No More Heroes

We have become the softest bunch of people in the world. People are railing on this woman for getting upset because she got screwed over on a bad call. I'm sorry I didn't realize that she was supposed to take bullshit lying down. CBS is who gets off the worst on this, because, they're the ones who the day before during the rain delay were showing a old Jimmy Connors match where Connors was telling the umpire he "needed to get his ass out of that chair" and what happens then, the crowd whistles and cheers wildly, really it's become a joke.

I think the most ridicilious part is the argument that she shouldn't do that because she's a "role model". Why do we even tell kids to try to live like someone else? They should be their own damn person, not follow in someone else's path, no one is perfect, and it's disgraceful if we hold it against someone.

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.

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!

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

This is a PSA..sort of

http://wraparoundcurl.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/paint-it-black/

This is the sad story of the 21st century, large corporations think the internet is taking all their money away, because they don't understand how people use it for an informational tool (yes I'll play devil's advocate and say there are people who are doing legimate damage to legitmate industries, but the sporting industry is not one of them) we live in a world where ESPN is set to take over the BCS, and it takes our freaking president to get us any movement on a college football playoff, and their worried about private photos and accounts of the game. I know I don't have your expressed written consent but your rules say I can't even talk to my friend about the game, are you going to check every conversation I have? It really is becoming a joke, and I hope we get some clear answers soon, keep up the good fight Wrap, you've got a lot of people on your side.