I mean it has to be right, it's the only U19 Tournament I've seen that's got more defection issues that a whole Cuban Oylimpic Team: http://www.cricinfo.com/u19wc2010/content/story/444043.html. Meanwhile action today (tomorrow?) has started with four first round games. In game one, they're currently in a break, as Afghanistan went 118 all out in 49.2 overs. The rumor I am hearing is that India will bat one handed in their innings just to make it fair (this is of course totally made up by me). In match number 2, Canada (RELIVENT TEAM ALERT) put up 201 in a full 50 overs, with Zimbabwae still to bat. In match number 3 (which is also probably the match of the day, Ireland put up 216/6 against South Africa, which has players that have played in international settings against much better teams than u19s, so it will be interesting to see how they respond. In the fourth match of the day Pakistan (which obviously has to be one of the favorites of the tournament, put up a 297/7 which the West Indies must have quite the confidence in being able to top, since they won the toss and elected to bat first.
However, I think the biggest news will come at 4:30 tomorrow afternoon, when for the first time since I've created this blog, an American Team will step out into an international tournament , they open their tournament up against Austrailia, and would probably have to be considered to be in the group of death (since it's also the Ireland-South Africa group) but hopefully they can put on a good face for Americans, and I know I for one am proud of the team for even making this far. So good luck USA!
Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Zealand. Show all posts
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Thursday, June 25, 2009
What's Next Dave Richardson? The BCS?
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/content/current/story/410448.html
Dave Richardson and Adam Gilchrist would like to see I-A and I-AA Test Cricket (suck it, bowl and playoff divisions). The feel that people stopped watching the cornerstone of the game is that the games are no longer competitive enough, because there are too many bad teams playing not enough good teams. Ignoring the fact that the sport is biased towards India and England (and occsionally Austraila, except when they piss it away like at the 20/20 Worlds), I don't see how keeping the "bad" teams away from the "good" teams would improve the sport at all. If England wants to no longer play Zimbabwae that's fine, but how do you know you're not killing the sport in Zimbabwae because you're taking away showing those people what they could become?
I mean let's just look at what the two divisions would probably look like (these are based entirely on my assumptions, and Test Results as of May 18, 2009)
I-A:
1) Austrailia
2) South Africa
3) England
4) India
5) Whoever is currently hotter of Pakistan and Sri Lanka
I-AA
1) Whoever is cooler of Sri Lanka and Pakistan
2) The West Indies
3) New Zealand
4) Bangladesh
5) Zimbabwae
There are only 10 teams to choose from in the entire world, and instead of trying to level the playing field and expanding the oppertunities to more teams in the world, they would rather narrow it down and keep the teams they don't like out of their "good game". It's a disgrace and a joke and I hope it never comes to fruition.
Dave Richardson and Adam Gilchrist would like to see I-A and I-AA Test Cricket (suck it, bowl and playoff divisions). The feel that people stopped watching the cornerstone of the game is that the games are no longer competitive enough, because there are too many bad teams playing not enough good teams. Ignoring the fact that the sport is biased towards India and England (and occsionally Austraila, except when they piss it away like at the 20/20 Worlds), I don't see how keeping the "bad" teams away from the "good" teams would improve the sport at all. If England wants to no longer play Zimbabwae that's fine, but how do you know you're not killing the sport in Zimbabwae because you're taking away showing those people what they could become?
I mean let's just look at what the two divisions would probably look like (these are based entirely on my assumptions, and Test Results as of May 18, 2009)
I-A:
1) Austrailia
2) South Africa
3) England
4) India
5) Whoever is currently hotter of Pakistan and Sri Lanka
I-AA
1) Whoever is cooler of Sri Lanka and Pakistan
2) The West Indies
3) New Zealand
4) Bangladesh
5) Zimbabwae
There are only 10 teams to choose from in the entire world, and instead of trying to level the playing field and expanding the oppertunities to more teams in the world, they would rather narrow it down and keep the teams they don't like out of their "good game". It's a disgrace and a joke and I hope it never comes to fruition.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
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.)
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.)
Friday, December 19, 2008
Okay okay, so it took a couple of days (and a campy coming of age movie, and an ongoing snowstorm) but I'm back on my feet, so we're ready to dive back into this.
Last Weekend New Zealand and the West Indies got washed out enough that they ended in a tie. This week is whole different story, as apparently Chanderpaul has lit his bat on fire and is simply dominiating the competition and going for 400 RUNS He's sitting off the stumps on 100, as WI is currently 258/6 after 91 overs. To top it off, they are still in their first innings, so it looks like the rout is on, and New Zealand learned nothing from the beat down they took at the hands of Austrailia three weeks ago..
In India, India is on their 1st innings as well, after 72 overs and the end of day one they're going at 179/1, but it is an incredibly slow 179, as the batsmen have combined to see 400 bowls between them, which I'm sure is making for miserable spectating.
Austrailia is picking up right where it left off three weeks ago with New Zealand, only this weekend's whipping boy is South Africa. Austrailia currently has a 322 run lead, and has 3 wickets in hand still in the Second innings, so it's probably all over but the crying for that one.
