As the crow Flies

In his famous novel, As the crow flies, Jeffry Archer narrates the story of a young boy, named Charlie Trumper who developed a business empire from a very humble beginning. Watching Kenya thrash Zimbabwe out of the world cup one almost gets the feeling of reading the pages from this novel.

Neither it’s the first time that Kenya has done this to a test-playing nation nor I hope it is the last time. In the world cup of 1996 it was Rajib Ali’s awesome bowling that gave him prized wicket of Brian Lara and this time it was almost whole team who played exceptionally well in the tournament.

Kenyan coach, Sandeep Patel, has been requesting media to stop referring to Kenya as minnows and he is damn right in saying so. Mighty South Africa, unpredictable Pakistan, fairly good Windies, unfortunate England and gutless Bengali Tigers are not even in the super six and Kenya, who deserved to be crowned as 10th test playing nation in 2000, is in semi-final, are you kidding me?

Kenyans played spirited cricket and deserved to be where they are as much as Pakistan deserved to be in the semi finals of 1999 world cup after just winning a single game in the super six, ironically that even against Zimbabwe. It is no fault of Kenya that New Zealand opted to not travel to this east African country. Had New Zealanders played in Kenya who knows what would have happened cricket is known for its absurdities, isn’t it ?

This world cup is turning into a very interesting and exciting affair, as it is such unpredictable scenarios that make life and game of cricket so enjoyable. All over the world people have been expressing their displeasure over Kenya’s progress deep in to the last stages of the world cup. People have credited this to the faulty format of the tournament, luck and black caps’ decision to forfeit their game against Kenya. In my opinion this is all baseless and rubbish.

Neither it is the first time nor it will be the last time that any one took advantage of the format of a tournament. In 1999’s world cup Pakistan benefited from their maximum points they carried in the super six, in 1992’s world cup England benefited from the awful rain affected games rule against South Africa, in 1998 Asian Test championship Pakistan played so that they win from Bangladesh in such a way that instead of India they face Sri Lanka and that is precisely what happened, and Pakistan ended up winning ATC. In this world cup Sri Lanka gave serious thought to forfeiting their game to South Africa so that their run rate would still be above New Zealand, weird but true! If Kenya, had innocently just benefited from the way world cup is structured what is their fault in it ? I think this all is to belittle Kenya’s achievements in this world cup. They won their games against two test playing nations, by the way none of the out-of-super-six-test-teams did that. Yes out of super six test teams are very good and strong test playing teams but world cup cannot be and should never be organized to unduly favor big eight test playing nations.

Such unpredictability is ubiquitous in the sporting world. In NFL for last few years an absolutely unknown team is winning the super bowl, St. Louis Rams of 1999, Baltimore Raven in 2000 and New England patriots in 2001 are just few examples. In Denver they never get tired of mentioning that in 1985, third year of the legendary Denver QB John Elway, 11-5 Denver Broncos sat out of the play offs just to see an ordinary 8-8 Cleveland Browns advancing to the play offs.

No matter how you organize a tournament such things can’t be avoided and in my opinion they also add more spice to the game. I think there is Nothing wrong with the format of the world cup and the only thing that ICC needs to improve on is the way they penalized teams for not playing in other countries. It is not to say that I think what they did was wrong, I 100% side with England and New Zealand for opting not to go where they didn’t feel safe to play. It would be a disaster of un-parallel proportions for the world cricket if in an unfortunate event an international player gets killed, I was very pleased to see New Zealand canceling their tour of Pakistan few years back when there was a big bomb blast right in front of their team hotel.

I think ICC should step in and work with the country’s security and provide their guarantees regarding the security arrangements to the teams and if ICC does not feel the security arrangements are adequate only then a tour should be cancelled.

Maurice Odumbe’ little cameo of 38 from merely 20 balls was a delight to watch. His stroke play had an authority of a genuine batsman. He was hitting fours with a great elegance. Earlier in the game Martin Suji bowled really well and basically shown that it is possible to get wickets and be disciplined a trade that Pakistanis have yet to master.

Kenyan cricket is in need of money and I think ICC must do something for such a talented lot. They should be given more and more tournaments they deserve the test status that they been aiming for quite sometime now. ICC must help them find sponsors. I could not believe that they had to purchase their cricket equipment themselves. Their star leg spinner Obuya is a self-taught leg break bowler that talks miles about him. If only he can get a contract from some Australian or English county side that will help him take his bowling to the next level. He is young; he just took his O-level exam and is waiting for the result, and has a long way to go. I imagine if he can get some coaching from Abdul Qadir, one of the best in the art of leg spinning that cricket has ever seen, that will help him to fine tune his action and work on his googly that would help him a lot in commanding some respect from the top batters in the world.

Today PCB handed a ban on Shahid Afridi for his out burst at opposing batsmen Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, and umpire David Shepherd, following a rejected appeal for a wicket during their ill fated game against inform Indian team. This is good news and I hope that will knock some sense into, though I doubt it, Afridi. I was also hoping a similar treatment for Waqar for his two vicious beamers directed at Andrew Symonds.

Now the rest of the world cup. I usually do not try to be caught-up with the prediction business, but for a plethora of reasons I do think that India will end up winning the world cup. India is playing their top cricket right now and their batting has started to come of age and there is clearly less dependence on Tendulkar, by the way its tough not to depend on a player who has scored over 500 runs in this world cup. Aussies have been exposed by England and New Zealand.

India needs to try playing with five regular bowlers against New Zealand and Kenya in the semi final as world cup can’t be won with part time bowlers. Playing Kumble in place of gutless Danish Mongia would give a kick to Indian bowling.

Aussies are missing the services of Jason Gillespie that they might need against India.

New Zealand has always been my second favorite team after Pakistan, I started fast bowling after seeing Sir Richard Hadlee taking 5/62 in Christchurch against Pakistan in the first match of 1979. Black caps are a great side and does have the potential, will and ability to beat Aussies. If they reach into semi final and manage to beat Aussies then it would be a great final. New Zealand should not get carried away

If India can play the way they played against Pakistan I don’t think there is a side in the world that can beat India. People have suggested that this is the test of Tendulkar’s greatness to help India win the world cup, I disagree and think that Tendilya has already established himself as one of the best players ever to grace cricket grounds and does not need the stamp of a world cup title on his name to be great. Famous French soccer star Michael Platini never won a world cup does that make him any lesser player than what he was? Legendary Miami dolphin QB Dan Marino has never won a super bowl for Miami, that does not make him any lesser of a QB, now does it ? Ian Botham and Sir Richard Hadlee never helped their teams to the win a world cup title, you have to be on dope for quite a while to even think that these were not great players.

My east African friend, Soloman, thinks that Kenya will beat India in the day night semi-final because they will ball under the lights and what if we beat Aussies in the final ? This reminds me of a sardar-jee joke. Santa Singh and Banta Singh were sitting in front of their wheat fields near Amirtsar:

Santa Singh: O Banta Singha what about making Punjab a country and calling it Khalistan?

Banta Singh: Ok we got Khalistan, then what ?

Santa Singh: O we will go at war with America.

Banta Singh: and why is that ?

Santa Singh: Look Sardara Germany went at war with them and lost and became so rich, Japan did the same and lost and became so rich. So we will lose the war and We will become rich too.

Bnata Singh: but Santa Singha what if we won the war ?