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What is this world coming to? The respected Cricinfo reporting team have picked their T20 top Xl sans a single cricketer either from the pre-cup favourites Australia or India (besides Yuvraj Singh being the one who hit the most number of sixes) and picked only one South African cricketer who has adopted England as his home turf for reasons best known to him in Kevin Pietersen. Nevertheless there are other real Proteas who have been picked into this team by the Cricinfo team.
Though this is not the gospel that is coughed up by the ICC, it is a good indicator as to how T20 cricket has veered away from the accepted norms of quality, ability and accepted skill. At the same time it has perceived a new notion that the less you know about the game the more chances that you have to succeed in this new discipline.
For instance, at the last T20 World Cup there wasn’t a cat who gave India who were coming into the inaugural tournament with some new kids on the block along with an untested captain a chance to reach even the semi-final stage, leave alone taking home the cup itself. But, running against the wind, the bunch of kids gelled together and brought off a performance that sky-rocketed the T20 concept in the cricketing world.
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| Closest any Lankan could get to that award……Two Sri Lankan lasses – Babita and Shavonne hold aloft the T20 World Cup flanked by Pakistan cricket captain Younis Khan and vice captain Misbah Ul-Haq. |
This concept became such an influence in cricket rich India, up sprouted the ICL and the IPL thus giving cricketers not only in India, but throughout the globe a new avenue of money making. It in turn ate into the minds of the mundane cricketers so much; they at times even gave up their allegiance with their international contracts with the home boards, and turning into cricket mercenaries whose only aspiration were a few dollars more.
Then in the next turn, there were the rumours that were cascading about the ultimate death of Test cricket – brutalized by the popularity of T20 cricket. Some went a step further by professing that even the 50-over concept would not survive against the T20. Even the ICC did not take these threats lightly. They also had their respective experts working overtime seeking ways of preserving the cricket’s unchallenged royalty – Test Cricket.
Some thought of changing the colour of the ‘red cherry’ while some others thought of introducing ‘pyjama Test cricket’ that would be played at night. These are still in the pipeline and it may not be very far that the life saving gadgetry would be thrown at the rest of cricket to save the game from the cancerous T20.
Coming back to the Indian plight; once crowning themselves with the initial success with the ‘slap-bang’ theory, Indian cricket earnestly began the work of building upon that platform and thus becoming the undisputed champions of this version of the game as to what Australia is to Test Cricket in the world of cricket.
Though ICL too lured in many a cricketer, their contribution to the unearthing of new talent cannot be measured as they were branded as outlaws by the Indian cricketing authorities.
However the IPL provided. Many young cricketers from the backwoods of India came out into the open and began to brush along with the best of the international talent that this planet could offer. Just imagine the confidence that it would have inculcated in the minds of those cricketers. There was even a story about young cricketer who took refuge in Railway stations and temples while attending practices and at once shot into fame once he got his IPL contract -- becoming games’ “cricket-dog millionaire”. In short India came for the second edition as a fully equipped T20 expert.
At the other end Pakistani cricketers who stayed out of the IPL on a policy decision of the Pakistan Cricket Board in the aftermath of the Mumbai massacre developments, were almost starved of international cricket when they arrived in England to take part in the second edition.
True to their anxiety in the pre-tournament warm-up Pakistan lost to India and then lost to Sri Lanka by 19 runs, but once they drafted Abdul Razzak back from the ICL, the combination grew stronger and lethal.
Sri Lanka on the other hand who had approximately played about five T20 matches prior to this World Cup were almost clueless about how to get about with this challenge. So they did the best could do. They chose the same team that would pose at any given One-day International.
Going for them was that they had five cricketers who performed through out the tournament and they did it very consistently. In batting it was opener Dilshan and skipper Sangakkara while in bowling it were three M’s –Malinga, Murali and Mendis. Ironically two of the other stalwarts were none performers.
Though the national selectors can’t see it veteran Sanath Jayasuriya is getting old by the minute and his consistency is a thing of the past. I was really cross with the selectors when I saw the poor guy batting against the Irish bowling attack. At the same time surprisingly Mahela Jayawardena also seems to have forgotten about the role that he has to play. In reality he has to play the role that Aravinda de Silva played with the national side during the 1996 World Cup. Jayawardena is the most accomplished batsman in the Lankan side and that is amply backed with the exposure than the country has afforded him. So a single good inning each from Jayasuriya and Jayawardena is unacceptable. We feel now it is high time that Jayasuriya decides to pack his bags, while Jayawardena ponder his role for the future responsibility wise.
To stress the point the Lankans looked to Dilshan’s share to the total once too often. When Sri Lanka lost Dilshan cheap against Ireland they began to totter as they chose a wrong man to bat at number 3. Once again without learning from the past experience when Dilshan was clearly trapped by a seventeen-year-old fast bowler, Lanka chose to send in another misfit at number 3. Against Ireland it was a heart stopper, but the Lankans pulled through, but against Pakistan in the final they fell flat on their very faces.
The only other redeeming factor of this tour was the entry of Angelo Mathews into the fray as a very confident fighter and he should have played a bigger role with the bat during this tournament and not coming into bat after that passenger Isuru Udana.
However as the first four of the five we mentioned were selected by the Cricinfo team into their top Xl. IT reads as: 1. Tillakaratne Dilshan: 317 runs, average 52.83, 2. Chris Gayle: 193 runs, average 48.25, 3. Shahid Afridi: 176 runs, average 35.20, 11 wickets, economy-rate 5.32, 4, 4. Kumar Sangakkara: 177 runs, average 35.40, 5. Kevin Pietersen: 154 runs, average 38.50, 6. AB de Villiers: 186 runs, average 37.20, 7. Dwayne Bravo 154 runs, average 38.50, 10 wickets, economy-rate 8.76, 8. Wayne Parnell: 9 wickets, economy-rate 5.71, 9. Umar Gul: 13 wickets, economy-rate 6.44, 10. Lasith Malinga: 12 wickets, economy-rate 7.14, 11. Ajantha Mendis: 12 wickets, economy-rate 5.50, Twelfth men: Saeed Ajmal and Roelof van der Merwe.
PS: Sleep well comrade Woolmer, thank the Lankan tour selectors as they made it possible for your dedication. Rest in peace. |
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