CricDigs Blogs

I have not been able to see a lot of these matches (being on vacation for about 10 days with limited internet access) but quite honestly I just love to see all these teams with a fantastic mixture of international stars playing against each other. No one team seems to have lob-sided advantage. They all have reasonable fire power in batting as well as bowling and we should see a very tight finish for semi-final births towards the end.

It is fun and great site to see Dhoni and Michael Hussey batting together, Ponting and Ishant Sharma playing for the same team, Symonds and Afridi representing the same team, Shane Warne and Graem Smith in a huddle and many many more interesting combinations (including Bhajji smacking Sreesanth ).

I hope to catch more of those matches (may be some live ) and hope that IPL continues to flourish.

It does not get any better than this as far as close & exciting ODI finishes are concerned. Sri Lanka made 235/7 in their allotted 50 overs and West Indies made 236/9 in 50. That is not all though. Chanderpaul hit a Six off the last ball of the match with those many runs required for WI to win. Vass was the bowler, who will remember this for the rest of his life. I guess he can seek Chetan Sharma and form a club.

Chanderpaul has this uncanny talent in him to keep his team in the match and threaten to make impossible things possible. When WI visited India last year, it was Chanderpaul who played a few gutsy knocks to almost create a couple of upsets.

It is matches like these that makes ODI form of Cricket such an exciting thing to follow.

In 2005, after the tour of Australia by West Indies, Steve Waugh commented - the current West Indies team lacks “urgency and vibrancy”. He identified the only man who played with purpose and carries the capability to inspire his team - Chris Gayle. And Chris Gayle proved the prophetic Steve Waugh right. West Indies won the ODI series against England under the captaincy of Chris Gayle after being humiliated in the test series with Sarwan and Daren Ganga leading the team. The same tour and same players - but a change in performance was possible because the captain was different.

Like most of the cricketers of the West Indies team, Chris Gayle is perpetually sporting sun glasses, glittering golden chains, and newer hair styles. But unlike the rest of his team, he is not all style and little substance. He rises when the occasion arises. And he has the rare ability to “spark the plug” for his team mates, as Daren Powell puts it.

His jovial and laid back attitude may be percieved as the inappropriate attitude for captaincy. But then he prefers not to talk much but knows how to gel the team well. Sometimes he just says to the team, “believe in yourself”. And his own superb performances do all the real talking.

Chris Gayle has an average of 38.something in both ODIs and tests. A triple century glitters among his seven centuries in tests. A cool as cucumber attitude and the laudable talent that the player possess can change the fortune of the team, if he is put at the helm of the team. Sarwan is infact a very capable captain. Chris Gayle can step up as captain in his absence. Or Gayle may be made captain of the ODI team while Sarwan continues as the test captain. For he does add a lot of zing to the West Indies cricket as a captain.

The CEO of West Indies cricket board (WICB) Bruce Aanensen labelled the West Indies players as ‘incompetent’ publicly, after the second test against England. The players didn’t like that obviously. But they waited till the completion of the series and complained to the West Indies players’ association (WIPA) chief Dinanath Ramnarain.

Dinanath Ramnarain forwarded the letter sent to him by the players to Ken Gordon, the President of WICA. Ken Gordon is vacating office within a few days, making way for Julian Hunte. But he made his displeasure with Dinanath Ramnarain clear and gave a clean chit to Bruce Aanensen. Ken Gordon counter attacked Dinanath Ramnarain for his atttitude and behaviour towards WICA.

Dinanath Ramnarain was a leg spinner and played for West Indies. He had to retire at the age of 28 because of his brushes with the people in power. Because of his passion to put forward the player’s interest he led the West Indies Player’s Association (WIPA). He has been doing a commendable job as the cheif executive of the WIPA.

The West Indies Cricket Board is much like our BCCI. The top officials are not cricketers but bankers, businessmen, and politicians. Only thing is that there is a West Indies Players Association (WIPA) representing the player’s interest. So their cricketing affairs are more democratic than our cricketing affairs, but arbitrariness remains the common factor.

