Everything went wrong for Aussies

The Second Edition of the International Cricket Council”s World Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament was well organized and conducted and it did not leave any room for complaint.

The officials and volunteers at every venue - Lord”s, Kennington Oval and Trent Bridge in Nottingham were very courteous and helpful and went out of their way to see to the comfort of everyone.

The only hitch was that the overflow of pressmen at Lord”s were accommodated in a place where they had to do their description of the games watching the game live on Television and not the game on the field.

That was the only shortcoming and the mediamen who had to suffer had understood it all and did their copies without a murmur.

In this aspect the ICC could have taken the cue from the West Indies Cricket Board on how they accommodated the media overflow.

The WICB had erected two wings alongside the main press box and while the main press box had the media of the two teams playing, the others were accommodated on the wings and had a good view and dispatched their copies watching the action live.

We hope that next time round when the ICC is faced with a similar situation, they will take an example from the WICB and see to the comfort of the media overflow and make seating arrangements for them accordingly.

We hope the ICC takes the bit of criticism made in the spirit it is made. Other than for this everything else went smoothly and the ICC can take a bow.

As for the competition the early exit of the Australians took away the glitz and the glamour. They came here with a helluva lot of hope and confidence and that they had to be out early would have been galling to them.

The Aussies were the better team in that group that had the West Indians and the Sri Lankans. They were the favourites to go through to the Super Eight displacing either the Windies or the Sri Lankans.

But with cricket being associated with the glorious uncertainties, everything went wrong for them losing both games and exiting ingloriously.

They don”t seem to have the know how of how to play this style of game. But they will learn.

Ashes Test different game

With Australia going out, the ones who enjoyed it most were the Englishmen. They poked fun at the Aussies, even going to the extent of saying that this will be their fate in the coming Ashes series.

But what England forgot was that Ashes Test cricket is a different ball game altogether. Instant cricket like the 50-over and Twenty20 are circuses and not what the game is all about.

By going out of the Twenty20 early, the Aussies earned for them more time to prepare for the Ashes series that will start soon. Some of their players who took part in the Twenty20 have flown home and those with the ability for the established game

have arrived and at the time of writing are fine tuning for the Ashes.

In the previous Ashes series in Australia, the Kangaroos disgraced the English bashing them 5-nil. That was their worst defeat in the history of their game and the English are hoping that the pieces will fall right for them this time round and they could avenge their 5- nil drubbing.

The England cricketers are exuding confidence that they have it in them this time round to stuff the Kangaroos. That confidence stems from the fact that the Aussies have lost their champions in Shane Warne, Glen McGrath, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden.

Anyway it will be interesting to watch how the results will go once the Ashes, which is what the game is all about is called “play” early next month.

England stunned

When the Twenty20 World Cup began here early this month, England went out favourites. This was because they were playing in their own backyard and knew the conditions well.

They were stunned by Scotland in the first game, but recovered sufficiently to beat the other teams in their group and enter the Super Eight. A slot in the semi-finals were what they were looking for to take it from their and then pocket the final.

They seemed poised for this when they made 161 for six in their 20. But then it happened. The fickle English weather decided to also take part in the game and did not the heavens open up to spoil England”s chances and bury their hopes at the hallowed Oval.

With the rains setting in, that dreaded pair of Duckworth and Lewis came into play and they decided that the West Indians had to score 80 for a win in nine overs. It was not easy for the West Indians or the Englishmen.

At one stage with the Windies on 45 for 5, the English were sniffing victory. It is said that there is many a slip between cup and lip, and this saying rang true for the English as they slipped to defeat.

There were post mortems after the game with the English supporters reckoning that with the weather likely to turn bad later in the evening, the sensible thing for skipper Paul Collingwood to have done was to have asked the Windies to bat first.

The supporters say this because if weather intervenes, the advantage in the Duckworth-Lewis system would favour the side batting second. As for the supporters who argue thus, it must be said that only fools try to be wise after the event.

In Collingwood’s defence it must be said that at the toss when asked West Indian skipper Chrys Gayle, too said had he won the toss he would have batted. So it is not done to take Collingwood to task. He did what he thought was best. So don’t lynch him.

As for England they must be fuming that they have not won a major trophy in their history. They have entered many finals in the 50-over World Cup, but sadly have not been able to lay their hands on the trophy. They seem to choke when they enter a final.

The only time they won a trophy, was the FIFA World Cup when they hosted it in 1966.