’t look like it. 😦

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Powerplays, shocks, West Indies, Strauss and choking

No, my silence hasn’t been due to Sri Lanka being on the brink of elimination from the Champion’s Trophy, but due to an excess load of work, I haven’t been able to post. However, that hasn’t stopped me from keeping track of the Champion’s Trophy, so here’s what’s been happening.

The fact that England are the 2nd team to have qualified to the semis have baffled everyone, including yours truly. After getting a right-royal drubbing from Australia and nearly got swept away 7-0, I did not, in my wildest dreams, expect England to play like they were the best team in ODIs ever.

Morgan, who looked a bit out of his depth, sizzled. Shah suddenly remember how to run and Collingwood realised that he could play big shots with the ‘Blockingwood’ bat!

As for SL…sigh! I really had high expectations for SL for the first time in a world tournament because I felt we had the best batting order in nearly 3 years. Our middle order had always been a problem. However, in Samaraweera, Kandamby and Mathews, we had a middle order which could bail us out in case Jayasuriya and Dilshan both failed. However….I just can’t point the finger to what went wrong…

West Indies haven’t done a bad job at all, bringing both matches really close till the class of the better team shone.

As for South Africa…..dear, oh dear, do I have to mention the C-word again? I just don’t know what’s up with them. If I’m not mistaken, they are the only team to have a full-time mental conditioner but they still can’t get into a final, let alone win one. I just get the feeling that the Saffers are mentally weak! Full stop. It’s the same situation with the Bangladeshis. They have a good load of talent, but just don’t have the mental fortitude to win consistently.

IMO, Andrew Strauss was wrong in denying the South African skipper a runner. Yes, it is all about proper conditioning of the body, but still, it can be quite energy – sapping to bat 40+ overs.

I can understand ruthlesness, but there is something called the ‘Spirit of Cricket’. Yes, this has been a sticky point in many instances as it is hard to define what exactly this ‘Spirit’ is. Let me give you a simple definition:

The Spirit of Cricket is playing the game in a hard, yet fair way

It means that you play aggressive cricket, but play fair. I wouldn’t have recalled Mathews if I were Strauss. It was Mathews’ fault that he was ball – watching. There was no way Onions could have possibly seen him coming (he would have had to sprout eyes on the back of his head). However, Smith did nothing wrong and all player suffer cramps when playing for so long. It will become a sticky point when some of his own players, most notably Owais Shah (who does have a tendency to cramp quickly), suffer cramps and need runners.

On the subject of Powerplays, I’d like to refer to the first match of the competition, between Sri Lanka and South Africa.

The scenario is this: Dilshan is carting the ball around the park and the mandatory 10 over powerplay has finished. As the fielding captain, do you take the powerplay or not?

IMO, it should be a sure NO! The simple reason is, he’s obviously finding the boundaries easily because there aren’t enough fielders at the boundary. We all know that Dilshan doesn’t hit big like, say, a Morgan or a Symonds, but he hits them fast. Perhaps, the presence of more fielders on the boundary rope can stifle the runs and, perhaps, even get a wicket. I would’ve taken the Powerplay after Dilshan was dismissed.

SL also erred in not taking their powerplay immediately. It didn’t cost them in the end, but I feel that Sanga should’ve taken the powerplay immediately after SA’s one. It was clear that Dilshan wanted the pace in order to play his shots and Smith wasn’t willing to bring in the spinners during the powerplays, so we could’ve milked a lot more runs.

Well, that’s that! The CT has been an unqualified success in that it makes life difficult for a team when they have lost just once! It does bring me to the question which Mike Holmans raised in the Different Strokes blog in Cricinfo. Why do we hate the CT so much when the World Cup is such an elongated piece of shit?

CT FTW!

PS – Just saw that there’s been a mad jump in the number of unique visitors to this blog in the last 3 days…can anyone enlighten me why? 🙂

The disappointment of expectations once again!

Ok, I didn’t really watch the whole of the CWC 2007 final.

Two reasons…

One was that I was feeling really sleepy and dosed off in between..

Secondly, LTTE decided to play some tricks with us and did some aerial bombing..

