Thoughts on This and That

So, the cricket world cup finally came to an end yesterday, the tournament seemingly going on forever only to end up producing the outcome that most would have predicted and expected before it started.

OK, you can’t blame the organisers for the death of Bob Woolmer casting a giant shadow, or Australia winning the thing, but the length and format were ridiculous, and the early elimination of two of the biggest nations in the competition India and Pakistan, for one shock loss each, led to an uncompetetive and everlasting “super eight” stage with wasters like Ireland, Bangladesh and England receiving hammerings galore. I don’t begrudge the so-called “lesser” countries getting their chance, but the set-up ensured that it was to the detriment of the competition as a whole.

I also look back on the tournament as one big missed opportunity to re-ignite cricket in the West Indies. It’s suffered in recent years and hosting a World Cup was a big chance for the game to re-establish itself in the hearts and minds of the people there, however the locals were priced out of the games and once inside the game the traditional West Indian support (musical instruments etc) were banned anyway, as one local commented “it’s not our World Cup, it belongs to the tourists”. Cricket as a whole would benefit from a rejuvanated West Indies side, and this would have been a great chance to start that ball rolling.

The ICC have already confirmed that the next tournament will be at least a couple of weeks shorter, so hopefully they will have learned from their mistakes however I shan’t hold my breath.

If you’d told me ten days ago that England’s cricketers would have ended up winning the Commonwealth Bank Series I’d have laughed you out of the room but, somehow, thats what we ended up doing. It’s small consolation for the Ashes humiliation, but it’s always nice to put one over on the Aussies, moreso given the stick we’ve taken from them over the last few weeks. Let’s just hope we continue this onto the World Cup and not do the typical English sporting “thing” of resting on our laurels.

I’ll confess to a little bitterness that I was stuck here and not putting into action my half plan of going to the Melbourne final then taking the overnight bus to Sydney for the second. Then again no doubt we’d have got a good hiding if I’d been there.

While that might not quite be a miracle, I feel it’s going to take one to preserve Bradford City’s league one status. Another defeat yesterday leaves us just 3 points above the drop zone, some teams below us have a game in hand and we are on a shocking run of just three wins in twenty games. Then again when the manager adds to his bizarre selections and substitutions by coming out with pearlers like “you can’t try and attack when you are down to ten men” what hope do we have? I must have imagined the numerous cases in football when teams with ten men have fought back to win or draw games. The game a few years back where we fought back from 2-0 to draw 2-2 with Burnley with only nine men must have been a particularly lucid fantasy. Todd stays, City go down, simple as that.

So, after one maybe miracle and one needed miracle there is an actual one, Atlético won a home game. I need a lie down.

Well, after almost three months of trying we’ve finally managed to beat the Aussies on this tour, let’s crack open the champagne and get the open top bus ordered.

I’m in two minds whether I now want us to beat New Zealand and progress to the final, a strange opinion you might think, but my worry is that the reaction would be to declare the one day side of things on the tour a success, and shy away from making the changes needed ahead of the World Cup.

Then again, if the changes involve recalling Darren Gough, then I’d probably we rather left things as they are!!

Just when I thought nothing done by a cricketer could be more embarassing than the England teams performances, this little beauty came to my attention!!

Enjoy!

I don’t know how they manage it, but England’s pathetic cricket team even manage to embarass themselves in meaningless knockabouts.

On top of that we’ve still got the one day series against the Aussies and New Zealand to come, yippee.

England’s shambolic Ashes campaign has, thankfully, come to an end after another embarassing collapse saw the Aussies wrap up the series 5-0.

It’s not the fact that we’ve lost the series that grates with me so much, it’s not even the fact we’ve lost 5-0, this Australia team is a superb one and there is no shame in that. It’s just the manner of the series that makes this whitewash particularly hard to swallow.

We’ve been thrashed in series’ before, and no doubt will be again, that doesn’t really matter. It was always going to be a tough task to retain the urn on their patch, with or without the injured stars of the 2005 win, but the lack of proper preparation, any discernible plan, suspect team selections, repeated batting collapses and the absolute failure to make use of the few good positions we did get ourselves into that make it all the more disappointing, that’s without mentioning comedy moments we provided - like Geraint Jones’ run-out (pictured).

The variances of the calendar mean that, although we only held the urn for 16 months, we won’t get a crack at regaining them for two and a half years, but given the fact that a lot of changes need to be made, and a lot of work needs to be done that might not be such a bad thing.

We’re 3-0 down, we’ve already lost the Ashes, so does anyone know why the hell I am sat up, listening to online radio following the Melbourne Test when nothing of any note is actually happening?

Because I don’t!

Aussie batsman Darren Lehmann hit a brilliant 339 off just 403 balls as Yorkshire looked to make sure of avoiding the drop by beating Durham at Headingley today.

