Another One Bites the Dust

And another one’s gone, another one’s gone, another bites the bust.  Hey!  It never ceases to amaze me how cricket imitates rock music.  New Zealand has beaten England in the ICC Champs Trophy and that means it is curtains for Sri Lanka.

Australia plays Pakistan tonight and that will decide the fate of Australia and India.  If Australia wins, or there is a wash out, India is out.  Either way one of the top four seeds with depart from Group A.  In Group B, the 2nd seed has gone (South Africa).  While New Zealand was actually seeded 3rd (go figure) and Sri Lanka 6th, most would have fancied that Sri Lanka and South Africa would progress to the semis.  The exact opposite has occurred.

If ever there was a one day tournament that needed a stewards enquiry, it is the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.  It is obvious that Australia will beat Pakistan – Pakistan can put a heap of cash on Australia winning and have the bonus of seeing India crash out.

For those of you who would like a little detail, here is some.  England proved that their six match losing streak against Australia was no fluke and were skittled for just 146.   Please know that Shane Bond has returned and picked up 3/21 but the star was all rounder, Grant Elliot, with 4/31.

For England, Chris Broad has stood out in the tournament. Four more wickets last night means he has 10 for the tournament at an average of 15.50 and economy of 5.5 rpo.

For the Aussies, Michael Clarke has followed in Brackens footsteps.  No, he hasn’t decided to bat left handed.  He has gone home.  If Australia qualifies for the semis, Clarke will be replaced.

Too Much of an Ordinary Thing

Mercy!  I beg for mercy.  Seven whole games of One Day cricket?  A learned gentlemen recently remarked to me that One Day cricket needs a “surrender clause” and I think I agree.

Australia has taken a 5-0 lead in the One Day series and I couldn’t care less.  Who does?  I care even less about the remaining two matches.  As an Australian, I would rather Australia win than lose but let’s face it, the Ashes are lost and nothing could make up for that.  And let’s face it, England has won the Ashes and they don’t seem to care about the one day cricket either.

I have not watched a great deal of the series and don’t get me wrong – there has been some good cricket  - Ponting’s knock today was excellent – Lee’s bowling in match four was exciting.  However, I noticed from the first match that the commentators were talking about what could be done to improve 50 over cricket.  One genius suggested changing the matches to 40 overs per innings.  Oh please.  How about changing them to 20 overs?

Before I get onto what can be done with the game itself, I’d like to make the point that no matter the format of the game, scheduling still needs to be intelligent.  Having a seven game, head-to-head series AFTER the Ashes doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.  This is even more true when you consider that the Australian footy seasons have reached finals fever and the English Premier League is now into full swing.

Surely with the series at 5-0, England can invoke the surrender clause.  By the way the surrender clause can also be invoked during a match once the match is dead.  That would have been perfect for games three and four when Australia needed a significant amount of runs but they were doing it easily, needing less than four runs per over, with heaps of wickets in hand.  Who wants to see 30 overs of singles?  As this is not a “round robin” tournament with points being allocated, bonus points do not even help this situation.

I don’t know what can be done to help 50 over cricket.  Playing less of it would seem to be a start.  Tendulkar says that they should be broken into 25 over stages (the team’s second 25 overs resumes from where the first ended).  Andrew the boy genius from indoor cricket says that indoor cricket rules would be the ticket.

Please let me know your thoughts.  What can be done to improve 50 over cricket?