2015 Cricket World Cup Musings

I haven't really been watching the World Cup on TV fulltime. But have been following it on news and catching a bit of the action whenever possible. Here are some random thoughts on what I feel as England are eliminated - 9 March, 2015.

England

A lot of things come to mind about England. Here are some that I can imagine.

Reasons for England's Loss

1. This was never billed as something we could win - we are happy with the preparations for the next edition.
2. The crowds - mostly noisy and subcontinental. Our players are used to playing in front of tie-wearing, sshhhhing silent upper class strata. This noise is something the lads aren't used to.
3. India - made us complacent by deliberately losing to us in the Triseries.
4. Flawed alphabetic order. Having played Australia first, we though B would be next up. Conspiracy putting so many between A and B.
5. Mothers-in-law - There were so many of them vying to do what we did, and look, they probably qualified for the quarters.
6. Format - three eliminations out of seven is fine by us. But it is the ICC who suffer - the advertisers from UK will pull out if we are eliminated and who pays for the next hotspot camera to goof or the snicko that makes no noise about the sound? 
7. Kevin Pietersen - Having him inside is better. And, having Swann in too makes for an entertaining dressing room, keeping the morale high.
8. Commentators - they were oohing and aahing every four or six that we hit, forgetting that we were getting back ten times that when we bowled. Instead, we would have liked just one Director who has tracer bullets and is always a humdinger.
9. Ashes - Never play the Ashes series four years before a World Cup - this loss demoralises us like no other.
10. Umpiring - Chris Jordan's runout decision by the third umpire was the turning point of the tournament. 
11. Rain - We never got a lucky point like Bangladesh did in the washout.
12. Scheduling - We should have played some matches at home, like Australia and New Zealand.

Real Reasons for England's Loss

1. The better team always wins - Australia were better.
2. The best team always crushes us - New Zealand were the best.
3. The better team always wins - England were the better team, surprisingly.
4. The better team always wins - Sri Lanka were the better team.
5. The better team always wins - Bangladesh were the better team.
6. The better team always wins - Yes, the airlines win.
7. England were outplayed in every department. 
8. The opponents - at least four of them were better.

Umpiring

That the umpiring levels have plummeted is no secret. What else do you say when Chris Jordan was given out for having the shoulder of his bat firmly behind the line (which always belongs to an incompetent umpire or three), though the toe end was flailing like his team in the tournament.

On-field umpires have probably become lazy and do not check for no-balls every ball. Only when they think that something earthshaking like a wicket falls, they check the Richter scale that is the replay, getting the batsman and the fielding team edgy. There are only two things that can explain this - dereliction of duty in part or ICC's need to the crowd edgy. I would vouch for the former - ICC cannot be trusted to be intelligent enough going by the way DRS is playing out.

It is pure blasphemy that we have a law (if it has been interpreted correctly) that rules a batsman out when actually IN the crease. And to boot, at least a couple of dozen pairs of eyes saw that. Twenty two of them belonged to the third umpire who saw replays even from a Google Maps camera stationed above my apartment.

I have many more grouses about umpiring and DRS in cricket, but then, who does not? Ask Chris Jordan. I will 'grouse' some other day.

The Future of this World Cup

How I wish that the quarter finals all feature one Asian team against a non-Asian team. And, how I wish that it will be an all-Asian semifinal line up. After all this, I will really pray for an all-Asian final (oops, I am now thinking like England here!) to play out. For a few reasons.

1. My friend Krishnakumar Kannan is travelling all the way down under - yes, both AUS and NZ. I don't want him to be disappointed with a semifinal line up that reads AUS v SA and WI v IRE. He will probably return with a sickometer, oops, snickometer in his mouth.
2. The tournament can be decided across a table and the finals can be played in a relaxed manner by both teams. The winner gets the first shot at the ICC presidency, followed by the runner up and so on. How easy no? We can even grant furlough to the third umpire.
3. Whoever wins in an all-Asia final will be 'our' team - after all, we have beaten the 14-country world to the cup.
4. The next edition of the IPL will be a resounding success.
5. The Supreme Court may after all be happy the way cricket is run across the world, not just India.

Happy World Cup folks!