Thanks to that, and some decent bowling, we are in a pretty good position and it would be some cock-up if we didn’t get what we needed out of the game (1 point more than Durham) having said that, this is Yorkshire and I’m not taking anything for granted just yet.

Lehmann’s knock fell just 2 runs short of breaking a 101 year old record for the record innings by a Yorkshire player (George Hirst, 341 v Leicestershire in 1905) and, while I’m glad of the contribution he made, I’m just as glad a Yorkshire record didn’t fall to an outsider - after all it’s bad enough that we let them play for us, never mind steal our records!!

On a more serious note this is Lehmann’s last game for Yorkshire, he may well go a long way to keeping us up this season but, unless we find someone decent from somewhere, I fear for us next year - and as the greatest county in the history of the game there is no way that we should be dropping back into the second division.

At the time of writing it seems that the fourth test between England and Pakistan at the Oval is off, after Pakistan’s refusal to come back onto the field of play after tea was taken as forfeiting the game by the umpires.

For those not familiar with the story, during todays afternoon session umpire Darrell Hair basically acted as judge and jury and convicted Pakistan of ball tampering, seemingly without offering any evidence or giving the Pakistan team a chance to answer the allegation. As Hair has failed to come out and say otherwise it seems he has come to this conclusion because the ball started to reverse swing a bit and looked a bit scuffed and marked, something that a 60 over old ball may well do in normal situations many might think. In view of what they perceive as a slur Pakistan decided to protest by not coming back onto the field immediately after lunch then, when they did, the umpires refused to return claiming that by not coming out on schedule they had given up the game.

I have a lot of sympathy with Pakistan here, as they were not given the opportunity to defend themselves before being penalised, and no evidence of wrong-doing has been offered, I do think they could have handled the situation better but then again, when you’ve just been accused of cheating in front of the world you are bound to be a little pissed off. Allegations of ball-tampering have been levelled at Pakistan (and others, including England in the past) and the attitude after being caught has usually been something like “it’s a fair cop” so to react like this suggests that they may have a strong case.

Making matters worse Darrell Hair has, over the years, had a number of run in’s with Pakistan, and the other Asian nations, and this will only further their claims that he has it in for them in some way. While I wouldn’t go as far as some with their opinions of the man, I can’t help a bit of mild Aussie-bashing and he’s certainly one for placing himself at the forefront of the action.

All that the farcical scenes of today have done is damaged the sport, and one only hopes that it can be sorted out overnight, though this looks unlikely. What is clear to me though is that Hair’s actions in basically calling Pakistan cheats had better be backed up with some evidence (which 26 Sky TV cameras have been unable to pick up), or he should never officiate in a cricket match again.

Well, as the cricket went down to the last day with all results possible it was only right of me to pop down to Headingley to (hopefully) watch England wrap up the series.

A nice early phone call to the office secured me the day off work, unfortunately others weren’t so lucky so I headed down to the ground alone looking forward to a nice days cricket, I bumped into John (of Treiziste Diary fame) and his missus at the gates to the Western Terrace so I didn’t have to face up to the day on my own and by the time play started the first pint was in my hand and the sun was making an attempt to shine.

The day went well and England ran out convincing winners due to some typically suicidal Pakistan batting and great bowling from Monty and Sajid Mahmood. Personally I think Mahmood is crap (not to mention Lancastrian) but for once he justified his inclusion, spurred on by taunts of “traitor” from some of the Pakistan fans on the boundary. Personally I think people should support who they want, after all sports are only games, however I’m still confused by this, Mahmood was born in Bolton, has lived there all his life and is a British passport holder playing for England, no doubt most of those abusing him were also born in England, live in England and have British passports but were supporting Pakistan, I know who I’d consider more of a “traitor” in that situation!

Luckily most Pakistan fans aren’t fuckwits and we had some good banter and conversation with those around us before they skulked off when Monty tempted Inzy down the pitch and Chris Read got the stumping. It would have been nice if the game had got a bit closer and lasted longer, but all in all, it was a win, a few pints were drunk and an entertaining day was had.

After the game I, shamefully, visited the Leeds Rugby Supporters club for more alcohol and benefitted from some free pies left over from one of the catering vans. With the Bulls now being salary cap cheats I’ll find hard to support maybe I could become a regular - “we’re Leeeeeeeds Rhinooooos, we’re Leeeeeeeeeeeeeds Rhinooos” has got a great ring to it!!

An added bonus of staying behind and having a few drinks was that I’d missed kick-off time at Valley Parade by the time I got back to Bradford. Even though it sounded like we played well and got a good win against decent opponents, not one part of me wished I’d stumped up the £20 and gone down, how long this feeling will last I don’t know!