Too Much or No Cricket

Well these days, as I have stated in some of my earlier posts, there was a time when there was absolutely no cricket played.It all started with the cancellation of the ICC Champions trophy 2008, which was to be held in Pakistan, citing security reasons.Then, we had almost a month and a half with out cricket.Not even some county league not any premier tournament like the ICL or the IPL.Thus, wasting so much time without any entertainment to the viewers nor any revenue to the sponsors and the cricket boards.And there was abandonment of the last two one day matches involving India and England.Well the action is justified.This was also the case with the second edition of the Indian Cricket League.

And finally there was a break when the Border-Gavaskar trophy kicked in.This was held in conjunction with the Bangladesh-New Zealand tests and one day matches.Once this got over, there were as many as five tournaments taking off simultaneously.This included England's tour of India,West Indies versus Pakistan at Abu Dhabi,Bangladesh in South Africa and New Zealand's tour of Australia, Sri lanka versus Zimbabwe, all these in addition to the second edition of the Indian Cricket League.Which one to watch and which one to leave?Out of these six tournaments, I hope none of them were worth the praise what-so-ever.All the matches were equally predictable and one sided.

Now, the drought has once again found to hit international cricket,starting with the cancellation of the last two one day matches and the Indian Cricket League games.I wonder what would be the fate of the test series involving India and England, with England going into the series without even a warm up game.The test matches involving Australia and New Zealand are over.So are the matches between South Africa & Bangladesh and WestIndies vs Pakistan.The one day series involving New Zealand and Australia would be held somewhere in February 2009.It looks like the scoreboard on my blog would be empty for another week or so.

So it would be on 11th of December when we get to watch an international game, when the first test between West Indies and New Zealand kicks in.On the same day, the first test between India and England takes off in style.God knows as to why two tours start and end on the same day.Even the dates during which the second test involving the teams mentioned above takes off at the same time on 19th December.What does the ICC get out of such bad timings of scheduling? Perhaps! Two days prior to the second test between India & England, the first test between South Africa and Australia takes off.So, then we would be having three test series' going on simultaneously.

I wish that the ICC plan the schedule of international tours in such a way that there is cricket round the clock.No clash betwen two series' happens and no situation arises where one keeps waiting for a series to kick in.Because, even the viewers are also the part of the game similar to the umpires and players.