It is more than half way into the group stages of matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, and its had an unadulterated (the way Dhoni cannot be faulted for wanting) share of nail biting thrillers and matches that lasted just as long as the games period would last when we were in school and teams played just as we did in school ( though perhaps, remarkably better than i play). The ICC which has an impeccable knack for timing, chose just about the very stage where minnows participate to be noticed, to tell them that this may be the last seen of them in a world cup. That the minnows didn't take it lightly can be seen from both the types of results produced by them. While Ireland has already poked a screwdriver up ICC's nose with Kevin O'Brien making Mathew Hayden (who had to take time off cooking to say this) utter in disbelief that he couldn't believe his WC record had been broken, Netherlands started with a cliff-hanger vs England (again) to end up on the losing side (after which the match's star, Ryan ten Doeschate perhaps realised he can migrate to England, given his South African background..!!). Kenya made sure Harry Potter, the New Zealand skipper, attends his school Potions class on time after the games period, turned Lasith Malinga into a grade A sorcerer (for 2 world cup hat 'tricks') and imparted so much momentum into Shahid Afridi's bowling that he still takes a minimum of 4 wickets a match.
Zimbabwe started off as a respectable minnow by choking Australia for runs using their only second to Bangladesh's collection of spin bowlers before faltering in the chase. But to their credit, they projected themselves 175 runs above the minnow mark by crushing Canada by as much, before New Zealand, who apparently have been minnow-ish all of last year, breezed past them. So it appears that it logically should be Ireland and Zimbabwe who make the cut for the 2 minnow spots in the next WC. Oh! Have i missed out Bangladesh when i said Zimbabwe and New Zealand? I think not. Bangladesh have faced an apo'calypso' too early. And they decided to buy time to fulfill other commitments in life when they decided to have another school match. And Bangladesh weren't lying about the apo'calypso'. The first signs Bangladesh had were when they saw balls fall from... was it the sky or.., the tall Suleimann's upright arm?? Their suspicions were confirmed when it later rained "pebbles" outside the stadium.
The West Indies camp however has not taken the pebbles story lightly. They pointed out that pebbles cannot cause so much damage glass. Perhaps I haven't looked deep enough but i haven't been able to get the Toughness Index or Hardness Number for pebbles and glass, to make my mind on who's right. But I am certain that a bat can break glass or an LCD screen, though I am not certain of a pad bouncing and cracking the corner of an LCD TV. Destruction has been the order of the day. Glass and this world cup have not gone too well together.
The West Indies have accused, maybe rightly so, Haroon Lorgat of playing down the incident and compromising on the security of the players. Lorgat has now had more press conferences than any of the leading captains like Ricky Ponting who clarified about his tests on the hardness of glass everyday from the match vs Zimbabwe to the one vs New Zealand.
Lorgat and Indian Captain MS Dhoni have been at loggerheads ever since the spectacular tie vs England at Bangalore. The issue revolves around the option to use weigh on the 2.5m rule in conjunction with the UDRS reviews. Billy Bowden, upheld his original decision of giving Not Out to Ian Bell despite the replay showing Ian Bell to be out. Bell himself was flabbergasted when he admitted that he never knew such a rule existed. MS Dhoni, who like Bowden has starred in Pepsi ad, that the decision was responsible for "change(ing) the game" and leading to some people calling for Ravichandran Ashwin to replace Piyush Chawla despite the latter picking up some wickets. Dhoni has (much like me) made it be known that ICC should not adulterate the use of technology with human discretion. Lorgat shot off a letter to Dhoni asking him to read the rules. BCCI shot back at ICC saying the criticism of Dhoni was unwarranted asking "how can you expect Dhoni to read the rules when he is captaining the favorites for the World Cup? Besides have you seen how big and boring the rule books are?" and indirectly held ICC directly responsible if India were to lose the World Cup final.
When someone like Bell, who usually wears his shirt-collar up in a lawyerly fashion, doesn't recollect the existence of a rule, it is largely unfair to expect Dhoni to. And the BCCI's reply to ICC was spot on. One just has to look at England's performance this world cup to realise what spending time reading the law can do. All of England's matches have been too close for comfort (like courtroom arguments) with one of them squandered to a tie from a winning position, losing another from a winning position against the minnow that scratched ICC's cheek before winning from a losing position against South Africa who once again started gasping for air when 48 runs were needed with 5 wickets in hand. But Dhoni concentrated on the cricket end of business and the result was a handsome 5 wicket win against the impressive minnows.
And Dr.'s songs gave me a bad headache yesterday. So I apologise if this post appears too rambling as one written by Irish fans in Dublin bars on that famous night....
