The Cricket 'World' Cup...
This is my opinion. If you belong to the group of people who lives, breathes, eats, sleeps and fucks cricket - please stop reading.
I used to follow this sport right up till I started working. The fact that each 'one-day' game lasted over 8 hours was not going in sync with my idea of a productive day.
The 9th edition of the World Cup in cricket is currently being played out in the West Indies. Unlike the football World Cup where countries have to fight for a place in the top 32 - the cricket World Cup governing body (the super-intelligent ICC) allows every country with a desire to play at the event.
Therefore, we end up with teams like Bermuda, Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Bangladesh... and even Zimbabwe (to an extent).
The warm up games were mostly one sided with the giant teams (past winners) thrashing these 'minnows' by huge margins. In boxing terms, these newcomers were glorified punching bags for the biggies to correct their punches.
The results of the first few games were really sickening - teams winning by margins of 200+ runs, centuries by key players, stellar bowling performances by guys clearly out-of-form and over-the-hill.
Why I think the ICC is screwed up is because they allowed these teams to play the biggest event of the sport even with their poor standards and lack of experience. Why can't there be more regional tournaments for them to improve? Surely, the World Cup is not a place to give these guys a chance. Imagine if FIFA allowed more teams to qualify for the football World Cup - and we have India featuring. Worse - imagine India Vs France. This is as ridiculous as Australia Vs Netherlands.
The other aspect that is really annoying me - the venue.
By all accounts - the world Cup should have been staged at a venue where atleast the organisers could ensure a more-or-less packed stadium. The past few games had the stands empty - and this is supposed to be a World Cup!?! The timing also does not suit either Australia or the sub-continent - so, why have it in a place like the West Indies??
I paid S$110 for the World Cup PPV. Funny thing is that I won't be able to watch a single game because of the timing. What a waste of money. Thats 4 CDs gone down the drain!!
I used to follow this sport right up till I started working. The fact that each 'one-day' game lasted over 8 hours was not going in sync with my idea of a productive day.
The 9th edition of the World Cup in cricket is currently being played out in the West Indies. Unlike the football World Cup where countries have to fight for a place in the top 32 - the cricket World Cup governing body (the super-intelligent ICC) allows every country with a desire to play at the event.
Therefore, we end up with teams like Bermuda, Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Bangladesh... and even Zimbabwe (to an extent).
The warm up games were mostly one sided with the giant teams (past winners) thrashing these 'minnows' by huge margins. In boxing terms, these newcomers were glorified punching bags for the biggies to correct their punches.
The results of the first few games were really sickening - teams winning by margins of 200+ runs, centuries by key players, stellar bowling performances by guys clearly out-of-form and over-the-hill.
Why I think the ICC is screwed up is because they allowed these teams to play the biggest event of the sport even with their poor standards and lack of experience. Why can't there be more regional tournaments for them to improve? Surely, the World Cup is not a place to give these guys a chance. Imagine if FIFA allowed more teams to qualify for the football World Cup - and we have India featuring. Worse - imagine India Vs France. This is as ridiculous as Australia Vs Netherlands.
The other aspect that is really annoying me - the venue.
By all accounts - the world Cup should have been staged at a venue where atleast the organisers could ensure a more-or-less packed stadium. The past few games had the stands empty - and this is supposed to be a World Cup!?! The timing also does not suit either Australia or the sub-continent - so, why have it in a place like the West Indies??
I paid S$110 for the World Cup PPV. Funny thing is that I won't be able to watch a single game because of the timing. What a waste of money. Thats 4 CDs gone down the drain!!
posted by Arun Nair at
10:04 AM
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