Category Archives: tournament

Associates Representation at the World Cup

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It is good to see that the ICC has decided to allow at least 4 Associate nations to participate in the 2015 World Cup. But it seems to be a case of one step forward and one backward, as they have decided to restrict the number of teams in the Twenty20 World Cups to 12 (instead of 16) and also have only 10 teams for the 2019 World Cup.

Mind-boggling, to say the least. The official reason offered after protests was “cost“. Apparently, the ICC looks at a package of 3 events. So by having more teams in the 2015 World Cup, they have to reduce the teams in the other World Cups to keep costs under control. In my opinion, this is hogwash. My theory is that it was a compromise so that the people that wanted only 10 teams in the 2015 World Cup were assuaged by this “compromise”. Politics, you know. Cannot lose face. The trick here is that by still having 12 teams, the Minnows are not completely excluded, so the protests are more manageable.

Frankly, all of this damns the ICC. They are responsible for the growth of cricket worldwide. Yet they think that in eight years, there still wouldn’t be more than 10 competitive teams or more than 10 countries where cricket would have a strong fan following. If you take the parallels from soccer, the tournament has constantly expanded as the sport became more popular. But the ICC seems to be saying that come 2019, they think that cricket would still remain the same in popularity.

Also about cost, I could think of many ways that the ICC could improve the revenue picture. Embrace the Internet. Allow more vendors to stream matches (both audio and video). Work on the copyright to older matches and sell non-exclusive rights to vendors who can slice them up to crazy fans. Who wouldn’t want to see the best highlights of Sachin’s career or all the wickets taken by Murali and Warne? Maybe have a Cricket YouTube where vendors upload their videos and they get a share of the revenue. I think that cricket is grossly under-exploited.

India Women’s Team Lose to the Kiwis

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The India women’s team did one better than the men’s team by reaching the semi-finals of the women’s World Cup which is being held simultaneously with the men’s World Cup and in fact on the same grounds.

Unfortunately, it looks like they have the same weakness as the men’s team against the Kiwis in Twenty20 matches. The New Zealand ladies hit 145/5 and India grind their way to 93/9 off 20 overs. A comprehensive defeat.

As a few commenters have mentioned, the semifinals of the women’s edition has all the countries that didn’t make it in the men’s tournament: England, Australia, India and New Zealand. I guess it is because less attention is being given to women’s cricket in the other countries.

[Here's an older article I wrote on the Women's ODI World Cup.]

England Win Women’s World Cup

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The England team won the 2009 Women’s Cricket World Cup by beating New Zealand in the final by four wickets. It was a relatively easy victory as the Kiwis were bowled out for 166 earlier, but there were a few minor hiccups on the way as England slumped from 74 for no loss to 6/149. But the target was too low for England to be under any real pressure as they won with around 4 overs to spare.

This was an excellent performance from the England team, as they lost only one match on their way to winning the tournament, and that too an inconsequential match against Australia in the Super Six. This has taken them one closer to the 5 Cups won by the Australians. But with only 3 so far, they have some ways to go before they can overtake the Aussies.

If this had been the men’s team, there would have been much more being made of this victory. Unfortunately, the women’s game does not get as much press. I think one way to improve the visibility would be to have the Women’s World Cup at the same time as the men’s tournament. This may perhaps not be feasible initially for ODI matches because of television conflicts, but it could be done for T20. Maybe have the women’s game during the daytime and the men’s game in the evening, both played on the same ground.

It is interesting to see the Pakistan’s women’s team playing in this tournament. Because of cricket’s dress code, it is less objectionable from an Islamic standpoint. We earlier blogged about the men’s team from Afghanistan. Wonder if they will ever have a women’s team.

From the history annals, we have the England women’s cricket team in 1934-35.

england_womens_cricket_team_in_1934-35

ICC Women’s World Cup Cricket 2009

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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.