Trinidad and Tobago - A positive boost

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while - things have been a little hectic on the home-front!

As a Cape Cobras fan I was a bit disappointed to see them get knocked out at the semi-final stage but I was pretty impressed that they made it that far and had a good run in the tournament while entertaining fans.

T20 cricket by its nature is a bit of a lottery but it does capture the imagination of fans and players.

For that reason I thought it was quite encouraging to see Trinidad and Tobago making it to the finals of the competition. I have blogged on the subject before - West Indian cricket is in absolute turmoil at the moment and administrators and players will probably be pleased to have found a format of the game that suits their style of cricket -it would be nice to see them go on from here.

T20 Champions League - Saturday Picks

Another day in the T20 Champions League competition today and now that a couple of teams have had a chance to stretch their legs punters will be able to make some more informed decisions.

Deccan vs. Somerset
It is hard to look beyond the Deccan Chargers for this fixture - too many big guns for the Somerset side and I would expect them to romp home.

Preditions

• Deccan to win
• Top Deccan batsman - Adam Gilchrist
• Top Somerset batsman - Justin Langer

Cape Cobras vs Otago
The Cobras were good in their last fixture and even minus Charl Langeveldt I'd expect them to win here.

Money on Andrew Puttick to top score for the Cape Cobras with Brendan McCullum top scoring for Otago.

Franchise cricket making big strides

I know I have blogged on the subject before but I think it is significant to see how the franchise brands are beginning to become an out and out competitor against the international teams. For those who don't know I had said that I expect franchise cricket to overtake the importance of the international fixtures by around 2012.

This won't be limited to T20 cricket either but will see the franchises playing full length One Day fixtures and most probably test matches.

This T20 Champions Trophy event is already providing a competitor for sponsors money, supporters at the ground, television revenue and even the importance in the players careers.

Players who could be resting are driven to play by the money that is attached to it - at some point this is going to come at the detriment of the national teams as fatigue starts to kick in.

Personally I think we are reaching an intriguing stage in world cricket and I guess if I have to attach my flag to the franchises it will probably be the Deccan Chargers and the Cape Cobras.

Champions League Twenty20 kicks off

JP Duminy has kicked off the Champions League Twenty20 with a stirring 99 off 52 balls to help the Cape Cobras beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore - a good result but its a pity he couldn't do that for the Proteas in recent weeks!!

I have to say that I am a little disappointed in the low-key build-up to the tournament at least in South Africa. Conceptually I think that it is a great idea and a brilliant way to reinforce the franchise brands and yet a lot of people didn't even know the event kicked off yesterday.

Anyway I'm a supporter of the Cape Cobras domestically and I won some nice money supporting the Deccan Chargers last year so I guess I will spread some money around these two teams to go all the way. Thoughts on which teams are looking interesting this year?

ICC Champions Trophy predictions

So the ICC Champions Trophy is coming to an end with conditions looking a little overcast - hopefully we get a full game of cricket in.

I put some money down on New Zealand to win after they qualified for the semis (at the expense of my pre-tournament picks of Sri Lanka and South Africa!).

Ok my money is down on New Zealand with Ponting to top score for the Aussies and Elliot to deliver the goods for the Black Caps!

Damn - I have just heard that Vettori is out for this final - that's a huge blow!

Yay for the Black Caps!

So it is the Black Caps vs. Australia in the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy and I think it is fair to say that the two best teams have come through a busy two weeks.

I was at the Wanderers last night and I had to admire how well the New Zealand team performed considering how little support they had! I kid you not - 90% of the support was for the Pakistani team - great atmosphere considering the home team wasn't playing.

Big kudos to the New Zealand side - they came through a tough tournament and a tricky total to chase down and they did it to perfection. Some of you will remember that I backed Grant Elliot (pictured) to score runs in the last game and he promptly delivered a duck but he came good last night in spectacular style.

One performance which I thought didn't get enough credit was that of Daniel Vettori - batting at six for New Zealand shows there are some shortcomings in that batting line-up but boy oh boy did he deliver the goods last night! It needed somebody to take the responsibility of sticking with Elliot to the end.

On current form - Vettori must be one of the best one-day international players in the game at the moment.

Considering the love-hate relationship South Africans have with Australia, I have to wonder how partizan the crowd are going to be when the two teams clash in the final!

Justice!

I have been following a couple of the big international cricket blogs and a number of people have come out bluntly saying that England intentionally lost that game against New Zealand.

The motivation being that if you lost to New Zealand, you don't have to playoff against the Sri Lankans who on paper can be a really difficult ODI side.

Have to be honest and say that the idea doesn't seem that far fetched considering how they were able to set a score of 300+ two days before against South Africa and then get skittled a few days later. Anyway the sheep shaggers give the Poms absolute carrots on Friday and then the poor boys from New Zealand win the Champions Trophy final as some JUSTICE!