England taken to the wire by Holland

The England- Netherlands game in the ongoing 2011 World Cup was the game that evoked the most interest and had cricket fans glued because as the saying goes, it went to the wire.

With England being the better side, everyone expected them to have a work out against Netherlands. But they did not bargain nor did they expect to be given a fright before savouring victory.

Dutch courage came from South African born Ryan ten Doeschate who smashed a great century (119) helped by good knocks from W. Barrei 29, T. Cooper 47, T de Drooth 28 and P.Borren 35 who helped their team to a formidable 292 for 6 in 50.

But England made up for their sloppy fielding and unimaginative bowling when skipper Andrew Strauss 88, Kevin Pietersen 39, Jonothan Trott 62, Ian Bell 30, P.Collingwood 30 and Ravi Bopra 30 rallied to take England past the post in 48.4 overs.

Devastating pace

Australia the reigning World Cup champions showed that they are going to fire devastating pace at their opponents and destroy them in their march to honours again. Zimbabwe who dismissed Australia for 262, would have harboured hopes of getting that score and upsetting the kangaroos. But they ran into a pace barrage from Shaun Tait, Douggie Bollinger, Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee and were blown over.

The Aussies who lack a spin bowler of Shane Warne's class are relying on their pacemen to deliver. And in this game the terrible foursome obliged and showed that they are determined to make it four-in-a-row.

Although the sub continent wickets are known to favour spin, the Aussies are banking on pace and express pace at that by short pitching and intimidating the opposing batsmen.

It will be interesting to see how far they can go with their express pace train. Especially frightening are Shaun Tait and Brett Lee.

Deafening applause

Cricket crazy Sri Lankan fans gave deafening applause to Sri Lanka Cricket headed by D.S. de Silva, its Chairman for deciding to lift the ban on bringing papare, papare bands and Sri Lankan flags to the venues of play in the on- going 2011 World Cup tournament.

The Inspector General of Police Mahinda Balasuriya during a media briefing, spelt out the 'dos' and 'donts' and among the 'donts' were the banning of papare, papare bands and flags with poles.

I was delighted with de Silva's decision being the only journalist to challenge this directive writing in our sister paper the 'Daily News' calling on the ICC to allow the playing of the papare, papare bands and citing what happened in the Caribbean during the 2007 World Cup.

Apparently it was the SLC to blame for this faux pas and not the ICC. Alls well that end well, it is said and the lifting of the ban has delighted cricket crazy fans. And now they promise to perform the big band sounds and cheer wildly waving the national flag and inspire our crickets in their attempt for the World Cup.

Spectators mourners

The other day when Sri Lanka played Canada at the magnificent Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Sooriyawewa, the usual papare, papare bands were missing and the spectators looked like mourners at a funeral, because the sounds were missing.

As I stated in the 'Daily News', 50-over and Twenty20 cricket is not what the game is all about. The established, honoured and revered game is Test cricket. 50 over and Twenty20 are gimmicks to attract spectators.

So it is the right of the spectators to come and enjoy themselves, singing and dancing and making all the noise, and cheering their teams as long as they don't disrupt the proceedings out in the middle. Making it to the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in the company of Mahinda Athulathmudali and his Lady Yoland was a pleasure. The stadium itself is a beauty and mention must be made of architect Surath Wickremasinghe who at times stationed himself at the site to see that the stadium was completed when match playing time came around.

ICC on the right pitch

The International Cricket Council must be congratulated for deciding to restrict the 2015 World Cup to be contested by the top 10 teams.

Obviously the teams to be left out will not like this stroke by the ICC and will be most unhappy. But the ICC is vested with the responsibility to make the right decisions in the interest of the game...and they did.

The ICC has decided to invite the minnows to play in the Twenty20 and has promised to increase the teams to 16 for the next Twenty20 bash to be hosted by Sri Lanka. 'We have felt in the past few years that twenty20 is the best format to develop the game world-wide and it provides a better environment for competition. The 50-over format is more skill-based and suitable for top teams', said Chief Executive ICC Haroon Lorgat.

Dissenting salvo

The first dissenting salvo on the ICC decision to keep out the minnows from the next World Cup was fired by Cricket Kenya Chief Executive Tom Sears who said that the ICC will not be acting in the interest of the game if the smaller teams were locked out of the next World Cup. 'If we have to improve on the standards there is no point of denying us the opportunity of competing at the top level," said Sears.

With so much of cricket being played the year round and with players having to be away from their families for long, it is good to restrict the teams playing and his move will be welcomed by the cricketers because it will also shorten the duration of the tournament. The teams left out will obviously cry foul because they will be deprived the opportunity of locking horns with the elite teams. But it cannot be helped and it is best to appreciate that the ICC is making moves for the betterment of the players and the game,and need to have strategic choices and decisions.

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