Rain, No Play

The ICC has suspended the 5 match officials who officiated in the April 28 World Cup final that ended as a farce. These five officials, namely West Indian Steve Bucknor, Aleem Dar; the reserve umpires Rudi Koertzen and Billy Bowden, and the match referee, Jeff Crowe, have all been suspended for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup final in September.

Their actions led to the most farcical finish ever witnessed at a World Cup final. With Sri Lanka needing 63 runs from the final 18 deliveries of the match and with the light fading badly, these 5 officials concluded incorrectly that the Sri Lankans needed to come back the next day to finish the match. Now, this was when all of 33 overs had already been bowled (20 are enough to constitute a match) and the Sri Lankan captain had already conceded defeat. The correct decision by the officials would have been to declare the match finished, and award the championship to Australia. Instead, after discussion, the officials then allowed the Sri Lankans to face the supposedly remaining 3 overs against Australia's spinners in near pitch black conditions. The incredulous Kensington Oval crowd rightly booed the farce that unfolded before them.  read more »

Yesterday the Jamaican police finally made the embarrassing announcement that Bob Woolmer, the former Pakistan cricket coach, was not murdered after all, something that the Jamaica Gleaner reported a month earlier on May 13. The formal announcement was made by Commissioner of Police, Lucius Thomas, with the man who headed the misguided investigation, Mark Shields, by his side. Woolmer was found dead in his twelfth floor room at the Jamaica Pegasus on March 18 of this year. Four days later, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Shields announced that Woolmer had been strangled. This conclusion was based entirely on the report of government pathologist Dr. Ere Seshaiah, which found broken bones in Woolmer's neck that were supposedly consistent with "asphyxia by manual strangulation".



From the start, there were (or should have been) questions about that conclusion, as there were no abrasions on Woolmer's neck. If he were strangled one would have expected that there would have been some marks on his neck. Questions were also raised as to how a man of almost 250 pounds could have been subdued and strangled by an attacker without him raising an alarm. It is very embarrassing from a Jamaican and regional perspective for the local reports to have been so erroneous that foreign pathology reports were needed to established the truth.  read more »

Murder By Cricket

ESPN.com has done a story about Bob Woolmer's murder in Jamaica during this World Cup. The article, by Patrick Hruby, who admittedly knew very little about cricket before the story, takes a look at the sport we love and its sordid underbelly from an outsider's point of view. The story is long, but explores Bob Woolmer, cricket, its politics and its fans. You may read it here.

The analysts will say that South Africa lost today's second semi final at the Beausejour stadium in St. Lucia inside the first 10 overs. After winning the toss, smiling and electing to bat, Graeme Smith could not have foreseen the carnage that was to follow as the South African top order were blown away to be reduced to 27/5 after 10 overs. The truth however, is that South Africa lost this match well before the match even started, as they apparently allowed verbal intimidation and the ghosts of their 1999 disasters against Australia to scramble their minds.

To understand what happened today to South Africa, one has to look back at the two encounters between South Africa and Australia in the 1999 World Cup. Back then, South Africa were the favourites to win the cup and had what was widely considered to be the best ODI team in the world. The two teams met twice in the 1999 edition.  read more »

In today's first semi final of Cricket World Cup 2007, Sri Lanka stamped their class on New Zealand. Urged on by strong crowd support, Sri Lanka crushed the Kiwis by 81 runs. Winning the toss, the Sri Lankans, showing the bravado that has won them many fans, elected to bat first on a wicket that promised to assist New Zealand's pacers.

Captain Mahela Jayawardene's decision seemed to backfire in the third over, when star batsman Sanath Jayasuriya's stumps were clattered by a James Franklin delivery. Franklin bowled well at the star of the innings, but the same couldn't be said for Shane Bond, who picked the worst time to have a bad performance. His first over went for 9 runs as he strayed down leg side, allowing Upul Tharanga to glance the ball for a boundary down to fine leg. The day would get much worse for Bond.  read more »

[Photo credit: Chennette]

Or better put, Marlon Samuels spoiled Lara's day.

In front of the largest crowd of the World Cup so far, Chris Gayle and Devon Smith gave the West Indies a solid platform. They put on 131 for the first wicket, with Gayle, who seemed out of sorts at the start of his innings, finding his form to make a brisk 79 off 58 balls. Smith played fairly well for his 61, but too often failed to give the strike back to the dashing Gayle and consumed all of 106 deliveries.

