The County Ground, in Chelmsford is a tiny little ground, so I am surprised to see that Ford Motor Company, not exactly a small time organization, owns its naming rights. I wonder if there is a plant in the area?
Then again, while my wife and I were in London, both of us remarked on the large number of Ford cars there were.
The above is neither here nor there, what matters is that the Friends Life t20 (there are far too many abbreviations for 20 over cricket) is back today. First ball of Warwickshire v Nottinghamshire is in three hours, while I am most looking forward to this post’s namesake. As mentioned yesterday, following multiple t20 matches at once is a difficult prospect. When it is the County Championship or even a CB40 bout, it is easier to flip leisurely back and forth between games, but it all happens far too fast in 20 over cricket. I try to follow all the official county twitter feeds, which helps, but they post so much and then you have the ECB and The Wisden Cricketer and Cricinfo all posting updates, too, and it becomes too much. (Edit: Also, you know, I am at work.)
This is what we call a: First World Problem.
Meanwhile, the West Indies and India are back at Port of Spain (ahhhh, Colonialism sure left its mark, eh?). The Windies chose to bat first and are 34 without loss through 9 overs. Here’s hoping they can win today and make a series out of it.
Finally, not a whole lot to say more about England’s draw with Sri Lanka yesterday. The pundits will all have their say on Strauss’s seeming disinterest in winning, but the draw does mean England cannot lose the series, which at the end of the day is something, I guess. I just think, and this is the American in me speaking, that England should have gone for the win, that playing for the draw from the first ball of the day was gutless. Especially since not a week earlier in Cardiff Sri Lanka fell apart like day old bread on the last day.
Don’t get me wrong, there is no shame in a hard fought draw, and I am not one of those sports fans that clamors for an outcome of every match (the NHL and its penalty shootouts during regular season games is a joke), but playing for the draw from the outset of any game shows a supreme lack of courage.
Oh, and yesterday, of course, there was window-gate. In fact, Prior received an official reprimand for the “incident”. Pardon me, but what a crock. But like most things, Twitter made it funny.
Until tomorrow.
Limited Overs 