Author: Matt

Again, with the news, on Malinga.  I somehow missed that he retired from test cricket last week, but it looks as though it is official.  Further, he thanked, get this, the IPL, the bastion of all that is unholy about cricket, for giving him another chance to get healthy, and get noticed.  Mmmm…the IPL, the death knell for cricket: saving the career of the one the most electric and entertaining cricketers on the planet.  What say you now, British press?

Of course, he does go on to blame the Sri Lankan federation for their lack of concern, and one would hope that the Indian or English cricket boards would be more careful with their stars’ injuries, but I think it is truly a feather in the cap of the IPL.  Not only does it allow for the development of a great many young Indian cricketers, but it provides a platform for players from around the world to prove to their country boards that they are ready compete at the highest level.

Ongoing today: Delhi v Bangalore, County Cricket, and something called the “Premiere League Tournament Tier A” – which I believe is Sri Lankan club cricket.  That’s it, early meeting today, maybe a rare afternoon post later?

Hey, look at that: I didn’t commit the fatal sin of “blog fade”.  I came close, admittedly, but I did not fall victim completely to, you know, “real life”.

Why all the scare quotes?

Hey, Cricket: IN MY HEMISPHERE.  Well, technically, England is in my hemisphere, but shoot the West Indies are like a stone’s throw from my back yard, relatively speaking.  Pakistan won the 1st ODI and the 2nd is ongoing as we speak:  JUST DOWN THE ROAD FROM ME.

I freely admit that I took the 2007 World Cup for granted.  I had no idea, being so new to the sport, how rare major tournaments would be in my neck of the woods.   I spent many an afternoon at the office listening to the BBC’s coverage of the matches…ENTIRE matches.  Not just bits and pieces because of the time difference.  For instance, the 2015 World Cup is in Australia, which means match start times of probably 2:30am on my watch.  So, yeah, I will get to enjoy my fare share of chases at not-entirely-ungodly hours, but that is really about it.

Anyway, the West Indies are 80 for 2 after 18 overs.  A rather pitiful RR…Pakistan’s bowlers must be salivating.

Also, in the IPL, Mumbai continues to pull away.  They truly are the best team by a long shot. Of course, still early doors, as the first qualifying final is not until May 24th (!!!).  But I really do not see any team overtaking them at this point, in the points table anyway.

Finally, hey, Shane Warne took 3 wickets yesterday, nice to see him back.  Until tomorrow…

Ah, another morning with County Cricket to follow.  I was hoping the Wisden Cricketer’s new website would have better coverage of the County game than Cricinfo currently does, but it is pretty much the same.  No ball by ball, no photos, no live match reports.  Just the score, the stats, and the weather.  For now, I will stick with Cricinfo, as their layout is far superior.

Sussex is the closest thing I ever had to a favorite County club.  I “chose” them when I first started to follow the sport, as they had won the double the year previous and I thought for once it would be nice to follow a winning team.  The choice never really stuck, unfortunately.   At this point, I don’t think I will ever truly love a County Team unless I move to England.

Lots of news today.  Malinga has been left out of the Sri Lankan squad for the tests in England.  Kind of expected, he has never really proven himself as a test bowler.  I am sure he will be selected for the ODI series.

And it looks more and more like there will be 10 teams in the 2015 world cup, with a chance for the associate nations to qualify over a few of the lagging test nations.  I am not sure why they cannot expand to 12 teams, but it looks like Australia has already begun planning for the 10 teams.

And, of course, the IPL:  Mumbai won in rather thrilling fashion, and Kolkata will be chasing Kochi’s 132.

Another short post today.  Here’s the beauty Malinga in white – I thought I would post it since we won’t be seeing him in the classic kit this summer:

I honestly have no idea what this tournament is all about.  Is it just the reserves playing the reserves?  Just seems like a real misuse of the word “unofficial”.

The big news this morning is that the ICC is going to revisit the 2015 World Cup format.   It really is shocking to me that they are, to at least a slight degree, admitting that maybe they were wrong.  I do not think anything will change, but can you imagine FIFA publicly saying that maybe Qatar is not the best choice for 2022?  Never.  Never ever ever.

