Now this is the real U19 Action.

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!

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.)

Can anyone cut the WICB a check?

http://content.cricinfo.com/wiveng2009/content/current/story/397177.html

The West Indian team is threating to boycott the fifth ODI against England this Friday, unless the West Indian Cricket Board comes to an agreement with the West Indian Players Association about payments for previous overseas trips the team has made. The WICB is clearly in dire straits along with the rest of the world, although even moreso since the Board decided to jump head first into the cookie jar Allen Stanford offered them that quickly came apart at the seems. At the same time, I don't blame the players in the least. Just like everyone else who got trapped in a Ponzi scheme, there were sure to be other investment oppertunities available, they just happened to take the easy way out. And it's not like the West Indies are bad, although they lost game four, they took the Test Series, and have been doing a remarkable job in the last 5 plus months, and they deserve to be rewarded for those efforts. I hope there is some kind of conclusion that makes it easier for both sides and leaves no lasting hard feelings, because it's a slippery slope for both sides.

So I'm not sure if yesterday's post was clear enough, it doesn't really look that clear to me, I've been sick this week, so my writing is not really at its best. With that in mind, I thought I might turn to what I find to be a very reliable source when it comes to unraveling complicated news like this Sri Lankian Cricket Team attack, because really, it's not just about Sri Lanka and Pakistan, it's about all of the Indian Sub-Continent Cricket Playing nations, can we really be sure that any team can be safe in any of those countries now? With all that said, I turn it over to NPR, who had a terrific report this morning explaining exactly what happened, and what kind of effect it will have on the game.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101408045

Edit: So I failed to mention, you should click that listen now link to get it to play.

I Can't even belive this happened

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ap-pakistan-cricketersattacked&prov=ap&type=lgns


The Sri Lankian Cricket Team was attacked outside of the stadium in Lahore Stadium today. Clearly this was an attempt to strike deep into the heart of Pakistani culture and security. It's baffling upsetting news that goes to the root of how important cricket can be around the world. It would be like if one of the World Baseball classic teams was assulted outside of the RN Centre. It's sad, and I for one hope the criminals are brought to full and swift justice.

Allen Stanford Faces Fraud Charges: BLNAH Wonders How Stupid He Could Be

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090220/ts_nm/us_stanford_41

Not that you know who Allen Stanford is. I won't lie, it was supposed to be part of a suprise, the Stanford 20/20 is my favorite tournament, in fact, it's the tournament that introduced me to cricket in the first place. Now with these charges leveled against him by the SEC, plus other issues that arose from the Super Series, it all comes to question wether or not we've seen the last of the Stanford 20/20, and what it means for West Indian Cricket as a whole. Personally I find myself very disappointed by all the developments, I had to read the first story I found mentioning it in the paper twice before it sunk in. I still find myself in a "Say it ain't so Joe" way of thinking, I'd like to hope the best, because really, I think Allen Stanford was the best chance we'll see in a while to have Cricket come through in America

For a look at the shooting star story of Allen Stanford, I'd recomend this story here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090220/ts_afp/cricketwisengusfinancefraudstanford_20090220100551

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.

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