At the fall of Gayle's wicket, caught at third man, the crowd called out for Lara, and he came out to thunderous applause. The England players saluted Lara by forming a guard of honour as he walked out to the middle for the final time in his international career. Lara played well for his 18 runs, tantalising his spellbound audience with three fours. After Smith fell to a brilliant Paul Collingwood catch, Samuels joined Lara at the crease. And then the unthinkable. Samuels hit a delivery down to mid on and called Lara for a run that was never on. When Samuels stopped and finally realised that the run was not on, it was too late for Lara as Kevin Pietersen swooped in and hit the wicket while Lara desperately tried in vain to make it back.  read more »

Matthew Hayden made his third century of the tournament.

Australia 348 New Zealand 133

At least the West Indies didn't lose to Australia this bad. Not even Scotland lost to them this bad.  read more »

Brian Lara courtesy of mailliw.

Today’s victory by the West Indies over Bangladesh was overshadowed by the post match press conference when Windies captain Brian Lara stunningly announced that he would be retiring from international cricket after the Windies’ final World Cup match on Saturday. That Lara would retire from ODIs after the World Cup was well known, and he reiterated that a few days ago. However, Lara had previously indicated that he wanted to tour England during the summer, citing his desire to make a Test century at Lords, so his retirement from Tests is stunning. Some will read between the lines and surmise that Lara learnt that the selectors intended not to pick him for the tour to England, so he decided to go out on his own. Whatever the reason for his decision, Lara deserves to retire on his own terms. There has been two sides to Lara’s career – his brilliance with the willow and his failures as captain. There have been occasions in the past, and will be in the future, to question Lara’s tactics on the field and his behaviour off it, but now is the time to reflect on the career of a man who made a habit of breaking records.

In the debate surrounding who the best batsman in the world is, many names would be frequently mentioned, but to any West Indian, there would be only one name. Especially in the Test arena, none of Lara’s contemporaries can match his appetite for runs. The only blemish on his record as a batsman was the rut that he found himself in between November 1996 and April 2001 when he saw his Test average drop by over 12 runs from just over 60 to just below 48. If Lara had the consistency of Sachin Tendulkar or Ricky Ponting, then there would be no question as to who the finest batsman of his time was.  read more »

One of my favourite cricketers, Martin Crowe, gave a very good explanation on a talk show with Harsha Bhogle a few years ago, about how on earth he managed to get out to Arjuna Ranatunga (16 test wickets) after making 299 at Wellington in 1991.

His answer was brilliant and, to me, it is applicable in each and every aspect of our lives. I'm not quoting him, but he said something like he was thinking about how he would celebrate becoming the first New Zealander to score a triple century, about how the crowd would cheer him, etc. He wasn't focussing on the next ball. His aim should have been to score a run (at least) if the ball was there to be hit, or to block it out if it was a good ball. He wasn't in the present, though. As a result, he got out, to Ranatunga.

Sri Lanka, if Asantha de Mel, their chief selector is to be believed, rested Vaas and Murali for the game against Australia to ensure that the two bowlers were preserved for the finals against Australia.

"It was a decision, a ploy, to keep our key strike bowlers away from the Australian game. We wanted to bring the players out for the finals with Australia. We did not want to give the Australians a free dress rehearsal. We are saving our armoury for the finals."

 read more »

South Africa have joined Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the semi-final list after whipping England at Barbados. It is fair to say that the four best sides of the tournament will play the semis, for none of the other contenders with a long shot, England and West Indies, have played well enough to deserve a place in the last four.

Although the remaining games are of academic interest since the semis lineup is already decided, what will be of interest is who plays who in the semi finals at Jamaica and St. Lucia. If Australia win against New Zealand, they will obviously top the table. That would also more or less ensure that Sri Lanka would be #2 assuming Sri Lanka whip Ireland today. Even if Australia lose to New Zealand, as long as it isn't a humiliating defeat, their net run-rate will ensure that they will top the table. South Africa's net run rate is the lowest of the four. It is so low that it would take some strange and terrible cricket from the other teams to allow South Africa to improve their ranking. So it is very very likely that the semi-final lineup would be Sri Lanka v New Zealand on 24 April at Jamaica and Australia v South Africa at St. Lucia.  read more »