What are the thoughts on a multi-tiered cricket system that would effectively pit teams of roughly equal strength against one another?
I know there have been quite a lot of thoughts put forward on addressing the divide between the strong and the weak sides. The problem is that if "weak" sides end up playing against strong sides the game loses its appeal for both both spectators and ultimately TV audiences.
The second problem is that if you have a two-tiered system the teams that get stuck in the lower pool may find their standard of cricket going down... Mediocrity breeds mediocrity...
The next tricky part is how would you split the sides up. If you look at ODI cricket you would have a different top 5 compared to the top 5 in Test cricket.
Of course the other option is to go down the international franchise route and make the IPL more of a mainstream competition replacing the international tours.... It would be a good way to revitalise international cricket but I wonder whether world cricket is ready for more mainstreaming of the franchise offering.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Bloody Pakistan ;-)
I can't believe it! After storming through our early matches South Africa got tripped up by the Pakistani's in the semi-finals of 2009 T20 World Cup.
Honestly I thought we had this tournament in the bag and personally I still believe that we are the best T20 side in the world.... Unfortunately the record book are going to say something very different when the world looks back on this tournament.
I have to tip my hat to Pakistan - they have once again come out of nowhere and are suddenly competing for a handy piece of silverware. Been an intriguing tournament without question.
Umar Gul and those last two overs he bowled were brilliant and I think he has given many international quick bowlers and answer to the question - "How the hell do you bowl in T20 cricket?!"
Great performance from Pakistan!
Honestly I thought we had this tournament in the bag and personally I still believe that we are the best T20 side in the world.... Unfortunately the record book are going to say something very different when the world looks back on this tournament.
I have to tip my hat to Pakistan - they have once again come out of nowhere and are suddenly competing for a handy piece of silverware. Been an intriguing tournament without question.
Umar Gul and those last two overs he bowled were brilliant and I think he has given many international quick bowlers and answer to the question - "How the hell do you bowl in T20 cricket?!"
Great performance from Pakistan!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Hhhhmmmm
No Australia, No England and No India in the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup.... That's a bit of a surprise there....
England I didn't expect to get there but India have surprised me - thought they were going to put in a more consistent showing....
As I posted a couple of weeks back I put money down on SA, New Zealand, the West Indies and Bangladesh to win the tournament.... Three out of the four semi-finalists is not too bad.
Again good quality spinners have shone in the tournament.... Not quite the IPL but it's great when you're winning!
England I didn't expect to get there but India have surprised me - thought they were going to put in a more consistent showing....
As I posted a couple of weeks back I put money down on SA, New Zealand, the West Indies and Bangladesh to win the tournament.... Three out of the four semi-finalists is not too bad.
Again good quality spinners have shone in the tournament.... Not quite the IPL but it's great when you're winning!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Talisman personalities
I was just reading an article on SuperSport where Ian Chappell was talking up the role that Dwayne Bravo plays in West Indian cricket.
"It is his attitude and enthusiasm, noted by Chappell, which suggest he can fulfil his considerable potential and play a substantial role in West Indies cricket" read the article and I dunno - the line just jumped out at me.
Every side has players with big personalities who do spark a bit of "fire in the belly" and the role of personality over form / ability is something that I suspect many teams grapple with when it comes to selection.
Basically the player that the side rallies around and is allowed to flourish.
For Australia, a hard bastard like Matty Hayden, Ricky Ponting or Andrew Symonds bring so much to a side.
West Indies have Bravo, Chris Gayle and Shiv Chanderpaul. It's early days for Bravo but Chanderpaul has often been such a stand-out for the West Indies, one almost thinks he was born in the wrong era.
South Africa had the likes of Lance Klusener and Fanie Devilliers a few years back - big hearted players. More recently we've had Graeme Smith - tough as nails - and as much as I hate to say it Roelof VD Merwe brings some spark to our T20 team.
England - Kevin Pietersen and Freddie Flintoff. But this side has regularly rewarded mediocrity (excluding these two players) and in my humble opinion is in serious decline
New Zealand - Scott Styris and Jacob Oram - watch this New Zealand side over the next 12 months - particularly in ODI cricket - I think there is something building here on the batting front.
