Bob Woolmer Murdered
Apologies if the title of this post is blunt and to the point, but I think it just helps get across the seriousness of the whole event. Rumours were floating around for a couple of days that it wasn’t his health which caught up with Bob, and last night the news was confirmed by the Jamaican police that it is now being treated as a murder enquiry. The fact that they made a public plea for any information people have doesn’t lead you to believe that they really know who did this.
I hope that something will come of all the information they do gather, someone deserves to be punished for the callous murder of a cricket coach who was looking forward to going back home to South Africa and starting up a cricket coaching academy. I’m sure rumours will continue that he was going to expose match fixing or something else, but the truth is we don’t know and it probably doesn’t help to speculate wildly.
The whole thing is a real shock, and not the sort of thing I hoped I’d be blogging about when I started this. I think its right to continue with the World Cup, even though Allan Donald thinks otherwise. The tournament as a whole will be overshadowed by this event, but “the show must go on”, and I’m sure that someone that loved the game like Bob did would agree with this.
Inzamam - Legend
The victory over Zimbabwe by Pakistan ensured Ireland’s progress to the super 8’s (as ludicrous as it sounds!), but it also brought to the end Inzy’s one day career.
It’s not really unexpected, he is coming towards the end of his career, and would probably have stood down after whichever would have turned out to be the last game of the tournament for Pakistan. We wouldn’t have thought it would be this soon though, and it turned out to be an emotional day. Not helped by the uncertainty over the death of Bob Woolmer, the game had a sombre mood hanging over it, but Inzy scored 37 runs to take his ODI total runs to a massive 11,739 (although I’m not sure many of them were quick singles!). I’m not normally one to dwell too much on the past or a legend leaving the game, but the whole surroundings of the Pakistan team this week seemed about right, so here’s you to Inzy..
Cricket World Cup Betting
I think I’ve found something to re-kindle my interest in the World Cup after yesterday’s strop - betting 
I know its not for everyone, but I’m looking at the odds for the top tournament run scorer and there are some very attractive odds on offer for certain teams and players. I know its still very early, but I really think that you can rule out some people, and yet others have shown good form which they will more likely than not continue. So for you all, here is the top list of runners as we stand after today’s games.
| Inns | Runs | HS | Ave | |
| G Smith (SA) | 2 | 158 | 91 | 79.00 |
| S Ganguly (Ind) | 2 | 155 | 89 | 77.50 |
| B Hodge (Aus) | 2 | 152 | 123 | 76.00 |
| S Styris (NZ) | 2 | 150 | 87* | 150.00 |
| R Ponting (Aus) | 2 | 136 | 113 | 68.00 |
| Y Singh (Ind) | 2 | 130 | 83 | 65.00 |
| J Kallis (SA) | 1 | 128 | 128* | - |
| J Bray (Ire) | 2 | 118 | 115* | 118.00 |
| V Sehwag (Ind) | 2 | 116 | 114 | 58.00 |
| M Clarke (Aus) | 2 | 108 | 93* | 108.00 |
| A Gilchrist (Aus) | 2 | 103 | 57 | 51.50 |
| C McMillan (NZ) | 2 | 98 | 71 | 49.00 |
| P Collingwood (Eng) | 2 | 93 | 62* | 93.00 |
| M Samuels (WI) | 2 | 91 | 63 | 45.50 |
| D Hemp (Ber) | 2 | 90 | 76* | 90.00 |
| M Hayden (Aus) | 2 | 89 | 60 | 44.50 |
| S Matsikenyeri (Zim) | 2 | 89 | 73* | 89.00 |
| M Jayawardene (SL) | 1 | 85 | 85 | 85.00 |
Obviously, a century from someone else not in the list has a big effect at this moment in time, but thats another reason the odds are so good at the moment for some of them. Its obviously better to go for a player in a team who have a good chance of playing well into the latter stages of the tournament, but even some of the smaller teams have a chance. Take Ireland - if they make it into the super 8’s, they then have another 6 games to play - and teams that go through from the super 8’s will only play two more games.
I’m going to take another look at the odds in the morning, but these are the guys who have had a good start and it may be of use to some of you out there. Let me know who you think you’re gonna gun for!
Cricket Overload
I think I’ve hit the point of watching too much cricket already, a mere week into the world cup! Its probably because of the non contests out there, like between India and Bermuda, where India hit a world cup record 413 runs. Or it could be because the UK media won’t let the Freddie Flintoff thing drop, or maybe what happened to Bob Woolmer.
Anyway, I had no interest in the games yesterday, and today’s games don’t look particularly inspiring either. Roll on the super 8’s….
Bob Woolmer Dies
The news coming out of the West Indies yesterday overshadowed any goings on with Freddie Flintoff and the “England Five”. The sad news that Pakistan coach and former England Player Bob Woolmer passed away was a real shock, and a massive loss to the cricketing family. He was a talented coach who had to put up with a lot as coach of Pakistan, and it appears that it finally took toll on his health.
There are plenty of reports and tributes out there on the newswires, so I’ll just link to the ECB site where there is plenty of decent information for anyone who would like to read more.
On the pitch yesterday England were pretty ordinary, but who cares…
What a World Cup Day!
Who’d have thought that one day could bring such interest! I’ll try and go through the stories one by one!
Firstly is how well Ireland are doing. And I say “doing”, as the game against Pakistan is still going. They managed to bowl the Pakistani’s out for 127, and despite the worst umpiring decision of the World Cup so far giving out Botha, have the target in sight. And on St Patrick’s day as well - this would be huge if they win and will put Pakistan out of the World Cup!
The other game of cricket today saw Bangadesh beat India and to be honest they completely deserved to. They are a much better side than when I saw them play England a couple of years ago, and in a couple of years they could be well on the way to being well respected and not just seen as an ‘outsider’ team. Mortaza can bowl pretty quickly, and the consistency appears to be about there as well. Then if they bat without any fear like Tamim Iqbal did, charging down the pitch to Zaheer Khan amongst others then they won’t worry about chasing some big totals. I can see it going the other way though sometimes and them failing to score very many as you can’t always play that way on the wrong pitch. Still, they could be in the super 8’s after this game and it will be good to see how they manage against the other top sides if this does happen.
And the third story today coming out of St Lucia is that four of the England players went out clubbing until the early hours of the morning after the loss to New Zealand. The players in question are apparently Bell, Plunkett, Anderson and Lewis. edit: Plus Flintoff, who it seems is the ringleader.. Now, it very rare that I’m NOT in the pub after a game of cricket but they difference is I don’t get paid for it. These boys are supposed to be professional.. More information will undoubtedly come out in the wash in the next couple of days, and it may all turn out to be a storm in a teacup. I don’t mind players relaxing and having a beer - they are only human, but if they are drinking to excess and to the detriment of their health and fitness during the World Cup then they need to have a serious think about themselves. Plus, can there be anything more relaxing than being in the West Indies with a day off which is what today was supposed to be for them!
Anyway, lets just keep cheering on Ireland who now need less than 30 and not remember this episode when I go out and get drunk one Saturday this summer after losing a game of cricket !
