Alright I'll say it, I'm a bad blogger, it's been exactly three weeks since my last post, and here we are in the middle of the international tournament of the year (since we're in a down year for the ODI tournaments) the ICC World Twenty20 Championship (..of the World). I want to mix things up a little, so lets try this in FAQ form.


Q: Who qualified for the tournament?
A: The top ten teams in the ICC's world rankings, plus the top two finishers from the Qualifying Tournament. However, because it is a corrupt political entity, Zimbabwae was forced out of the tournament. and was replaced by the third place finisher in the Qualifying Tournament. This is how they're ranked.

1) India
2) Pakistan
3) Austrailia
4) New Zealand
5) South Africa
6) Sri Lanka
7) England
8) Bangladesh
9) Ireland
10) Netherlands
11) West Indies
12) Scotland

Q: Wait, 12 teams, how do you set up a single elimination tournament that way?
A: You don't. Instead, they have four pool groups each consisting of one first tier, one second tier, and one third tier team. You go by ranking. So you get four groups that look like this:

1-8-9
2-7-10
3-6-11
4-5-12

Q: What have we missed so far?
A: So far you've missed the pool play I just mentioned.

Q: Any Suprises?
A: Austrailia went quietly into the night losing to the West Indies 172-169 (in a match where WI only sent 5 batsmen to the stumps), and losing to Sri Lanka 160-159 (this time only 6 Batsmen for SL). The Netherlands were elimnated in heartbreaking fashion when they were only able to put up 93 runs against Pakistan to allow England to move on to the Super Eight.

(and let it be stated here that I am glad for Bloggers autosave feature that allowed this to still be here when my computer shut down on me)

Q: Super Eight? What's that?
A: The Super Eight is the second round of the competition and it started today (South Africa 114-England 111, and New Zealand 198-Ireland 115 for those keeping track at home) It is two groups of four (the first and second place finishers from the four opening round pools. Each plays the other three in the pool, and the top two from each pool move onto the semi-finals.

Q: Anything else we should know?
A: If you want to learn about cricket, 20/20 is probably the best way to do it, it's the shortest game, has the fasting pacing, and is the only version of the sport played at night. If you've gotten into the sport at all through this, first off that's nice, cause hey, I've accomplished something. Second, you might want to take the next step up, and learn about Net Run Rate, which is the first tie-breaking tool, and will save you a lot of confusion (if you're good at math). Finally, enjoy the games! They're in England, so you can have cricket with your breakfast (Game one Tomorrow starts at 6:30 EDT, and Game two starts at 7:30 PDT, so there are options for everyone.)

I'm Still Alive, and the happy Afghan story no one is telling.

*blows the dust off*

Sorry about that, school and work have gotten the better of me lately, I often come home, eat dinner and go to sleep, so a month has flown by since I wrote anything (and I left an embittered taste in all of your mouths anyways) I'm back, and just in time, because The Qualifying tournament for the 2011 ICC World Cup just finished (yeah, that's how it is in the cricket world, we get shit done two years in advance) It's a good thing too, since 2015 qualifying starts up this month!

Here's the basic lowdown:

*Ireland won the tournament (I would like to do a serach for a "Bowl Me: I'm Irish" pin, but I don't think I'd get what I want)

*Canada came in second, and qualified for the World Cup (which is an ODI tournament held every four years) along with Ireland, Kenya, and the Netherlands.

*Along with the four Qualifiers Soctland and Afghanistan were granted ODI status for four years (which means they can play ODI's against test nations, which is two steps below full test status)

That brings me to the other half of the title. For a nation that has been suffering through so much strife and turmoil, the media has been jumping at the chance to say "Look at this, they're getting on the right track." They tried their hardest to do so in Beijing, only to have a very unlucky Afghan contingent in the games. Here we are six months later, and everyone has decided to completely ignore that the cricket team has turned it around so much, they've been told they're one of the 25 best teams on the planet, and get to play with the big boys, and get extra funding from the ICC, and NO ONE SAYS A DAMN THING. It's a crying shame, I congratulate you Afghanistan, that was an impressive accomplishment, I know you can do great things, and now you have four years to prove it!