Not a bad move

Well finally, some decent decisions are found to be taken by the ICC regarding the mega event namely the world cup that is due to start the coming year. Whatever, the news or the decision, whatever you may call as comes into picture only on or after the 2015 world cup once again thought to be held in Australia and New Zealand. Coming to the matter, the ICC is on a decision to reduce the number of teams for the mega event from the existing 16 to 10, which obviously means showing the gates to the non test playing nations.

However, the list might not include Zimbabwe and Kenya or Ireland for, their performance in international cricket is comparatively satisfactory. Zimbabwe has a history of playing test cricket while Ireland and Kenya have shown to be no less than a test playing nation like Bangladesh or West Indies. Other teams that can be thought of to be shown the gates would be Bermuda, Scotland, Holland, Namibia to name a few though not that important. But, should this decision be criticized by anyone let alone the associate countries? With their role being limited in the event, how do the nations ask for a change not to take place?

If anyone would ask me, I would suggest that the presence of such teams can only ruin the excitement of the world cup nonetheless making way for unwanted politics in the mega event. Since the 1999 world cup, major teams have made it to the next level of the tournament though not deserving to be there. In the 1999 world cup, Zimbabwe made it to the super sixes at the cost of England. India lose their match to Zimbabwe by underestimating them and then South Africa lose to Zimbabwe not before confirming their place in the super sixes. As a result, India had to end their world cup campaign in the super sixes itself.

So was the case in the 2003 world cup when Sri Lanka made much of New Zealand forfeiting their group stage match to Kenya by intentionally losing (may be) to Kenya so that New Zealand faces a tough task ahead. In the 2007 world cup, though there was no room for any such politics, underestimation was at its peak with India and Pakistan paying the price for the same in their league stage match against Bangladesh and Ireland respectively. In the super eights of the same, South Africa paid the price by losing to Bangladesh by 67 runs. Are such teams required who can spoil the reputation of the tournament?

Another thing to be noticed is that due to the presence of the minnows, players can make a killing by reserving all their fortunes against these teams. One can remember that the highest team total till date in a world cup - 413 was scored by India against Bermuda in the 2007 edition. In that edition, India didn't even get past the league stage of the tournament. Glenn McGrath's 7/15 happened to be against Namibia in 2003 which cast a bad image on him despite being known for his accuracy. In that version, Sourav Ganguly scored three hundreds all of which came against non test playing nations.

This was equaled to the one scored by Mark Waugh in 1996 where he did the same against India, Kenya and New Zealand. Does the comparison justifies itself?

Something There In Scotland & Canada As Well

Rarely do one cast their eyes on the cricket matches that involve lesser known nations like Bermuda, Scotland, Canada, Kenya etc to name a few. Of course, teams like Kenya have involved themselves in one day tournaments like, there was a tournament being played in Sharjah that involved Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Zimbabwe & Kenya which was the result of South Africa pulling out of the same owing to terror threat in the aftermath of the U.S invasion over Iraq way back in 2003. Another instance that I can cite is the tri series involving India, Bangladesh and Kenya in 1998.

Last, I remember a quadrangular tournament involving the Proteas, Kenya, Zimbabwe and India in October 1999. If not for these tournaments that are held once in a bluemoon, the other times where these teams are found playing international cricket would always be in mega tournaments like the ICC world cup and the ICC Champions Trophy. However, off late, the ICC looks to be damn serious in globalising the game of cricket by involving as many nations in the world as possible who would one fine day be playing decent cricket. As a result of the same, there are series' involving Canada, Scotland, Bermuda, Holland, Ireland so on to name a few.

There is an advantage in this as well for, one can watch the players from these nations as well notching up a century as it happened in the match between Canada and Scotland where Watts and Hamilton scored centuries against Canada in the first one dayer only to see Scotland lose the match by 6 wickets against Canada-which saw yet another century scored by the 35 year old Sandeep Jyothi when he notched up 117. Sad that Ashish Bagai couldn't do the same when he remained not out on 92 when Canada had won the match by 6 wickets. This is not a task that any of the teams mentioned above could do in case they were playing test playing nations barring Bangladesh.

It was good to see the Canadaian bowlers do each and everything to stop the Scottish batsmen from scoring runs at will which never happened. The Canadian captain bought to bowl all his eight bowlers but, eventually the task was done by the batsmen. The match gave us an idea that not only could these teams put up huge totals but also chase down the same when the opportunity arises. I wonder as to who on earth trained the Canadian captain to go in for a good toss when he elected to bowl, with the fact that the pitch was favoring the batsmen and chasing down a decent total on this track would not be a tough task! Oh! yeah..it was a Canadian batsman who held the record for the fastest WC 100 for 4 years.