All of these matches will carry on into the weekend, and after that, it will pretty much wrap things up for the year (next weekend will see the second Test for Austrailia-South Africa, and the start of a Bangladesh-Sri Lanka series, and if you've gotten bored with your toys, you can spend a few hours on the 26th with New Zealand and the West Indies again as they play a 20/20 to wrap up there year) Hopefully we'll have a year in review (that we weren't in exsistance for most of) up sometime between Christmas and the New Year.
Last Weekend New Zealand and the West Indies got washed out enough that they ended in a tie. This week is whole different story, as apparently Chanderpaul has lit his bat on fire and is simply dominiating the competition and going for 400 RUNS He's sitting off the stumps on 100, as WI is currently 258/6 after 91 overs. To top it off, they are still in their first innings, so it looks like the rout is on, and New Zealand learned nothing from the beat down they took at the hands of Austrailia three weeks ago..
In India, India is on their 1st innings as well, after 72 overs and the end of day one they're going at 179/1, but it is an incredibly slow 179, as the batsmen have combined to see 400 bowls between them, which I'm sure is making for miserable spectating.
Austrailia is picking up right where it left off three weeks ago with New Zealand, only this weekend's whipping boy is South Africa. Austrailia currently has a 322 run lead, and has 3 wickets in hand still in the Second innings, so it's probably all over but the crying for that one.
All of these matches will carry on into the weekend, and after that, it will pretty much wrap things up for the year (next weekend will see the second Test for Austrailia-South Africa, and the start of a Bangladesh-Sri Lanka series, and if you've gotten bored with your toys, you can spend a few hours on the 26th with New Zealand and the West Indies again as they play a 20/20 to wrap up there year) Hopefully we'll have a year in review (that we weren't in exsistance for most of) up sometime between Christmas and the New Year.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Big Happenings (Way Far Away)
Well, well, we're only two days away from the start of two really big Test matches, but they're both going to be big for far different reasons. We're gonna take a look at this from east to west (since east games are going to start earlier in terms of our time) so off we go to...
...NEW ZEALAND where we find an NZ team that was absolutely brutalized by Austrailia last month and dropped all the way to 8th in the ICC rankings. The beneficiaries of that fall? Their oppoents, my friends and yours THE WEST INDIES who moved up to 7th and can maintain that spot with either a win or a draw lose, and they give a spot back to NZ, the previously mentioned Chanderpaul (seen here hitting a century against england)
will be looking to be the star this coming weekend for the West Indies, while Brendon McCullum will hope to continue to do his best and hope that he can get his side to rally around him much better than they did in that miserable Austrailia performance. From New Zealand we travel northwest to...
...India, where after the attacks in Mumbai, there were many open fears about wether this series would even be played, and whether or not the sides could be guarenteed their safety. After a team meeting the English side decided to go ahead with the tour, and look poised to make an impressive performance as one of the best teams in the world. On the other side, India will be carrying the weight of the emotional underdog, after so much strife and stress, how will the players cope? Will they channel that energy into the performaces of a lifetime? We'll find out soon enough. For those who wish to follow live scoring, WI-NZ starts at 4:30 AM EST on Wednesday, and England-India starts at 9. Good luck to all and enjoy the games.
...NEW ZEALAND where we find an NZ team that was absolutely brutalized by Austrailia last month and dropped all the way to 8th in the ICC rankings. The beneficiaries of that fall? Their oppoents, my friends and yours THE WEST INDIES who moved up to 7th and can maintain that spot with either a win or a draw lose, and they give a spot back to NZ, the previously mentioned Chanderpaul (seen here hitting a century against england)
will be looking to be the star this coming weekend for the West Indies, while Brendon McCullum will hope to continue to do his best and hope that he can get his side to rally around him much better than they did in that miserable Austrailia performance. From New Zealand we travel northwest to...
...India, where after the attacks in Mumbai, there were many open fears about wether this series would even be played, and whether or not the sides could be guarenteed their safety. After a team meeting the English side decided to go ahead with the tour, and look poised to make an impressive performance as one of the best teams in the world. On the other side, India will be carrying the weight of the emotional underdog, after so much strife and stress, how will the players cope? Will they channel that energy into the performaces of a lifetime? We'll find out soon enough. For those who wish to follow live scoring, WI-NZ starts at 4:30 AM EST on Wednesday, and England-India starts at 9. Good luck to all and enjoy the games.
Monday, December 1, 2008
About (MUCH) Earlier Today
So if like me, you were up way too late last night, you had a chance to catch the second match of the Test Series between Austrailia and New Zealand. Well it sure wasn't much to look at, as Austrailia, led by some insane bowling by Lee ( 9 wickets over 2 innings almost a personal Test best) made short work of them, and McCullum couldn't single-handedly carry New Zealand to force Austraila to bat again (not that it would have mattered, since Austrailia had batted 535 in the first innings) Austrailia won 2 games to 0 and thanks to the attacks in Mumbai, the cricket world will slowly start to come to a halt (the Champions League has been postponed due to the attacks, and no one is quite sure what will happen to other games worldwide, espcially those involving Indian players.
Edit: You know since the second half wasn't really my original idea or thoughts, I figured I should give credit to the story it came from (since I don't write for the New York Times)
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/380239.html
Edit: You know since the second half wasn't really my original idea or thoughts, I figured I should give credit to the story it came from (since I don't write for the New York Times)
http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/380239.html
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