Dang!

Just for a minute, I thought, may be…

But West Indian resurgence is good for the game. International cricket needs at least one more competitive team. But as Michael Holding likes to remind, West Indian cricket has seen many false dawns. Let’s hope, this isn’t the case this time.

Staying on cricket, George Binoy writes,

The USP of Twenty20 cricket is the close finishes the condensed format promises. A spectator expects nearly every Twenty20 match to go down to the final over and, on the occasion that it doesn’t, there are still plenty of fours, sixes and wickets to soak in. The three league one-day games over the last week in Mirpur were hopelessly one-sided with the end result being a virtual certainty early into the second innings: Pakistan beat Bangladesh by 70 runs, and India beat both of them by 140 runs and seven wickets respectively.

The mis-matches and uncompetitive victories are the primary reason that one-day cricket has attracted so much criticism. Over a 50-over format the gulf in quality between the two teams – India and Bangladesh for example – is more severely exposed. Bangladesh are currently focusing on batting through 50 overs on a consistent basis, and their bowlers are working on sustaining a disciplined performance throughout an innings. They were competing against far more developed teams and hence the gulf in quality translated into no-contests. The shorter Twenty20 format needs them to perform to potential over a shorter span of time, therefore increasing chances of being competitive, and of victory.[link]

Right, so how many matches did Bangladesh win in IPL? And by that logic, should we introduce T1? That will probably make my neighborhood team competitive against Australia.

As a matter of fact, only one Bangladeshi player was considered good enough to play in the IPL. Mismatched matches between India and Bangladesh (Or Bangladesh/Zimbabwe and any other top team) is not the fault of the format. Quite simply–despite the occasional fluke win–Bangladesh has no business playing international cricket. The only reason it does so is because it helps the BCCI project a majority in the ICC.

Now, there may well be a case for drastic overhauling of the one day game. But that case is not build by stupid arguments. Well, forget reforms, as Kevin Pietersen has been suggesting, the one day game may well die within the next two years.