Month: September 2011

One of my favorite movies ever is “Zidane: A 21^st Century Portrait.”  If you are unfamiliar, it is simply two hours of watching the greatest footballer ever play, well, football, for two hours.

It was filmed in real time and features Zidane in a match for Real Madrid against Villareal.  It is just wonderful, in my opinion.  There are heroes and goats.  There is a plot arc: rising, climax, falling.  If you have never seen it, I highly recommend it.

(Via the film’s Wikipedia page, it seems the filmmakers stole the idea from a 1970 film entitled “Fussball vie noch nie” – only that film was directed by a German and featured George Best for Manchester United against Coventry.  “Fussball vie noch vie”, however, does not have its own wiki page, and therefore doe not exist).

But I digress: during halftime of “Zidane…”, the viewer sees all that is happening in the outside world during the match.  Protests, war, disease.  It is my favorite part of the entire movie.

I have always been a fan of juxtaposing history against the sports that we love.

For instance, my “one big idea” for making a movie was to use that 11 hour, three day tennis match between Nicholas Mahut and John Isner at Wimbledon 2010 as a back drop for all the other happenings in the world.  That match took place over three days, and the film, interspersed between footage of the match, will clue the reader in on everything else that happened in the world over those three days.  Births, deaths, battles…bombings in Afghanistan, Obama’s firing of McChrystal,  Australia’s first female prime minister, a bus bombing in Turkey, The World Cup in South Africe, the BP oil spill…etc.

Which brings me to my point: test cricket, since it takes place over five days, is the perfect such backdrop to world events.  And I hope to write similar posts using classic matches instead of the above tennis match. (I am saving the tennis match for the movie…even though you are going to steal it anyway.)

(I am writing this after a long work day, I apologize for its haphazardness).

But, to start, briefly:  on this day in 1939, Warsaw was surrendered to the Nazis, and in 1964, the Warren Commission finally released its report on the assassination of JFK.

While in the world of cricket, on 27 September 1939: there were no international matches.  And I am sure it was too late in the year for the county game.

And there were no matches of note taking place on 27 September 1964, either.

This is not starting off well.  And is going to take some research.

I mean, on this day in 1948, Duncan Fletcher was born, and in 1982 Eddie Hemmings took 10 wickets in a first class match, but nothing really of note happened, historically, on those days.

Okay, back to the drawing board.

Until tomorrow.

No cricket talk today.

This morning my wife and I had to put down our old dog, Murray.

He smelled bad, and was generally kind of gross, but he was still the best dog ever.

Rest in peace, bud.

I am not in the office today, and therefore I am able to write a blog post about cricket….while watching cricket.   This is  real novelty around here.

Of course, as soon as I typed that, the Willow.tv feed died on me.  So – I was watching live cricket, now I am listening to the XX and waiting for the next Champions League t20 match to start up (Aukland v Somerset in Chennai Hyderabad, hat tip, Erez).

I watched the last few overs of the Trinidad and Tobago v Leicestershire match in the same tournament, and the ground was so terribly empty it almost gave me a panic attack.   I don’t know, I think it would be oddly terrifying to be playing cricket in a massively empty stadium.  It gives me vertigo just thinking about it.  But, hey, that’s me.

Honestly, though, I have zero interest in this tournament (similar to most of Hyderabad, it seems), I am just glad that there is cricket to watch as I kill a few hours this morning.

I have babbled on for 170 words about nothing.

This is what happens when there is nothing to write about.

And, unfortunately, I was not prepared to be home today, otherwise I would have prepped for a lengthier post.   Maybe done my 2011 Summer of Cricket recap, or maybe one of my promised county cricket posts, but, alas, it’s just not in me today.

I did however, google “celebrity cricket fans” and while I knew that Mick Jagger was a huge fan of cricket, I had no idea that he had supposedly snorted lines with Ian Botham in 1986 and that he regularly wakes early while on tour in the states to watch England play.

He supports Kent County Cricket Club, which puts them right up on my list of possible teams to follow.

And, it seems, he also follows Arsenal.  Good on ya, Mick.

Here he is at a match in what looks to me like maybe…1972?

Love it.

Okay.

Until tomorrow.  

Interesting news out of India this morning, as the Kochi Indian Premiere League franchise (you know, the fellas in the bright orange kits) have been booted out of the IPL for failing to make good on a financial obligation in their contract.

