And Now For Something Lighter
After the past couple of days pretty heavy news coming out, and with a day without any world cup cricket, I had the chance to do a bit of a search for some photos from the world cup so far. We’ve all seen enough cricket, so I went to Flickr and had a look at the photos that those on holiday had taken.
There are a few that make me jealous, such as this one below:
And ones that make me smile like this:
Seen any decent photos on photo sharing sites? Leave a comment and let me know!
Corrupt Cricket
The sport of cricket isn’t having the best time of it at the moment. With the horrible events surrounding Bob Woolmer still rife, and the murmurings around match fixing returning, the media are painting cricket as a corrupt sport.
Its not helped when Vaughan comes out and says he thinks match fixing is still rife in the higher levels of the game. I think this is an incredibly dangerous thing to say by the England cricket captain. If you have evidence, come out and say who, what and where. If you’re going on a gut feeling, keep your mouth shut and don’t feed these rumours. If it is happening, then the ICC should be making huge, tough stances against those involved, and this should be struck out of the game forever. I like to watch a game of cricket knowing that everyone there is trying to win, not get out out for a certain scoreetc to put some money in his back pocket. And the only way people will understand is if those involved are expelled from the game.
In world cup news, it looks like India are probably out, which as expected has been taken pretty hard back in India. There was one story about how a man even committed suicide over it. This seems unbelievable to an Englishman, but that is the way that cricket is seen over there. I don’t think its right, but what can you do - they have another way of life over there. I also didn’t like the fact that “Hundreds of angry cricket fans took to the streets burning effigies, defacing posters and held mock funeral processions of the national team after the defeat.” I’m sorry, but after the events of the past few days this is unbelievably wrong. The players are put on such a pedestal that it is unlikely they’ll ever be able to reach expectations.
Not a problem for the English, there are no expectations and I’m just happy we made it to the super 8’s. I think we’ll beat the weaker sides left, but I can’t really see us troubling any of the major test nations left in the competition. We’ll return back to England in time to watch the semi-finals. Now watch my prediction go wrong!
India On Thin Ice
The Indian team was beaten today by the in-form Sri Lankan’s, and now they need Bermuda to do them a huge favour and beat Bangladesh on Sunday. That in itself doesn’t look like the sort of result that is expected, so we could find ourselves watching a World Cup without India or Pakistan in the latter stages.
I mentioned before the tournament started how India have so much talent, but so often they fail to use the talent and produce the results that the fanatical Indians demand. I bet they wish they knew what the problem was, and if it was England wasting such talent I’d be pulling my hair out!
Ireland will be in the super 8’s, but after the showing against the West Indies they could be in for a tough time. The did ok, if not brilliantly with the bat, but with the ball there was a lack of anything to really get the batsmen out. They’ll be happy just to be there though, and you can’t blame them as no-one gave them a hope.
In other news, Brian Lara 2007 landed on my mat this morning! I havn’t had much chance to play it yet, but once I have given it a good play I’ll submit a fuller review on it!
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….
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 !
