Congratulations to the West Indies on their victory against Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea have nothing to lose and this is a World Cup, they were always going to throw the kitchen sink at us. We can’t expect them to just come for the lime.
They are here to compete and WI must respect all oppositions. If the rain didn’t spoil the party in Barbados, England chasing 109 in ten overs would’ve been interesting, again don’t disrespect the lesser-known nations. The USA, our co-hosts defeated Pakistan in emphatic fashion in a super over, that’s two wins in two for them.
Ian Bishop has lamented since he had hair on his head about WI’s dot ball percentage in limited overs, and that rotation of strike and running between the wickets needed to be improved to get us over par scores to supplement our big hitting.
It seems as though we are hard of hearing. Afghanistan have read the riot act against Uganda; net run rate will play a part given the threat of weather affected matches, Bravo working hard for his money. Wake up fellas, this is the first and final warning.
Meanwhile, A picture tells a thousand words, and context is not one of them. It is ridiculous for people to see two sparse stands in Providence and jump to conclusions about Cricket being dead in the Caribbean. I am living in Trinidad, am I expected to fly across to Guyana to watch the match? But I could watch it on TV, the same for PNG, Nepal and other nations. Perhaps, the game started so early because they were more concerned about the viewership of India and Australia, which is prime time in that part of the world. Or fans chose to sit in cheaper stands on the ground?
Also, the complaints of teams (Sri Lanka for example) having to travel long distances for matches are foolish. Plenty of them are coming off of the IPL where they had to play matches late into the night and travel long distances, were they complaining about jet lag and logistics then? Secondly, the whining by Sanjay Manjrekar about the outfield being too slow and the pitches being poor are also foolish.
They are professional athletes, if they can’t clear the boundaries, they’ve got to hit the ball harder. The game is not for the batters only, both teams are playing on the same pitch, let the matches be more competitive and unpredictable. Also, we knew weather is anticipated to play a part, having sand-based outfields means that the ground will drain out faster if rain falls.
Also, what exactly does India expect for world class facilities? Because they are the BCCI, so they could do and say what they want? In New York, they’re training at a public park because the public park is in excellent condition. Does Rahul Dravid want a private park? Listen, the USA just beat Pakistan in a nail biting super over in New York.
This World Cup is amazing so far, the matchups are a ‘test’ of all aspects of cricket, smaller nations putting up a solid fight, and we’re in for a tournament with a lot of surprises. Great work ICC and Kudos to the USA for embracing the beautiful game!