Quite a lot has happened since the World Cup ended in almost a debacle for the West Indies. Being the home team, they had the advantage of knowing the weather conditions as well as the playing conditions the best. They also had support of the local fans. But they were still not able to make it to the Semi Finals. An objective look at their team did not provide much encouragement to their chances of making a difference in this tournament right from the offset. But cricket being a game of uncertainties, with surprise teams winning the World Cup on more than one occasion, gave people some hope that West Indies might do well. With this being Lara’s last world cup, people also hoped to see him steer West Indies single handedly to their 3rd World Cup triumph the way Sachin Tendulkar almost did in the 2003 edition for India. At the start of the tournament, West Indies even defeated Pakistan in convincing fashion, which further raised the hope. But eventually, the performance of that team was as per the abilities on paper, and they fizzled out, especially in the super 8s against much better teams, even though they had carried forward their 2 points which they earned by beating Ireland in the first round.

As a contrast to that, much more was expected of England in this world cup. Even though England did not have a good Australian summer, losing the Ashes 5-0 and losing most of the matches in the ODI series after that, they still provided a lot of hope to their fans. And that is not without reason. They beat a full strength Australian side twice in the best of three finals in the series just preceding the World Cup and that too right in their backyard. England also has one of the best middle orders in world cricket at present, with a lineup that boasts of Collingwood, Flintoff and Peitersen. But as the Super 8s progressed, none of the big three delivered consistently and synchronously. There were one or two sporadic performances, including the closely fought victory against West Indies, but all was lost by then.

So as West Indies visits England for a series involving 4 tests and 2 ODIs, which team does one think will be more successful? West Indies does not have their savior (read Lara) anymore. It will be interesting to see if that breaks them further or whether they are strong enough to leave that behind them and look to the future stars to be. Having Taylor, Bravo, Powell, Collymore and Edwards as their pace attack, they would fancy their chances to bowl the opposition out twice in 5 days, especially on the seaming English pitches, but it is their batting which leaves a lot to be desired. That is where Lara’s absence will hurt a lot. Sarwan is the new captain, and everyone knows that he has guts of steel (replying stingingly in kind to a McGrath sledge), but does he have the ability to lead a side that is consistently going down with each match? That is something that we will find out over the course of the next two months.

England on the other hand, have their own set of problems. The opening partnership still has much to be desired, and here is where they miss the services of Marcus Trescothick. Even though Ian Bell has had some good knocks under his belt, he still does not provide the same level of assurance that Trescothick did. Andrew Strauss is back in the side, but he is captaining the side in the absence of Michael Vaughn, which might add further pressure on him, and may not be good for his batting struggles. Flintoff has also not been in good nick, particularly with the bat, even though he does a decent job with the ball. But he will have to understand that England’s success still largely depends on how effective he is with the bat as well as the ball.

If I were to pick a winner for this series, I would pick England because of their relatively more consistent middle order batting. If I had to make a prediction, I would say that England will win the test series 2-1, and the ODI series also by the same margin. If West Indies are able to win a test match, or better still tie the series, it will be a huge victory for them, especially when they are starting out and trying to find their way in the post Lara era.

After the controversy of Marlon Samuels in match fixing and after the windies went back, we seem to have completely forgotten them and their role as the hosts of this world cup! Also as many of the cricketing fans might be feeling that the hosts are the underdogs this time, I have my suspicions and also premonitions that they might be anything but underdogs and could be the darkhorses of the tournament.

They remind me of the old fable of the hare and the tortoise and its moral that the slow and steady win the race! They might not have exactly too many bright and shining stars in their side not to forget lara, chanderpaul, sarwan,gayle….. the list of performers could simply go on. There is something about this team that if one player is not in form there is some one in great form to comepnsate for that. I feel that they are going to present a tough competition in this world cup and they will also have the advantage of home turf and home crowds.