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| Sunday, 02 March 2003 |
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Cricket's new rainbows Canadian Devison's record, like Ubuya's for Kenya, must surely mark the ascendancy in the ICC's globalisation of the game. by Srian Obeyesekere In a tournament that has been heightened by upsets and controversy, the minnows have to an extent underscored talent that augurs for the future, if not as wholesomely as some of the giants in one-day cricket. First, it was hosts South Africa's shock defeat at the hands of the West Indies in the curtain raiser of the 8th World Cup in a Group -B match. But if the firm second favourites once again lived upto their reputation of not coming good in the big 'uns which has bugged South African cricket by another shock defeat to New Zealand, it is firm favourites, defending champions Australia who have dished out the type of cricket worthy of a champion outfit. In the scramble to the Super Sixes it is the shock defeat of Sri Lanka, the 1996 world champions, to Kenya in Nairobi by 53 runs that has left some of the front runners in disarray. Where New Zealand, who conceded a walkover to Kenya by not travelling to Nairobi due to security reasons, looked assured of being among the first 3 in Group-B, their forfeiture could now see the Kenyans with a better chance of making it. Interestingly, if it is the Kenyans that have turned a corner as minnows in this black African nation's campaign to be drafted into the folds of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) Test fold. It is the bubbly cricketers from this down trodden third world country that underscored they had what was needed to get into the higher echelons of the game. As they did in 1996 when they upset the West Indies by 73 runs in India. As it is, the Kenyans, with 12 points, could find the tournament the ideal platform to taking their cricket to a new orbit if they qualify to the Super Sixes. The 5 for 24 haul by Collin Ubuya against Sri Lanka having taken the Kenyan into the record books by his 9th best figures in the 28-year old history of the World Cup. The Sri Lankans cannot but rue having underestimated the Kenyans. Six of whom did service in underscoring they were no ordinary batting outfit when they scored a formidable 264 when the two countries met in 1996 in Kandy which the locals won by virtue of a mammoth 398/5. For the sides batting second have found the fortune of the wickets going against them with a distinct advantage to the bowlers. Where winning is cardinal to make it to the next round, it is lamentable whether the net run rate must supersede the discretion of throwing away the luck of the coin which came Sri Lanka's way at Nairobi. Though to say the least, some of the frontline batsmen looked so ordinary that must surely have given the viewer the feeling why Sri Lanka does not follow the Australian example where there has been no room for failure. Even if it were the Waughs. At the time of writing Friday, into the coming week is the heat in the scramble to the Super Sixes which sees India, England and Pakistan in a canter behind an assured frontrunner Australia in Group-A. But it is Group-B which must leave wagers in a sweat. It can be anybody's from South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, New Zealand to West Indies where the net run rate could also matter much in deciding the first three. As the race galvanises into the type of frenzy that has brought forth the best from the likes of Sachin Tendulkar in lifting from the dumps an Indian side by the sheer artistry of his bat, a relative unknown, John Devison from Canada, hailing from a nation already relegated to the lane of the `also rans', has yet brought a glow. If Tendulkar, with a 50 typically smacking of the class that has thrust him next to the legendary of the late Don Bradman, assured India stayed on course by a sensational win against England last Thursday, Devison, a Canadian born Australian whose cricket has bordered on domestic cricket `down under, by his 67-ball fastest in the tournament history against the West Indies, wrote a new chapter in Canadian cricket. Devison's record, like Ubuya's for Kenya, must surely mark the ascendancy in the ICC's globalisation of the game. Cricket's long journey. A unification. New nations in the fold exploring the whole wide world of a game handed by the colonial English. But a coming of age that can come only by traversing years in the long, hard circuit of coming good in the middle. An infancy most every country has shed into the baptism of the big fold once dominated by England and Australia which first struck gold for cricket by the now famous ashes series. From which the game has festered catching the imagination of the globe in a transcension. So feverish to crazed dimension with the fusion of day-night cricket. A commodity that has today become to be embraced more as a lifestyle and religion by many a nation. Perhaps, not so much as the sub-continent where Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan has given the game new meaning to a hype of fanatism. Indeed, it is from its old fashioned image that the game has been dressed into a new order. Its fanatism. As much its commercialism through technology in marketing cricket. Ballooning it into a hot commodity where winning and expectancy soar high. So much so to a point of idolisation of its heroes most every month of a calendar year. Significantly, it is the Kenyas, Canadas and Holland, like minnows before them that, loom in the horizon of adding new rainbows in colouring the world of cricket which has become a fad. A fad brought to millions of homes courtesy the television as lovers of the game eat and drink cricket. |
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