Monday Morning Musings - England progress to ICC World Cup Quarter-final, but only just.
Alex Manby
Posted on: 21 March 2011 - 09:37
Cricket
A certain well-known betting company uses the slogan “Everyone has an opinion – what’s yours worth?” And they’re right – in sport, everyone does indeed have an opinion. It’s an industry which for many reasons inspires more people to expound these opinions more vociferously and adamantly than, say, politics or art manage to do. Websites, newspapers, magazines, blogs, fanzines and more all voice their views on the events of the sporting world, and here at Sport.co.uk we’re no different.
The Monday Morning Musings brings you its unashamedly incomplete, ill-ordered and occasionally-irrelevant ruminations on the weekend’s activities. What’s our opinion worth? Given that it’s Cricket World Cup time, and in honour of the vanquished minnows, we’d say a couple of Irish Euros and 50 Bangladeshi Taka.
• So England went through from Group A of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup along with fellow big guns South Africa, India and the West Indies. Well of course they did. Anyone could have told you that would happen; didn't you read the pre-tournament predictions? Don’t you remember the words of all the journos, pundits and commentators thundering in with their expert opinions, slating the tournament set up, particularly the participation of the associate nations who, we were told, would only serve to convolute an already bloated fixture schedule?
• But hang on, delve a little deeper and we see some scarcely believable occurrences. First the tenacious Tigers of Bangladesh beat Ashes-winning England by two wickets to record only their second ever ODI victory over the 20/20 World Champions. And what's this? Unheard of Ireland also put Strauss, Pietersen and co to the sword! Didn't they read the bloody script?
• And while Group B couldn’t quite live up to the excitement levels being served up by Andrews Strauss’ men, it still contrived to almost deliver what would have been a truly special cricketing moment, one which has somehow gone virtually unnoticed in England. Collins Obuya is a man who first rose to prominence during Kenya’s impressive showing at the 2003 World Cup, but has since then had precious little to crow about throughout his career, a single disappointing season at Warwickshire perhaps the pinnacle. But against Australia last week, he produced the most wonderfully thrilling exhibition of defiance and sheer bloody-mindedness. For 98 exhilarating, unbeaten runs he thwarted and thrashed the intimidating Australia pace attack, and in the final over looked to have set himself up to score an unforgettable century. Those pesky Aussies denied him, but Obuya ensured that Kenya too have added to the 2011 World Cup spectacle.
• Conspiracy theorists abound in all walks of life, and no doubt some cheeky wit will put forward the belief that the ICC planned the entire outcome of Group A. After all, while everyone loves an underdog to succeed in any given match, the minnows are ultimately unlikely to last the course, and all too often exit the tournament in a perversely underwhelming fashion, merely by playing to their expected standard and losing, having previously out-performed themselves. For the prospect of sporting greatness, we are better off with the best players and biggest names still in the competition.
• For an example of this, let’s cast our minds back to football's FA Cup in 2008. After all the furore over the FA choosing to host both Semi-finals at Wembley for the first time, the four sides filling these berths were Cardiff, Barnsley, Portsmouth and West Brom. Did you watch those matches? As in the final itself, both games were drab, nervy affairs short on quality and won by a single goal. Were you as gripped then as you surely will be for United vs City next month? Yes, Portsmouth’s brilliant if controversial victory over Manchester United in the previous round was thrilling for the neutral. And yes, Barnsley’s vanquishing of both Liverpool and Chelsea in the same season will be remembered and recounted fondly for decades in South Yorkshire and beyond. But given that Portsmouth's eventual lifting of the trophy is about as dubious and unmerited as any since the competition began in 1871, due to the gross financial irregularities surrounding the south coast club, that edition of the Cup should not be considered much more than a disappointing anomaly.
• Similarly, the 2002 FIFA World Cup had many wonderful and memorable characteristics, but compelling games between evenly matched world heavyweights was not one of them. Too many favourites, possessing too many wonderful players, departed early at the hands of plucky underdogs, and ultimately the tournament suffered from a lack of titanic duels, and the novel charm provided by South Korea and Turkey wore off to leave a sense of anticlimax.
• So are you actually disappointed to not see Ireland take on Canada in a 2011 Cricket World Cup Quarter-final? Not me. This is the pinnacle of one-day cricket, as it has been since its inception in 1975, and as such it deserves to play host to the best cricketers on the planet. England have done the ICC and the associate nations a massive favour by throwing a couple of games, but now the fun and games are over; time to let the big boys duke it out for international glory and the opportunity to cement their rightful places in the annals of cricketing history, alongside such greats as Sir Vivian Richards, Kapil Dev and Shane Warne.