But, at the end of the match, who was the man of the match?

New Zealand Is The Newest Victim

Well..so far it was only Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Australia and South Africa who had fallen prey to false belief by under estimating minnows like Bangladesh and end up making news for the wrong reasons.And even West Indies despite their loss to Kenya in the 1996 world cup,lost to Bangladesh in the inaugural T20 world cup.Anyway,then it was a better Bangladesh team compared to the West Indies team which was filled only by batsmen and no bowlers.But,now,the only one out of the two teams who are yet to face some music from the minnows New Zealand when they lost to Bangladesh on 9th October 2008 at Dhaka in the first ODI.

If the players make up their mind,they can rewrite history by making records in all parts of the game.For example,we have Gibbs who belted six consecutive sixes against Holland,Glenn McGrath despite being an awesome pacer,has his best bowling performance of 7/15 against Namibia in the 2003 world cup and much more.Even the recent 12 sixes in an ODI innings by a West Indian was against Canada and New Zealand's record of 401 runs came against Ireland.

Well India can boast of being the only team to have lost twice to Bangladesh,and England has a reason to smile for being the only team not to have lost to a minnow, whatsoever.The team that comes after Bangladesh who can boast of upsets is Kenya who have defeated teams like India,West Indies,Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe.Even,this time its India who have lost to Kenya on two occasions.Oh! What a record?The other instances include Pakistan's loss to Ireland,which I think is the only instance of a strong team being stunned by a kid like team.

The test match is perhaps free from such debacles,or else each and every test would have seen a new record, forcing some legends like Bradman, Sobers and Lara to commit suicide.A hint was observed when Roy and Mankad's record was surpased by Mckenzie and Smith against Bangladesh.An amazing feat being that no batsmen has ever scored a triple hundred against either Bangladesh or Zimbabwe (barring Hayden's 380).

Well..if the ICC with an intension to globalise cricket gives the minnows a consession,I wonder how foolish the game of cricket would ever be.Ha ha ha..

Bangladesh Shows Some Teeth

Well after the series against New Zealand-where Bangladesh lost the series 2-0,both the test matches being over in less than three days,I had written a post regarding the ICC granting them the test status.And even in the one day series',their performance being under par compared to other test playing nations,they were according to most of them not fit to play international cricket.But,I wonder what should I say about my fortune that the Bangladesh cricket team showed some signs of improvement in the on going series against Pakistan.If not for the first game-where Bangladesh were found at their ,the second and third one day matches things were different.

A score of 285/7 in the third one day international at Lahore witnessed some appreciable improvement from the Bangladeshi batsmen,after some fighting score of 225 put up at Faisalabad in the second one day international.And not to forget the fourth one day international where Bangladesh reeling at 109/8 and the final score reading 210.A crucial 97 run partnership between Mortaza and Shakib Al Hasan saw that even Bangladesh is now taking the game of cricket seriously.

If this continues,ICC is a step ahead in globalising cricket,with Bangladesh being one of the better opponent than it used to be and also some hard work for other teams even when they face Bangladesh.

South Africans pay The Price...

Well,the team which had faced humiliations in the ICC World Cup 2007 at the Carribean was found to have forgotten its lessons once again.Nevermind,the Bangladesh team is always there to remind that.isn't it?

Once again the Proteas faced the danger of losing a test match to Bangladesh during their first test at Dhaka.Though the match was won by South Africa,a win that should have come by an innings was only a mere 5 wickets.Unlike New Zealand which whitewashed them earlier this year-where the match got over in just three days and both the matches being won by an innings.

Though Bangladesh dosen't claim to be one,its oppositions always prove it to be a strong opposition.Even the Aussies got carried away by taking Bangladesh lightly and came close to getting defeated in the test at Fatullah (where Bangledesh had taken a lead of 157 runs )until Gilchrist came to the Aussies' rescue.A 1wicket win by Pakistan way back in 2003/04 just showed that no team in the world could be taken lightly.

The World Cup matches in 2003 involving Sri Lanka & Kenya,1996 WC Match between West Indies & Kenya,Ireland vs Pakistan and India vs Bangladesh in 2007 WC once again showed the price to be paid by the teams that take their opposition lightly.And much to their information,the same South African team had to accept defeat from the hands of the same Bangladesh in the super eight match of the ICC WC 2007 which would have almost ended their hopes of winning a cricket world cup.

This is not the performance and attitude that is expected from the team that is ranked fourth among test playing nations.If this is their attitude,come on guys.....you ought to face India shortly who are riding high after their recent success over Pakistan and Australia.

Come on South Africa.........When will you learn???