Unfortunately, this might be a sign of things to come.  I do not foresee the league itself, or any of the major franchises having similar problems, but I think the smaller clubs are going to have a hard time surviving in the years to come.

I am not rooting for this, please do not get me wrong.  As I have mentioned over and over on this site, I like the IPL, despite the fact that Twenty20 is my least favorite form of the game, and the last thing I want is for the league to fold.  All things being equal: the IPL is good for the game. However the league really needs to look at successful leagues across the globe (Bundesliga, Major League Soccer, the National Football League, and County Cricket) to see how to best run a league financially.  You cannot just throw the best cricketers in the world out onto the pitch every day for 50 days and simply cross your fingers that people buy tickets and kits.  The league and its franchises need to be nursed and weaned and nursed again.

It’s not easy, but considering how wildly popular the sport is in India, I am sure the league will figure itself out sooner rather than later.  There is just too much money to be made.  Or, maybe, that is the problem.

Meanwhile, just up the road, there is a cracker of a test match happening in Colombo, Sri Lanka.  I feel like what has been a wonderful three match series is passing me by, simply because of the time zone it is taking place in.

Yeah, it stinks that I cannot watch it, but if at least it was happening during my waking hours, I could follow the ball by ball.

And after tomorrow, the series is over.  And the Zimbabwe-Pakistan series is over, as well.  Yeesh.

Another curse of the American cricket fan: the time zone.

This week on the pitch:  Ireland v Canada in ODIs today and tomorrow, as well as those positively silly make-up t20s between England and the West Indies.

I take it back, rain is not the real cricket killer, television is.

Oh, and the t20 Champions League qualifiers are happening this week, as well.  Mildly interesting, I guess.

Until tomorrow.

I was unable to post yesterday, because of a project here at work that needed special attention.  But again, probably for the best, as not very much is happening in the world of cricket.

One story I found interesting was about Sangakkara’s comments on how he dislikes two test series, and I could not agree more.  Just one more reason why he is my favorite cricketer.

I know this makes me sound like the silly American who complains about draws in European sport, but I really think it is important to at least make it likely that there will be a result when you are playing a series of matches.  Otherwise, it feels completely unfulfilling, like a bad indie movie.

But there I go again, clamoring for more cricket, when just last week (or was it the week prior?) I was clamoring for the ICC to start paying attention to the amount of cricket being played by the world’s best players, as it was degrading the quality of the games being played and players were getting hurt.  And Sri Lanka, of all countries, was one of my prime examples in that post.

But why not play three tests and two less ODIs?  Oh, that’s right, television doesn’t like tests.  I forgot.

And it is going the other way, as Cricinfo in the same article pointed out that Australia’s visit to South Africa now only features two tests instead of the three that were originally planned, in order to make room for…the Twenty20 Champions League.

So not more cricket, different cricket.  That’s all I am saying.

As Sangakkara says, “Test cricket is still, to my mind, the most important form of the game out there. There’s nothing like it, there’s nothing that comes close to it. This is the only arena where you can really make your mark as a cricketer. If you are successful at Test cricket, that is all that matters I think.”

Amen, brother.

And speaking of tests, the third test between Sri Lanka and Australia starts tomorrow (or tonight on my watch).  Sri Lanka is down one-nil but can draw even with a victory.  Goodness I wish willow.tv would cover this match.  I have a feeling it is going to be a good one.

Finally today, over on Twitter I mentioned that I need to pick a county to follow, that following ALL matches is just no fun so I end up following none.  I have tried and tried to have Sussex be my team for years now and it just has not stuck.  I think because the reason I chose them was so haphazard and rushed.

(I know all of this sounds ridiculous, that you should never choose a sport team, that you should let them choose you, but I have been waiting for that to occur for years now and it just has not happened.  So this is a process I must initiate).

A few years ago, a writer for ESPN.com went through the process of choosing a Premiere League football team, you can find the article here (it is worth your time, for reals) and I plan on doing something similar for the counties, except exploring each county individually in a single post instead of one long post.  I will write about the history of the club, the ground, the pros, the cons, the celebrity fans, the famous players, the famous matches…etc.  So: look forward to that. Or not.  At the end, I will have a team to follow, hopefully.

If you are reading this, and have a county in mind for me, then let me know.

That’s it, until tomorrow.

Well, it seems people do read this blog.  I thought I was talking to myself the entire time.

Thankfully, my new readers understood the “tongue-in-cheek” nature of yesterday’s post, and that the majority of my posts are meant to be taken as semi-jokes.

