A week of unfitting farewells, dodgy cars, and air miles
Martin Williamson looks back at the week ending February 19, 2006
| |
|
There is little old-timers like more than being given a chance to start down the "in my day bowlers could land the ball on a speck of dust" route. But the oldies were given more ammunition than even they could handle in the bowl-out that followed the tied Twenty20 international between New Zealand and West Indies. The format was simple - six bowlers from either side, two balls each, three stumps to aim at. Sadly, the first three bowlers from each team missed (that's 12 balls in all) before Shane Bond hit twice. The fourth West Indies bowler then kept up his team's 100% record, allowing Scott Styris to end the agony with a first-ball strike. It could be worse. In a bowl-out in the early 1990s a former England fast bowler delivered an ultra-short bouncer.
Go gentle into that good night
In Hollywood, the sporting hero departs in a final blaze of glory, coming off the canvas to knock out his brash young opponent or blasting a home run despite having a broken arm and a drink problem. Sadly, life's not like that. Chris Cairns deserved to bring the curtain down on a remarkable international career with a blazing Test hundred or a five-for. The scene, however, was the same Twenty20 match. Cairns took 0 for 24, and then, despite a hero's welcome from a packed Eden Park crowd, a nine-ball 2 which put New Zealand behind the clock. His final chance at redemption came in the bowl-out mentioned above. Sadly, he missed with both deliveries.
Is this your car, sir?
The perks of the first-class cricketer in many countries often includes a sponsored car. The motorways of England are peppered with speeding vehicles emblazoned with sponsors' logos and jam packed with bats and coffins. It might be seen as less of a perk in Zimbabwe, where the board set the police on former players who had not returned their cars after refusing new contracts. The players pointed out that they would hand back the vehicles until about $200,000 they were owed was handed over, so Zimbabwe Cricket got tough an scuttled to the local police. Dion Ebrahim was arrested and Tatenda Taibu questioned. Heath Streak, who is owed $25,000 and still has his Nissan, is no doubt awaiting the knock at the door.
| |
|
On Wednesday, the ICC executive committee met in Dubai and, among other things, decided to recommend the scrapping of the much-criticised Supersubs idea (which was introduced last summer with indecent haste in the first place) and the staging of a Twenty20 World Championship in 2007. There was a certain irony that one of those who was part of the meeting was Ozias Bvute, the Zimbabwe Cricket MD and the target of much of the venom of board opponents last year. Bvute was perhaps not in the best position to tell others how to run the game. Twenty-four hours earlier Zimbabwe's first-class competition, the Logan Cup, 102 this year, was due to start. Only it didn't, scrapped at the last minute for reasons that could owe much to the board's cash crisis and the quite appalling standard of cricket in evidence during the provincial one-day tournament earlier in the month. And on the same day Bvute was hobnobbing, his board announced that the one-day series at home to Kenya had been cut from five to three matches (shame ZC didn't think to tell the Kenyan board). Again the rationale was not known, but critics were quick to point out that too many defeats in the series could see Kenya leapfrog Zimbabwe in the ICC ODI Rankings and so take their place in the Champions Trophy qualifiers. Bvute also asked the ICC for an advance on their World Cup 2007 money, but that could turn out to be the straw that broke the camel's back. He was sent on his way with a flea in his ear and told enough was enough. Chastised, no sooner was he back in ZC Towers than the two scrapped Kenya matches had been reinstated.
Unhappy hosts
The Under-19 World Cup has been an enjoyable affair, although crowds have been dismal, with barely 100 packing the R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. It was not a happy event for Sri Lanka, who lost to India in their group match and then exited in the quarter-finals to Australia. Off the field, things were equally depressing, with Sachitra Serasinghe slung off the team on disciplinary grounds and Angelo Mathews, their captain, withdrawing through injury. At least when they beat Zimbabwe chasing 257 in a play-off, stand-in skipper Sameera de Zoysa, who led to way with 63, might have expected a pat on the back from his manager. Not a bit of it. "He struggled with his field settings and that's why we gave away 20 more runs," moaned Ashley de Silva.
| |
|
While the non-stop Future Tours Programme has been criticised by a number of people - not least international players who annually accrue enough air miles to fly to the moon and back but usually don't know which country they are in, let alone city. This week Sri Lanka had to fly from Sydney to Adelaide to Brisbane within four days. On Wednesday, after completing the whistlestop itinerary demanded by the VB Series, they flew back to Sri Lanka, and onto Bangladesh on Thursday to start a new round of ODIs on Sunday. While the schedule is daft, sources hint that Sri Lanka Cricket agreed to it on the safe assumption that in the unlikely event of their side making the VB Series finals, there would be no need for the third-match decider and the players would be back home early in the week. Such confidence.
Surprise package
Until the last few days, upsets have been a bit thin on the ground in the Under-19 World Cup. But step up Nepal, one of the sides tipped by those in the know as being likely to ruffle a few feathers. In the Group stage they beat Ireland, but in the Plate competition they really .. er .. stepped up to the plate. In the semi-finals they beat South Africa by two runs, and then in the final they pipped New Zealand by one wicket after seeming down and out at 148 for 8 chasing 205. It proves, if there were doubts, that there is life outside the elite. And, before cynics comment, the entire side was born in Nepal, so not a case of yet more sides composed of foreign-born `naturalised' players which formed the core of sides such as USA, Canada and UAE in recent years. Keep an eye on them, and also Uganda, who showed enough to make people realise why they are being tipped as Africa's next real deal.
Martin Williamson is managing editor of Cricinfo
Read in App
Elevate your reading experience on ESPNcricinfo App.