India - Dhoni I think is a bit of a poster-boy for Indian cricket so I guess their talisman would be somebody like Sehwag. But the lack of big-hearted personalities (and I could be wrong here so feel free to argue) - has probably been the problem with Indian cricket over the last three or four years?
Sri Lanka - They've got Murali but I get the sense he is perhaps a little tired of the game and preferring the money and smash and bash of the IPL? It shows in the consistency of their performances.
Dunno - what do you think of the assessment? Players you think are likely to become hugely influential in the above setups?
"It is his attitude and enthusiasm, noted by Chappell, which suggest he can fulfil his considerable potential and play a substantial role in West Indies cricket" read the article and I dunno - the line just jumped out at me.
Every side has players with big personalities who do spark a bit of "fire in the belly" and the role of personality over form / ability is something that I suspect many teams grapple with when it comes to selection.
Basically the player that the side rallies around and is allowed to flourish.
For Australia, a hard bastard like Matty Hayden, Ricky Ponting or Andrew Symonds bring so much to a side.
West Indies have Bravo, Chris Gayle and Shiv Chanderpaul. It's early days for Bravo but Chanderpaul has often been such a stand-out for the West Indies, one almost thinks he was born in the wrong era.
South Africa had the likes of Lance Klusener and Fanie Devilliers a few years back - big hearted players. More recently we've had Graeme Smith - tough as nails - and as much as I hate to say it Roelof VD Merwe brings some spark to our T20 team.
England - Kevin Pietersen and Freddie Flintoff. But this side has regularly rewarded mediocrity (excluding these two players) and in my humble opinion is in serious decline
New Zealand - Scott Styris and Jacob Oram - watch this New Zealand side over the next 12 months - particularly in ODI cricket - I think there is something building here on the batting front.
India - Dhoni I think is a bit of a poster-boy for Indian cricket so I guess their talisman would be somebody like Sehwag. But the lack of big-hearted personalities (and I could be wrong here so feel free to argue) - has probably been the problem with Indian cricket over the last three or four years?
Sri Lanka - They've got Murali but I get the sense he is perhaps a little tired of the game and preferring the money and smash and bash of the IPL? It shows in the consistency of their performances.
Dunno - what do you think of the assessment? Players you think are likely to become hugely influential in the above setups?
Friday, June 5, 2009
The victorious Dutch side
Here's a pic of the Dutch side - they don't have the most up to date website (and it's all in Dutch) in the cricketing world but considering they just beat the English in the T20 World Cup maybe they're going to have a whole lot of new sponsors!
Check out their website here.
Check out their website here.
T20 Day 2
So Holland came through for me and beat the Poms at Lords! Hahahahhaha what a great start to the T20 World Cup - nothing better than watching the English side self destruct and keep letting the underdogs back into the side.
Lots of cricket on today and here are the bets I have placed. Teams haven't been confirmed so check the betting
New Zealand vs Scotland
- Coetzer - Top Scottish batter
- Ross Taylor or Jacob Oram to top the New Zealand batting - although Oram would assume that the Scots take a few wickets
Australia vs West Indies
- West Indies to win the game
- Dwayne Bravo - West Indies top batter
- David Hussey - Top Aussie batter
India vs. Bangladesh
- Ashraful - Top Bangladesh batter
- Top indian batter I spread three bets across Sehwag, Pathan and Jadeja (if he plays)
Happy punting
T20 World Cup opener
The T20 World Cup kicks off today and the opening game is England vs. Holland.
A mate and I have taken an 8-1 punt on the Dutch side to beat the English..... Yeah yeah crazy I know but T20 cricket is an even stranger game than cricket itself!
Let's see....
In terms of a "real" bet I've backed Kevin Pietersen to top the scoring for the Poms....Monday, June 1, 2009
Are we heading for 20/20 overkill?
By Tom Mallows
It may seem a strange time to raise this subject - on the eve of the ICC World Twenty20, where the world’s finest players will compete once more in the newest and most frantic form of the game. But are we fast heading for saturation point?