And even when I am being serious, I freely admit that my lack of knowledge opens those posts up for criticism.

Today is Tuesday, so that means a short post, which works out because there doesn’t seem to be a great deal going on.  The fifth and final ODI of the England-India series, and the last match of India’s summer in England, is on the 16^th in Cardiff.  (So, I guess, in that case, India’s tour of England ended at Lord’s on Sunday.)

Can Indian win at least one game of the tour?  That is really the only storyline left.

I will admit that I am little down about the series ending, as it means that fall is well and truly here.  But I am looking forward to what should be a great autumn and winter of cricket, lots of which I will be able to watch on Willow.tv.

In other news this morning, Trott is ICC’s cricketer of the year.  Okay.  I guess.  I have not read any of the pundits’ reaction to the selection, but the guy did remorselessly accumulate over 1000 runs in 12 tests and over 1000 runs in 24 ODIs.

Cook won test cricketer of the year, and that is well deserved, while Sangakkara (my personal cricketer of the year) won the people’s choice award and the ODI player of the year.

As Cricinfo mentioned in its article this morning, the only real snub was the entire nation of India, as they only one award despite being the number one test nation for most of they year as well as being, you know, world fucking champions.

What does this prove?  That no matter the genre, award shows are complete rubbish.

Today’s matches to follow include: the Dutch versus Kenya in a 50 over match (hey, no rain!), Ireland versus Canada in a 50 over match, both games are part of the laboriously long ICC Intercontinental Cup (see you for the trophy presentation in 2013).  There is also a whole host of county games to watch.  All in all, a nice day of cricket.  Until tomorrow.

Rain, rain, rain.

Yesterday, the fourth ODI between England and India at the Oval was marred by persistent rain, finally ending as a tie (not a draw, mind you, but a tie) on the Duckworth-Lewis method.  (Isn’t the method supposed to produce a result?  Isn’t that its only purpose?)

Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, the fifth day of the 2^nd test between Sri Lanka and Australia was greatly shortened by rain, helping the hosts preserve a draw.

AND: in Holland, their one day match against Kenya has been delayed by rain.  The Kenyans tour of the Netherlands has been a complete washout so far.

Now, I realize that rain delays and rain shortened matches are nothing new in the sport.  They have been dealing with it for well over a hundred years now, and I am sure smarter people than myself have come up with theories on how to best combat the rain.  Domes, floodlights so matches can play into the evening to make up overs lost to weather, different colored balls…etc, and I am not saying I have any answers here, but something has to be done.

It doesn’t help that the sport is wildly popular in three of the wettest nations on the planet (India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh) (Cherrpunji, on the eastern slopes of the Himalaya in Shillong, India, is the wettest place on Earth), and even England is infamous for its damp summers, but I still think there has to be a solution to this.  I always say that there is always so much cricket, but really, when you think about it, there isn’t.

When a minnow has a test washed out, for instance, that might have been one of only five they will play all year long.  In Major League Baseball however, by comparison, if they lose a game to weather, who cares, as they have 161 other games to play.

Get to work, ICC.  Forget about DRS or the IPL or the Associates, let’s figure out this rain issue.

I mean, for crying out, the means in which the sport decides rain shortened one-dayers (The Duckworth-Lewis Method) is the most ridiculously complicated thing ever.  I think Google’s search algorithm is easier to understand.   It attempts to understand and accurately predict the outcome of a sporting event, which is seriously insane when you think about it.

That’s it from here.  Thankfully, it looks as though the rain is going to hold off in England today, which means I have County Championship matches to follow.

Until tomorrow

Again, so much cricket this morning.

The third ODI between England and India snuck up on me this morning, I had honestly forgotten all about it.  England won the toss and elected to field, and India are 92/5 through 28 overs.  It’s not going to be enough, if their bowling on Tuesday was any indication of future results.

Their new stud, Ajinkya Rhanae was caught out for a duck after seeing only three balls, which put India into a very early hole.

Can England completely white wash India this summer?  Win ALL the tests?  Win the t20?  Win ALL the ODIs?  That would be a magnificent achievement.

(I should go looking around for information on when that happened last for England, or any country, but I am feeling lazy this morning).

In other home country news, Ireland defeated Namibia this morning by five wickets in what sounded like a very intriguing fixture.  I have no idea what this means for their standing in the ICC Intercontinental cup, and again: too lazy to find out.

What I am trying to say is: I am phoning this in.  Until Monday then.