Archive for the ‘June’ Category:
“Surprise, surprise”
Surprise, surprise. Australia has been bundled out of the T20 World Cup without scoring a win. Given the unpredictable nature of T20 and Australia’s recent ordinary form in limited overs cricket, it is no surprise. But there is an upside.
James Sutherland was moved to give his second press conference within a week, bringing bad news. He was sorry to see his team exit early but there is an upside. With the specialist teams that exist these days, a lot of the squad can be sent home immediately, while the rest will stay on for the Ashes. Sutherland wryly observed that even though the squad is quite different to the Test squad, looking at the performance of some of the senior Ashes players, perhaps there should be even more difference! At any rate, Sutherland was beaming because the early exit will save a small fortune in hotels bills, match fees and bar tabs. He remarked candidly that even with Symonds gone, the team could still work up quite a bill at the bar.
Some people out there in cricket land are wondering about the Groupings and how they came about. Australia’s group – Group C, was a bit of a group of death. The ICC, high tech as ever did it like this: They applied the placings from the 2007 T20 thus (placings from 2007 in brackets). Believe it or not, the West Indies finished behind Ireland and Netherlands.
Group A Group B Group C Group D
India (1) Pakistan (2) Australia (3) New Zealand (4)
Bangladesh (8) England (7) Sri Lanka (6) South Africa (5)
Ireland (9) Netherlands (10) West Indies (11) Scotland (12)
It is none too surprising that it is the IPL stars that are performing. These players have been playing lots of very competitive Twenty20 cricket. It is somewhat amusing and ironic that while some of the biggest stars at IPL were Australians, that they were not available for selection.
For those of you who care – and I hope that you do, Australia’s preparation for the Ashes will now be lots of extra net practice and wait for it… Not one, but two first class matches in England, starting at Sussex on Wednesday, 24 June. Both first class matches are not three, but four days. Now that is extravagant for 2009