After all the IPL has only just finished, the English domestic Twenty/20 has just begun, the Champions League awaits in October and the EPL set to start next year.
It is bit like when TV producers hit on a successful idea they assume that viewers want to see more of the same and flood the market with a million variations along the same theme. For example Big Brother was a highly original and successful idea but instead of TV Execs striving to find the next one, they have simply re-hashed the same format which has spawned a million and one different reality TV shows that now clog up our TV schedules.
The same seems to be the case with Twenty/20. The game’s administrators have hit upon a successful, innovative money making idea. It has brought the game to a whole new audience and revolutionised the way many people watch cricket. But like a kid let loose in a sweet shop you can have too much of a good thing, however much you disagree at the time.
Take the English summer for example. It is, of course, dominated by the Ashes series against Australia (and 2009 ashes betting is set to be intense), but the season has begun under a backdrop of empty grounds and poor ticket sales. The West Indies test series began earlier then any other test series in England and it showed when we saw the unusual and uncomfortable sight of a half empty chilly Lord’s on the opening day of a test series. The English counties have also reported a fall in Twenty/20 ticket sales for the opening round of games. You can’t blame the punters though, the early English summer is notoriously unreliable and with bigger matches and warmer weather to come, why fork out now?
It also has an impact from a playing point of view. Chris Gayle’s recent comments about not being bothered about the future of test cricket could spark a worrying trend - indeed the West Indies played like a side not interested in the longer form of the game.
If the game's administrators continue to flood the market with Twenty/20 tournaments the players are going to have to choose what tournaments they want to play in. Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out that they will choose the most lucrative. We could see a situation where players give up playing for their country in order to earn millions in the IPL or EPL.
I hope that the powers that be have noticed this problem brewing and will do enough to preserve the more traditional forms of the game while keeping 20/20 fresh and interesting. If not we could soon see fans walk away from cricket, whatever format it is played in.
It may seem a strange time to raise this subject - on the eve of the ICC World Twenty20, where the world’s finest players will compete once more in the newest and most frantic form of the game. But are we fast heading for saturation point?
After all the IPL has only just finished, the English domestic Twenty/20 has just begun, the Champions League awaits in October and the EPL set to start next year.
It is bit like when TV producers hit on a successful idea they assume that viewers want to see more of the same and flood the market with a million variations along the same theme. For example Big Brother was a highly original and successful idea but instead of TV Execs striving to find the next one, they have simply re-hashed the same format which has spawned a million and one different reality TV shows that now clog up our TV schedules.
The same seems to be the case with Twenty/20. The game’s administrators have hit upon a successful, innovative money making idea. It has brought the game to a whole new audience and revolutionised the way many people watch cricket. But like a kid let loose in a sweet shop you can have too much of a good thing, however much you disagree at the time.
Take the English summer for example. It is, of course, dominated by the Ashes series against Australia (and 2009 ashes betting is set to be intense), but the season has begun under a backdrop of empty grounds and poor ticket sales. The West Indies test series began earlier then any other test series in England and it showed when we saw the unusual and uncomfortable sight of a half empty chilly Lord’s on the opening day of a test series. The English counties have also reported a fall in Twenty/20 ticket sales for the opening round of games. You can’t blame the punters though, the early English summer is notoriously unreliable and with bigger matches and warmer weather to come, why fork out now?
It also has an impact from a playing point of view. Chris Gayle’s recent comments about not being bothered about the future of test cricket could spark a worrying trend - indeed the West Indies played like a side not interested in the longer form of the game.
If the game's administrators continue to flood the market with Twenty/20 tournaments the players are going to have to choose what tournaments they want to play in. Now it doesn’t take a genius to work out that they will choose the most lucrative. We could see a situation where players give up playing for their country in order to earn millions in the IPL or EPL.
I hope that the powers that be have noticed this problem brewing and will do enough to preserve the more traditional forms of the game while keeping 20/20 fresh and interesting. If not we could soon see fans walk away from cricket, whatever format it is played in.
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