When I created this blog two days back, I did not imagine I would find time to be scribbling almost every day. Well, I never took a hat-trick when I played small club cricket two decades back, so let me feel happy about at least this hat-trick -- three days of blogging in a row.
Last night, no it was early morning, it was tough to stay up and watch the great trans-Tasman rivalry become almost a farce in the World Cup. I know I cannot complain about this, because a sports scribe gets paid to watch sport. I know a lot of people fancy this job, but let me tell you, if I had to write a match report of what I saw, I would have torn my hair hair!
I have been watching Matthew Hayden and his bulldozer-style batting does seem as if it has been created just to torment bowlers even when they try and sleep. Yes, Matty is a left-hander but if you will ask me if he has grace, I would say NO. He is a bully with the bat and I will go back to my club days when older boys would smack the kids to all parts of the mohallah. We had to fetch the ball from bushes and even drains. Just that on Friday, the Black Caps had West Indian fans doing that job!
Having said that, I still feel this match was a huge let-down because the trans-Tasman rivalry got diluted even before start of play when Jacob Oram and Shane Bond were left out of the line-up. Rotation policy? Resting? Or why risk injury in an inconsequential match?
I have not been able to speak to Stephen Fleming but I guess he knew what he was doing just like Mahela Jayawardene the other day. Columns have already been written about whether the Black Caps will be pulled up the way the Lankans were for doing this act! The point is, there are no rules from the ICC on what should be the team selection. And it was on the same Friday we had the BCCI selectors tell the world Sourav and Sachin were being rested.
Anwyay, I will not go into that know, but I do feel the way the Black Caps got beaten black and blue, they will be tending to bruised egos and much more in coming days. Fleming the master captain will want the world to believe he did nothing wrong.
I agree with that, but why does the paying public have to be treated to such farcical stuff. My only complain is if you have to do something like this, you might as well give a walkover and say: "My boys want to sleep the whole day today!"
Maybe, by the 2011 World Cup, fans will have a right to claim refunds for watching (mis)matches like these. Mate, this ain't cricket!
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4 comments:
There are two important points -- one is the quality of matches and the other is about resting players.
I agree that Friday's match was a really bad one. To be honest there have been very substandard matches in this world cup.
Most of them have been because of the presence of poor teams.
Secondly, this resting issue is being overhyped. Can't a team rest its key player in an inconsequential match so as to give others a chance, or, simply to avoid risking an injury. Bond has had fitness problems, so no big deal he was rested.
Nobody pointed a finger at this New Zealand's decision, but when it came to Sri Lanka, they began to criticise. It looks funny.
i think Australia should be declared the winner and the ompetition should be between the rest of the teams.
Australia has just raced so much ahead of the rest of the world that it will take another five years to catch up with them.
You got a point there, but then lets not forget every sport has a team or players at the top, who just won’t let others take away their position.
Roger Federer is doing the same in tennis, and our very own Vishy Anand seems to be doing it in chess (to some extent). Schumi did it in F-1. And going a little farther that Pakistani ace squash player Jahangir Khan kept mauling his opponents till he decided to say good-bye.
Boxing, soccer, hockey, ice hockey…. name the sport and instances are plenty.
So the choice is yours switch channel or just hang on to it…
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