A look at why Australian cricket has failed to achieve success in Twenty20 that it has in other forms of the game.
I lamented on the use of referrals and how ICC should prompt the use of technology to the fullest extent in cricket last year during the fourth test between West Indies and England at Bridgetown, Barbados. Daryl Harper, the TV umpire from Australia was at the hot seat for a period of play on the final session of the third day during that Test when he gave two absolute shockers which baffled one and all. As the year went by ICC had realized the importance of technology and to eradicate umpiring errors implemented the UDRS (Umpire Decision review system) from October 2009. When this announcement came out, I was elated that ICC had taken the step in the right direction to help the game, the players, the umpires and the fans.
I felt so disappointed after India lost to Sri Lanka in the Tri Nation Idea Cup. Not because India lost. But for the fact that I did not feel disappointed after India lost. For me, it was just another ODI, just another India-Sri Lanka match. Tharanga, Dilshan, Sehwag, Kohli, Sanga, Yuvraj blah blah blah.
No, I am not getting Americanized, I have not started losing interest in cricket. I watched the Aus-Pak test (Sydney Test) with utmost interest and also updating my “what you feel like” status on Facebook during the match! I followed the Eng-Sa tests with so much more interest. I want to talk about a few of issues here, all of them related to ODI cricket:
1) Too much ODI cricket and improper planning.
2) Empowering bowlers/ De-powering batsmen.
3) Changing the format of the game to remove the monotony from ODIs.
In our recent quest for the top 50 cricketers of all time 109 names were put forward. In this feature Martin explains his surprise and disappointment that Stan McCabe’s wasn’t one of them.
For more than three quarters of a century their has been near unanimity amongst cricketers and the lovers of the game about Cardus being the greatest of cricket writers. Yet a few have chosen to criticise him for living in the past, “fictionalise his accounts of the game and worse. Swaranjeet takes up issue with these claims.
It appears to the writer that there is an acute shortage of “interesting questions” in the cacophony of debate about cricket’s future. Here is a start. . .
India’s recent crowning as number one Test-playing nation had some people discussing whether or not they’ve ever been number one before – CW’s Dave Wilson applies the ICC rating system retrospectively to provide an answer.