As mentioned previously, Cricket is sick, and the last thing the ICC needs after such a successful 2011 World Cup is another two steps backward, which is what they got by eliminating the Associate members from the 2015 competition.  Does having Ireland and Holland compete really make it that more interesting of a tournament?  No, not really.  But in the long haul, I think it is good for the health of the sport.

Photo of the day.  Until tomorrow.

There is not, truthfully, a whole lot going on today in the world of cricket.  I was thinking about writing a blog on Saturday, mostly to discuss Sachin’s maiden T20 century, and even more importantly, Kochi’s impressive chase of Mumbai’s 182.   And now I am wishing I had, for two reasons:  1.  The moment is gone, I cannot write about it now with any passion and 2. It would have given me an excuse for phoning in today’s post.

As seen above, Kochi do play again today, so at the very least I will have a match to follow as I seep my way though the day.

In other news, well, Sri Lanka picked their captain for the summer series in England.  And while that really is neither here nor there, it does get me at least a little more excited for what should be a glorious summer of cricket in England.  County Cricket, plus tours of the country by both Sri Lanka and India.  Hopefully, both series will be memorable ones, as memorable as India’s lovely spell in England in 2007.

Finally, it seems the boys over at the Wisden Cricketer have started a new website,  supposedly a “cricinfo for white people English cricket”.   Seriously, though, it boasts several of my favorite cricket writers and what seems to be (so far) decent coverage of the County game.  I am looking forward to seeing how it develops.

And, that’s that for today.

There we go with those names again.

And I realize that it is a “tradition” in Twenty20 cricket to have nicknames (Sussex Sharks, in England, for example), but I still do not care for it.

Many in the (especially) British press see the IPL as the deconstruction of cricket – the beginning of the end for the sport.  While that might be the case, I think the nicknames used during Twenty20 are the real problem.

(Not really).

There are quite a few real problems in the sport.  From the continuing shortening of the game, to match fixing, to TV and sponsors acting as dictators, to Ireland and the Dutch being left out of the 2015 World Cup.   Now I am not well versed enough in the sport to tell anyone how to fix these problems, or if these problems even need fixing, or if they are problems to begin with.  However,  to me, the game, despite its immense popularity in SE Asia, appears to be sick.   If only I knew the cure.

On the pitch, Kolkata looks to be successfully chasing down Rajasthan, needing just 30 from 30; County Cricket Championship matches are in the middle of day 2; and the Mumbai Indians are back on the pitch in about 55 minutes (do they play everyday?).

Also, in the ICC World Cricket Division Two, UAE defeated Nambia in the final by five wickets.  I do not know a great deal about this tournament, and the coverage on the Internet is lacking, but it is interesting to see what nations have been deemed as “division 2” by the ICC.  Nambia, Papua New Guinea, Uganda…not exactly world powerhouses when it comes to sporting endeavors.  Maybe the sport is sick because the ICC is not reaching out to countries with the financial acumen to really embrace the sport long term?

Well, that’s a full lid.  Your cricket photo of the day, follows:

Hey, County Cricket!  I love county cricket, especially the classic County Championship test series.  Weekday mornings at English cricket grounds; 22 clad in all white contesting an ancient game over four days.

I was able to visit Lord’s in March.  Unfortunately, there was no cricket being played, of course, but it was lovely just to see it up close.  I was even able to catch a glimpse of the pitch.  I wanted to see if we were able to get in and have a simple look around, but it was not in the cards.

Well, that’s not Lord’s, but that’s pretty much what I am getting at.

Such a departure from the bacchanalian scenes associated with the Indian Premiere League.  It’s almost as if they are two different sports. Which in many respects, they are.  Comparing the long form version of the game to Twenty20 is like comparing a horse to a toad.  Both have legs, and are alive, but that is really where the similarities end.  However, both are relevant and interesting and important. And both are Cricket.

Last night I was able to watch a little bit of the 3rd ODI between Bangladesh and Australia – enough to see Watson and Ponting’s “belligerent” innings.  I think they hit their 100 partnership in about 14 minutes.  How did this team crash out of the World Cup just a few short weeks ago?

