Test cricket’s making me giddy!

Firstly, a heartfelt apology for disappearing once again! I was planning to write a post about 2 days ago but I suddenly re-discovered the wonders of tweeting (I say re-discovered because, about 6 months ago, I was tweeting) and found it easier to do rather than having to write posts every day or so. However, seeing as they only allow 140 characters (that’s not even 30 words!), I’ve come up with a post! 🙂

Yesterday was a special day. As far as i can remember, since the 2007 T20 World Cup, yesterday was the first day that 3 test matches were being played. This meant that I’d have a full day of test cricket. This is how it worked out:

5:00 AM – 12:00 PM : Pakistan vs Australia @ Hobart
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM : India vs Bangladesh @ Chittagong
1:30 AM – 9:30 PM : England vs South Africa @ Johannesburg.

Since I sleep at around 11:00 in the night, I’ll be deprived of just 2 hours of test cricket!

Pakistan vs Australia was plain frustrating. It’s one thing to see the team you support surrender meekly. When West Indies lost to Australia in the first test, I wasn’t too depressed, just disappointed a bit because West Indies didn’t put up a semblance of a fight.

However, when Pakistan had a good chance to make a fairly decent score (considering at least 4 out of those 6 batsmen were quite good) and didn’t do so, it was just outright disappointing. Moreover, it is quite befuddling to hear MoYo say that he wanted help on captaincy! It seemed more like he was asking for a ‘Captaincy Coach’!

I don’t think that any captain has ever said that they want help openly. Going and asking successful captains for tips is one thing, asking them how to captain is just plain tomfoolery! All this is made worse when you remember how MoYo openly craved for the captaincy!

Moving on to the England South Africa match, it was quite dejecting. The writing was on the wall once England got shot out for under 200 in the first innings. Smith, once again, played an ugly but magnificent knock (now, how many times do you hear ugly & magnificent in the same line?). Boucher continued his rich form in the series to prove that there’s still some fuel left in the old man’s tank.

I was personally gunning for South Africa to lose all 3 series so that Mickey Mouse could shut his mouth once and for all. After the T20 series, I was hoping for at least 2 series losses to SA but that didn’t materialize as well! Pity!

Daryl Harper has copped enough stick from everyone, so I don’t think I need to say any more. All I have to say is, ‘RETIRE DARYL‘!

The presentation of a fridge to Ashwell Prince was strange, to say the least. He didn’t do much of note in the series, but he wasn’t to be blamed. What can you expect when you put a player, who is very successful at No.5, in the opening slot? It’s disaster in the making. Perhaps it was a “We’re really sorry about all this” gift from CSA to Prince.

Last, but not the least, is the Bangladesh India match.

Sehwag, with typical candour, said that Bangladesh was an ordinary side and couldn’t take 20 wickets. The ‘quotable quotes’ have been summarised by someone from BCC!

Shakib (the Superman of Bangladesh Cricket) and Shahadat Hossain picked up 5 each to get halfway to the target. Though they’ve lost 3 wickets, they’re still in the hunt, IMO, and it has the makings of a fascinating competition, light permitting.

We really should encourage candour from more players like Sehwag. England is set to tour Bangladesh later this year without Andy Strauss and so this is what we can expect from the stand-in skipper, Mascaraman:

“Yea, Bangladesh are an improving team. We’ve seen how they played against West Indies last year and how they took the fight to India. They have a very good bunch of players, especially Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan. Mashrafe Mortaza’s coming back from an injury and so he’d be raring to play. It would be dangerous to take them lightly as they are a <i>very</i> good side.”

Now, I’m not trying to say that Bangladesh are a bad team. In fact, they really <i>have</i> improved in recent times, shown clearly by the fact that they crossed 250 in 3 out of the 4 matches in the tri series.

What I’m coming to say is that captains and players should be honest. They should be taught to speak their mind rather than vomit some diplomatic garb.