However, yesterday’s final was at a better hour so I was awake for the whole final, but the team selection just made my heart sink once again.

I knew that if at least the three of Dilshan, Sanath, Mahela and Sanga fell early, we would be in a deep hole as the ‘rest’ of the batting order included 2 guys who are truly good-for-nothing.

Mubarak and Silva are so stupid and lame that they can’t contribute with either bat or ball.

I would’ve preferred Thushara and Maharoof (if not deSaram) in place of these two as, even though these guys aren’t the best of batters, they can at least contribute well with the ball.

As things often happen in team selection in SL, Sanga decided to keep his good ‘machangs’ (friends) in the team and threw our chances of winning a world event into the toilet.

Sanga played a very heroic innings but, truth be told, other than the big-hearted Angelo Mathews, who has won the heart of a nation with absolutely stunning fielding (remember that saved six?), bowling (3 wickets in the first over in the semi) and batting (yesterday), none of the other assigned batters really did much of note.

Isuru, who some people say is a decent batsman, was picked mainly as a bowler and so I shall not condemn him.

However, you had to admit, the turn and the swing that the women got was mainly because their spinners really flighted the ball (which would be smacked out of the ground had it been a men’s game) and bowled it at medium pace, at the most.

The pitch was a good batting track, as was seen by the way the Pakistanis played, but all credit has to be given to Afridi, Akmal and Malik for keeping a really cool head throughout the chase.

Frankly, like Ryan said on islandcricket.lk, our selectors are to blame for not giving boys like Udawatte or Malinda a prolonged chance. I just get the feeling that, had these 2 been selected instead of the idiots Silva and Mubarak, we would’ve put up a better batting performance throughout the tournament.

However, we shouldn’t feel alone as the WI selectors are trying to beat the ‘muppets headed by a joker’ (priceless from Marvan) by dropping Lendl Simmons for the 4-ODI tourney against India. Simmons was clearly the best batsman other than Gayle in the WC, and to drop him really speaks volume about how much they are ‘ahead’ in the race!

West Indies crawl home…

Now what better advertisment is there for Test Cricket than a match going to the final ball with one team having a distinct possibility of winning?

That’s what England and West Indies served us when Powell and Edwards hung on to a draw despite Mr. Hercules, Andrew Flintoff, pulling up every bit of muscle and sinew he had to try and get that final elusive wicket!

Man, I wish I was living somewhere else right now so that I could watch the match without having to stay up the night!

Freddie just showed what a big heart he has by coming in and bowling nearly 8 overs despite being in excrutiating pain! Now that’s what I call dedication.

I even remember him bowling in the T20 World Cup 2 years ago despite having injured his ankle while sliding to save a ball from going to the boundary. He was clearly in pain but his bowling was as good as ever!

I’m quite sure that if you asked him to bowl for the rest of the series without pain-killers, he would willingly do so!

Credit should also be given to Shiv ‘Crab’ Chanderpaul and Sarwan for keeping the match alive for most of the day.

Great entertainment, this series is, and hope it continues!

Levi makes Louis Vuitton pay!

Man, if there ever was a way to get some real payback, Strauss has done it just the perfect way!

When I saw that Strauss had made 169, I was thinking “good for him, making good use of a bowler’s graveyard”. I then realised “Woah, this was in a day, rite? How the heck did he make so much?”

Then went over to the scorecard and saw that he scored @ a strike rate of just over 60, which is SUPER – FAST by his recent standards, although he did used to play @ such a rate before the Ashes 2006/07.

Chris Gayle sent them into bat thinking that he might get something and, bar the odd 2-paced bounce, it was just the perfect chance for England to get themselves into the groove.

The tickets at the Rec Ground are said to have been sold out, which must be just fabulous because the environment must be just superb out there! Wish I was there!

However, what I’d really like to see is a triple-century, something which we haven’t seen in a long time (since Mr. Sehwagology made the most brilliant triple-ton against SA @ the bowler’s deathbed more commonly known as the “MA Chidambaram Stadium)!

PS – Everything’s been sorted out, I’m going to continue blogging as usual! Don’t forget to peek in once in a while! 🙂