In non-cricket news: happy anniversary to my lovely bride, and my loyal reader. Nine years down, nine years to go. (I make this joke every year, and every year it is HILARIOUS.)
In the world of cricket, not a great deal going on, however. Still fallout galore from the 2nd test at Trent Bridge: Ganguly is calling out the India players for being soft, Flower and Strauss are stridently defending their actions in the run-out-that-never-was scandal (anyone else get the sinking feeling that we are going to be talking about that for years and years and years?), Yuvraj and Harbhajan are out for the final two tests for India (no 100th cap for you, Harbhajan, not yours), and the world waits with bated breath on news on Zaheer, Gambhir, and Sehwag (who supposedly, according to Twitter, is on his way to England as I type).
Speaking of Twitter, yesterday MS Dhoni apologized, via a tweet, to Indian fans everywhere (well more correctly, he apologized to his 62,000 followers, or about .0001% of Indian fans everywhere) for his performance in the first two tests and promised a comeback in the final two. Now, I like Dhoni, he is a proven winner, but I honestly think he is fooling himself. Unless the big three mentioned above come back and are at least 90% fit, this England team is streets ahead of them. And considering all England need to do is draw the final two tests to overtake them in the world test rankings, well, I would be more than shocked if India were able to come back and win the final two tests.
But: they are the world champions. And they still are the number one test team on the planet. So maybe a tad early for me to count them out.
Also, in the news, the ECB has added two t20s for England in October versus the West Indies. These are leftover matches that should have happened this summer before that Sanford fella stole all the money in the Caribbean and went to jail. The players are rankled, of course, and I would be too. That’s a lot of cricket.
And, honestly, I am coming to realize that international t20 does nothing for me. The thought of it bores me to tears. And while I like ODIs just fine, I think I am a test fan through and through. To paraphrase Wright Thompson, yes that Wright Thompson: walk out, flip a coin, and then play cricket for five days. Just a brilliant form of a brilliant game.
I like the domestic t20 tournaments, even the dreaded IPL, but I cannot imagine I will watch many international 20over matches in the near future.
Is it time to change the name of this blog?
(It’s funny, now that I mention it, I went through last night and subscribed via Google Reader to as many cricket blogs as I could. The game just lends itself so easily to great blog titles: 99.94, Deep Backward Point, Different Strokes, The Reverse Sweep, Short Third Man, Well Pitched, just to name a few.)
And, well, no, I am not changing it now. I have a brand damn it! (No, actually, I don’t).
Finally, this morning, the Sri Lanka-Australia starts up on the 6th with the first of two, well, t20s, of course. Followed by five ODIs and three testes. And the first and only test between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh (Wright, are you there, Wright?) starts tomorrow, followed by five ODIS.
Both should be cracking series. Unfortunately, as I have already whined, I will be able to watch exactly none of it. Just me and Cricinfo for these two. Oh well.
Okay back to work. Until tomorrow.
Limited Overs 