Most of our blogging revolves around events in the men’s sport. We even dedicate several posts to inconsequential series such as matches with the weakest Test playing teams or dead rubbers. At the same time, we and most cricket bloggers ignore the most important event happening in the women’s cricket game, namely, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2009 taking place in Australia right now.
What many people don’t know is that the first women’s World Cup (in 1973) actually took place before the men’s tournament (in 1975). There were 7 teams in that tournament in England which was won by the hosts. There have been nine tournaments so far, including the present one, the same as the men’s tournament. The current champions Australia have been the dominant team, winning five tournaments, with England (twice) and New Zealand (once) taking the Cup when it was hosted in their home countries.
Although the women do not play as much cricket as the men, they have their records too. Belinda Clarke, from Australia, is the only person (of either gender) to score a double-century in a one-day international (an unbeaten 229 against Denmark in the 1997 Cup). Take that, Sachin!
Cricinfo has some nice posts by the cricketers themselves. Here is Haidee Tiffen about her memories from the 2000 World Cup:
Australia needed five runs to win and we needed one wicket. Offspinner Clare Nicholson came to bowl the final over and Charmaine Mason edged the first ball to our keeper, Rebecca Rolls. All I remember after that is throwing my cap into the crowd during the celebrations and feeling gutted that I had just thrown my New Zealand cap away!
The league matches are now over. Sri Lanka and South Africa got knocked out before the Super Six. At this moment, England, India and NZ seem the main contenders for the finals. England have not lost a match so far in the tournament, a performance that is a far cry from the men’s team which is superstar-rich, but results-poor.
I watched the live telecast of the recent India vs Sri Lanka T20 game last Tuesday on Neo Cricket Live TV Channel. At this moment, I am on vacation in India after a gap of three years and was excited thinking I would enjoy my cricket moments while watching games with family and friends in India. The stage for the game was set. The toss was done. The Sri Lankan openers about to face the first delivery. Suddenly a harsh dose of reality bit me, as I saw how television marketing has made a significant intrusion into cricket games.
Television marketing, especially during cricket games, has skyrocketed in India. Before each and every delivery, there was this horribly annoying sidebar ad. I never got to see any action replay when a wicket fell, let alone if nothing special happened when the ball was bowled. There was not even a single micro-second (correct that, a nano-second) left to view the joy of the players or understand or assimilate any key on-field moments happening during the game. Like a hungry dog begging for morsels, I stayed glued to the TV, watching ads the entire game, waiting for a piece of cricket bone to be thrown at me, courtesy the sponsors.
I was told that Neo Cricket is a paid TV channel. For those folks who understand what a “paid” TV channel means, let me explain the paid TV service I am used to. You pay a premium price so that you get the maximum action and entertainment with few commercial interruptions, so that the viewer is exhilarated by the live action on the show and does not feel that he has to compromise by not being there in person.
When living in the US, I continue to get my regular toast of live cricket action and commentary through the paid Pay-Per-View cricket video delivered through satellite TV or web streaming sites. These are the broadcasts of the same Indian TV channels, but without commercial interruption. I heard about the recent satellite TV market entry into Indian households and I am extremely curious to know if they have any pay-per-view service on any Indian TV channels that has zero or few commercial interruptions.
In the end, what to say! While the Indian team scripted one of its most famous victorious chases in recent times, the audience (including me) were robbed, the moment stolen and destroyed by the media who have no concern for the cricket-loving populace of India.
What a way to begin the New Year! Team India crushed Sri Lanka to win the ODI series 3-0. It is a delight to watch 2 batsmen scoring centuries in ODI, which is becoming a rare sight these days. I noticed that during post match interview, Yuvraj remarked, “It’s a big achievement to reach a century before Sehwag”. Wow, that’s the kinda batting spirit and competition we need to see more within players to improve quality. Of course, it was a flat batting wicket, but the way Yuvraj and Sehwag carried, and Yusuf Pathan’s hit a quick fire 50 later in the slog (isn’t he due for this sort of innings for a while?) is a treat to watch.
While Sehwag and Yuvraj enjoyed their luck with dropped catches, bad luck hit Sri Lanka when Jayasuriya was bowled for a golden duck. As it happens most of the time, chasing gets harder when wickets fall and the asking run rate kept climbing except during Sangakara’s consolation innings of 80+.
It’s Dhoni’s call to see whether he carries with the same team on the winning streak or try people (on the bench) who are waiting for chances.
According to Wikipedia and other definitions I stumbled upon on the web, it appears that the cricket pitch is set to “1 chain“. A chain is a unit of measurement popularly used in England and other English countries.
1 Chain = 22 yards = 66 feet = 100 links.
Although it make sense to have an easy memorable measurement term called “chain”, I still wonder why not 1.2 chains or 0.8 chains? Was a chain invented just for cricket? Or was it just convenient to use 1 chain? When the 22 yards is increased by even a yard, it makes a tremendous difference in the bowling speed and the angle, and complicates the ability of bowlers to pick up wickets. When the pitch size is reduced, it makes it harder for batsman to face the pace of the ball from deadly fast bowlers. Maybe during the invention of the game back in, some say, even the 13th century, the Englishmen perhaps tried with various measures and agreed to 1 chain. Wish they had a better historical record of those events.