Also, in the international scene, the West Indies-Pakistan series starts up soon.  Which is nice because it is in my time zone (or close to it), unfortunately it is not going to be carried on ESPN3 or even on willow.tv.

Finally, the IPL, like a virus scan running in the background of your computer, quietly hums along, with Deccan Chargers v Bangalore Challengers at Hyderabad starting in about 45 minutes.  The tournament has yet to really kick off, which makes me think they should have taken six weeks after the world cup before starting it up.  Heck, Yuvraj Singh is busy car shopping in Mumbai, how concerned could he be with the IPL?

And, well, crap, I hate to turn this into a Cricket version of Tom and Lorenzo, but you have to love Yuvraj’s outfit.  Quietly fashionable and casual.  A perfect combination of sport and hip – I love it.  Also, love that watch.

 

Honestly, I am not sure if I should be saying “at Mirpur” or “at Dhaka”.  It appears that Dhaka is a city outside of Mipur, where the actual stadium is, but Cricinfo waffles on where the match actually, offically…is.

Which brings up the blog post titles: these are not meant to be match reports, or anything remotely similar to match reports.  I just love the fact that there is cricket going on every day of the year (at some level) on every corner of the world, and so each day’s post will bring a new cricket match to think about.  Some days it will be England v India at Lord’s, and some days it will be two Zimbabwean club teams playing 30 over cricket on some shit ground a thousand miles from anything.

Yesterday Malinga did not disappoint, bowling Agarwal for a duck…with the very first ball.  Meanwhile Tendulkar continued his fine run of form with 55 off of 46 to lead Mumbai to a nine wicket win.

Meanwhile, MS Dhoni returned to the pitch for the first time since captaining India to the promised land, as his Chennai side took on Kings XI in the IPL.  However it looks like Kings XI is going to spoil the party, as they require only another 21 off of 18 balls to seal the win.

Speaking of Chennai and Kings XI: what is with the names of these teams?  I am sure it is simply Indian sporting tradition, and I am coming off as an idiot insular American, but goodness me were the teams named by schoolchildren?

For the uninitiated, their full names are Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab.  The former is far worse than the latter, but they are both poor names for clubs.  Say what you will about football, but they know (knew?) how to name their squads:  Arsenal, Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan.  Now those are proper names for clubs.  Heck, even Major League Baseball gets it right here and there. The NHL has its moments, too.

I also heard some complaints yesterday on the kits in the IPL.  Some are uglier than others, but some are sublimely beautiful, like Kings XI, for instance.

Until tomorrow.

I love cricket photography.  I love it so much.  Someday, I will learn why.  Maybe it is the uniforms, maybe it is the green, maybe it is how far the players are from the crowd.

In the real world of cricket, the IPL continues to grind along.  Supposedly, the stadiums are half full and the crowds lackluster – according to some India has been to the cricket mountaintop and is taking a break from the sport they love.

The cricket so far has been, well, okay.  No barnburners to speak of quite yet, but it is still early days.

In about an hour, the Mumbai Indians play.  They are the closest thing in the IPL I have to a favorite squad.  Mostly because I could watch Malinga bowl all day, every day.  Remember before when I said it was great to follow cricket matches via text only descriptions?  Well, scratch that when it comes to Malinga.

The dead rubber between Bangladesh and the Aussies is tomorrow – live on ESPN3…at 3:40 in the morning.  I might be able to catch a couple overs in the morning before work.  We shall see.

I stayed up for about 90 minutes of last night’s match before having to hit the sack.   There were a couple well taken wickets by the Aussies, but I missed Watson’s “brutal” innings in the chase.

Cricket writing uses such violent imagery for such a pastoral sport.

And now I am at the office, following the IPL matches on cricinfo‘s wonderful live match coverage.  This is how I “watch” the majority of my cricket.  It’s funny how the sport lends itself so comfortably to text only viewing.  And the live match commentary provided by the site is full of humor, knowledge, and passion.  Also: I think it might be my dream job.

Two IPL matches today, should be a lovely day of 20 overs cricket.