Of course, this should be done in moderation. You don’t want to have situations like what was seen with MoYo, where he publicly castigated Salman Butt for his poor running. Though he did score a century the next day, I’m sure Salman would’ve appreciated it if MoYo hadn’t done that. It’s akin to your parents scolding you in front of your guests when you were young!

That’s it for now, hang on to my tweets to hear more from me!

http://twitter.com/crickettragic

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Prince makes a princely ton!

Couldn’t really resist the pun!

On a serious note, Prince has finally found a path through which he can keep a place in the team.

He did score a double-ton in a trial run in domestic cricket.

Good for him.

However, I do fear for Imraan Khan.

He might not get to play another test because of Prince’s re-emergence as an opener.

He would perhaps have to re-invent himself as a middle order batsman.

Let’s see….

The stupidity of administrators…

There are days when I wake up, lie in bed and think “What a waste my life has been so far…I’ve done nothing that is worth bragging, just reading cricket news all the time and doing a lame job”…

There are other days when I wake up, lie in the bed and think “How much the cricket world wastes talent and money….”

The second thought comes about due to 2 reasons.

1. I recently learned that the Aussie Cricket Board employed the help of the Boston Consultancy Group (a fairly big company), who then came up with the idea of the World Test Championship, whereby the teams play each other during a course of 3-4 years.

What utter stupidity! I’m not sure whether’s its in this blog or in some forums, but I’ve always advocated the idea of the Test Championship for nearly 2 years since it will ensure that there will be an interest in matches played between, say New Zealand vs England for a South African, since the result might affect his team.

They could’ve just got the idea from me. All I would’ve asked is to give me credit, and wouldn’t have charged a cent!

2. I was quite shocked by some of the stupid things Mike Proctor has done. Keeping JP in the side was a big big mistake! By doing this, they’re effectively sending a message that “we don’t care if you lost your place because you got injured, that’s your fault”. It might even lead to a possible situation where players might fake full fitness in the fear of losing their place.

Secondly, which stupid decides to give the captaincy to a guy whose coming back into the team and who is going to bat in an unfamiliar position? They could’ve just given it to Boucher or Kallis at the first instance rather than giving it to Prince and then to Kallis. It really does smack of utter stupidity!

Really, I just wish administrators would grow up. Heck, I though that my future path would be to work in the financial industry and blogging about cricket, but, looking at how pathetic administrators are, I suppose that I could fancy becoming one myself (subject to whether I have the right contacts!).

Amazing….truly amazing!

Regular readers of my blog would’ve noticed that I tended to have a hardline stance against Australia. All that was for a reason.

Now, I can do nothing but sit back and admire the Aussies!

I mean, this is the same team that we thought was disintegrating, and would have an extensive rebuilding period.

But, the rebuilding seems to be over!

Siddle sizzled, Johnson rocked, and McD and Hilfy supported the two extremely well.

Kato comes in with his lollipops and snares the lower order completely.

Truly amazing, I have to say. Kudos to Punter for a good job done. Looks like he’s enjoying having some youngsters out with him rather than a dad’s army, which he had for most of his captaincy career.

Let’s not forget Hughes, who first became the youngest Aussie test centurion in 43 years and then the youngest man to make twin hundreds in a match. The lad looks good, and he might be a long – term fixture. Perhaps it would be a good idea to slot him in the limited overs side with Haddin.

Meanwhile, the Saffers have rung in some changes with McKenzie and Morkel being given the boot. This could possibly be the end of McKenzie’s career @ 33, but not so for Morne, who’s just about 23. I feel it’s a bit too harsh on him considering that he had just 2 bad test. Anyhowz, that’s life.

In his place, the explosive centurion in the tour game, Imraan Khan, comes in, while Prince makes a return as captain in place of Smith. Wayne Parnell has also been brought in, so it will be a tussle between Albie Morkel and Parnell for Morne’s spot.

Quite funny for Prince, isn’t it? Couldn’t get a spot in the side, and now he’s the skipper!