It would be interesting to see what our readers think. Post your comment if you have other explanations.
Just when I felt England has found the right captaincy in Kevin Pietersen, someone possessing the stature and caliber of Ricky Ponting, Graeme Smith, M S Dhoni (Fast and Furious) to lead from the front, and thus provide a healthy balance among cricketing nations, guess what? KP’s relationship with the coach Moores derailed. Moores was fired and KP was “forced to resign“, as he called it. Though he should be back playing I wonder how his performance would be affected by these drastic events.
It is physically and mentally challenging enough for any cricketer like Pietersen to work hard from the bottom to the top, proving himself game after game and achieving the proud feat of leading the side. If on top of that, all of a sudden, he is dropped, it could dramatically alter his career performance. The analogy sounds similar to surviving a executive role in any corporate culture.
All I can wish is that others learn lessons from such incidents and resolve issues with team players, coaches, senior players in team, and the cricket management before it bubbles up. Hope KP will continue to prove a solid player for England. He still has time to lead the side in the future. Watch out for IPL shenanigans, because guess who is a free agent!
Year 2008 witnessed the opening of IPL (Indian Premier League), the mega event from BCCI that clearly gave cricket a stunning make-over and boost in game excitement, viewership and tremendous marketing potential. The mantra for 2008 became T20 or, as it is called, 20-20. A 3-hour-rapid fire game that takes you to the edge of your seat until the final ball is bowled.
IPL is BCCI’s response to the rival Indian Cricket League (ICL) into Twenty-20 era. They pulled up 8 teams from Indian cities bringing overseas and domestic player mixture. The key difference being IPL swamped in current top International players while ICL dominantly settled for retired, yesteryear stars. IPL is BCCI’s child, so you can imagine the media attention, money involved is big.
South Africa Record 2nd Highest Run Chase in Test Cricket History
South Africa beat Australia in the first Test of their series by 6 wickets chasing down a huge victory target of 413, becoming, in the process, the 2nd highest-run chasing team in Test cricket. AB de Villiers was chosen Man-of-the-Match for his unbeaten 106 in the chase (and for his vital 1st innings 63 and pouching 4 catches off the Australian batting line). Graeme Smith continued to excel in batting in the 4th innings, with his average the 3rd highest in history, behind Geoff Boycott (England) and Sunil Gavaskar (India). West Indies still hold the record for highest run chaser, scoring 418/7 against Australia in 2003.
The Super Six of 2008
Chanderpaul 6 and Win – In their ODI home series against Sri Lanka.
Mystery Spinner – Ajantha Mendis
2008 saw the entry of a new (yet another!) spin wizard from Sri Lanka with his finger talking googlies, flippers, offbreaks, legbreaks and anything you can spell. He clearly gave India a very hard run during their away series and even India’s strong middle order were unable to read him. Mendis took 26 Test scalps and lead the 2008 ODI bowling with 48 wickets at an astonishing average of 10.12 and economy rate of 3.54. He is overturning the conventional wisdom in ODI where bowlers are relegated to side acts as batsman become big bat bullies.
Take a look at Mendis cleaning India’s clock in the Asia Cup final.
2008 Top Performances – Batting & Bowling
Top 10 ODI Batsmen
Gautam Gambir (India): 1119 runs – Gambir came of age this year and stabilized the Indian opening.
ICC embraced the technology to allow the batting or fielding team to appeal against umpiring decisions. Considering the amount of pressure the umpires are involved in making critical decisions which significantly impact game outcomes, this is definitely a welcome move from ICC. Not to say anything about avoiding acrimonious incidents such as what happened in the Sydney Test between Australia and India.
Controversy
Harbhajan Singh made his mark on 2008, but not always in a good way. He and Andrew Symonds were involved in a racial sledge/abuse case that resulted a three test ban on Harbhajan Singh. Not satisfied with that, Harbhajan got into a slapping incident with fellow Indian teammate Sreesanth and got thrown out of the IPL. He is back with the Indian team spearheading the Indian attack.
Well there you go that rounded up 2008 stories. Let’s look forward to yet another exciting year of cricket in 2009.
It may be too soon to speculate that Gary Kirsten is doing something right that Greg Chappell missed but its certain that his quiet/behind the scene nature is showing that he has/would focus on team improvement. Greg came-up with radical changes in team structure, strategy and to top ‘em all the ego clashes with Senior players that back fired in media and eventually left (a.k.a. fired). Both Greg (Ave: Tests-53/ODI-40) and Gary (Ave:Tests-45/ODI-40) were both decent opening batsmen during their times. This raises an interesting question: What’s up with India going after batsmen for regular coaching jobs?
The Dhoni-Gary combo is doing better – so long as we don’t smell a smoke between them – I wish the new coach to carry on for years to come, and what is that called, yeah bring the world cup glory!
