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Next Global Cricket Event

So after an unbelievable end to the ICC’s last World event, the jamboree moves on, changes format and continent – one thing guaranteed is that there will not be a winner decided on boundaries. Question – will the batters and bowlers have to change if there are multiple Super Overs?

The World T20 tournament takes place in Australia in 2020 with both the women’s and men’s competition staged there but not concurrently or even consecutively.

10 Women’s nations will complete in February-March with the usual suspects and one surprise qualifier. Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Thailand.. yeap.. Thailand. They won through the qualification competition in Scotland.

Good luck to all of those – you can look at the schedule, view results and keep updated with news here. The semi-finals are being played at the SCG and final at the ‘G…. Tickets are on sale now.

In the Slot

FeaturedLiam Tebb

So after 47 matches, 353 sixes, 656 wickets, 10 teams have been whittled down to the final 2. England and New Zealand will play the CWC2019 final at the Home of Cricket on Sunday. Lords will be hosting its 5th world cup cricket final and this will be England’s second final appearance there after losing by 93 runs to the mighty Windies in 1979.

Who will prevail on Sunday? Will it come down to the toss, or an amazing piece of fielding? No matter, there will be a new name on the trophy as neither side have won the cup before with England losing in 1987 and 1992 as well as 1979, New Zealand lost in the last world cup against Australia in the cathedralesque MCG. The last new name on the trophy was Sri Lanka in 1996.

Whilst the cricket powerhouses have been playing across England and Wales, other nations with aspirations have been playing in tournaments and tours across the world. Malaysia, the hosts, came out on top of the Tri-Nations tournament with Maldives and Thailand coming 2nd and 3rd respectively. The Maldives were helped by a no-result match against Malaysia which saw them awarded 1 point which kept them above Thailand – so weather does affect other countries as well as this green and pleasant land.

Zimbabwe have toured Netherlands playing T20s and ODIs – the T20s were shared but the Dutch prevailed in the ODIs. Perhaps the Dutch are heading back to the times when they humiliated England in a T20 World Cup – dark days indeed. Zimbabwe have moved on to Ireland – check out the series here.

So back to Sunday – won’t it be interesting to see what the viewing figures are like now that Channel 4 and Sky 1 will be showing the match on free to air tv? First time since 2005 – Mambo No5 or not, it’s going to be exciting.

On the edge.

FeaturedLiam Tebb, LiamTebb, Liam Tebb rugby

What a week or so it has been at the Cricket World Cup. There have been records in terms of the number of sixes hit in an international match by one batter, the most sixes hit in a CWC match and the most runs conceded by a bowler in a CWC match – all in one match.

There have been some edge of the seat thrillers, India and New Zealand prevailing by what turns out to be inches (possibly the top 2!!) against Afghanistan and West Indies. The pre-tournament favourites are wobbling (losing 2 consecutive matches at home for the first time since 2015) and whilst not quite requiring snookers, they do need to win their last 2 matches to be in the mix to qualify. The next week will determine who finishes in the final 4 to reach the semi-finals.

With most of the eyes of world’s cricket followers focused on this green and pleasant land, other world tournaments sometimes get overlooked. We have had the World T20 European qualifying tournament held in Guernsey – this featured the top 6 associate nations competing in 15 matches for a place in the world qualifier. The teams competing were Guernsey, Germany, Norway, Denmark and the favourites Jersey and Italy. There were some rain affected matches but in the end Jersey prevailed and topped the table going through the competition unbeaten including a 73 run victory over the Italians – here is the scorecard.

So where next – well its great news for both Italy and Jersey, as the top two teams qualify for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier in United Arab Emirates from 11 October to 3 November 2019, where the seven qualifiers from regional finals will join Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Oman, Scotland and Zimbabwe, who missed out on qualifying for the event proper after finishing outside the top ten as on the cut-off date of 31 December 2018. The UAE have also confirmed their spot in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier as hosts of the event.

Six qualifiers from the UAE event will join Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies who have qualified already directly for the Men’s T20 World Cup after finishing in the top ten as on the cut-off date of 31 December 2018.

Another tournament has been a women’s T20 tournament in Rwanda featuring Uganda, Tanzania, the hosts Rwanda and Mali. Spare a thought for the Mali team – they started off poorly with scores of 6, 11 and 10 – the latter resulting in a 304 run defeat, in 20 0vers! The team did bowl 28 wides and 30 no balls, here is the scorecard. The team did improve with score of 30-9 in the next match before reverting to score 17 and 14 in their next two matches. Unsurprisingly Mali finished bottom of the table – conceding 885 runs and scoring 88 in the 6 matches. Here is the final table from that tournament.

Look out for more news and views from World Cricket in the next instalment – with the Maldives, Thailand and Malaysia playing in a tri-nation series.

Quality over quantity

Liam Tebb

It has been a frustrating week for the followers of the Cricket World Cup 2019, with rain affecting more matches than have been at all the previous tournaments combined and sadly the forecast for the coming week is no better. It can rain at any time so having reserve days may not have resolved the challenge that the poor weather poses. There are reserve days for the semi-final and final – but no one wants to see the final played on Monday 15th July.

Fortunately, for the organisers and fans, the mega match between India and Pakistan was played although rain affected and the dreaded Duckworth Lewis Stern method came into play and Pakistan ended over 80 runs short of the Indian total. There was a potential global audience of 1 billion tv viewers and over 700,ooo ticket applications – the atmosphere was fantastic with plenty of national flags and super fans on display.

The debate continues over the number of teams playing and why some of the lower ranked team are not in attendance. Imagine if there were top 14 ranked teams – we would then see the likes of Ireland, Scotland, Zimbabwe and Nepal competing. Is there any value in having these games? If we could ask the players of the Thai women’s football team how they felt as they conceded the 13th goal in the Women’s Football World Cup against the USA – what would they say?

Back in 2007, the tournament was hosted in the Caribbean for the first time. There were 16 teams present so the likes of Canada, Netherlands, Kenya and Bermuda qualifying. Would the presence of these national teams develop cricket in their countries ? Well a mere 12 years later, neither of these sides are in the top 14 ranked sides. There were grumblings that the quantity of sides was not adding to the value of the tournament.

Cricket needs to expand and develop – but has it reached a stagnation point? Maybe not – just look at Afghanistan. They were admitted into the ICC in 2001 and were elected as an affiliate member of the ICC in 2008, followed by Associate membership in 2014. In 2015, they qualified for the ICC World Cup . They have also qualified for the ICC World Twenty20 qualifier on four consecutive occasions, and participated in ICC World Twenty20 three times. The Afghanistan national cricket team earned official One Day International status in April 2009.

Today cricket is the most popular sport in Afghanistan and the development of the sport has had significant interest increase due to the quick progress of the Afghanistan Cricket Team in the international arena.

Is it a ‘World’ cup?

Liam Tebb, Cricket World Cup

Is the game truly global?

Here’s a question, which 2 nations played in the first official international match? Any guesses? See below for the answer.

With only 10 participating countries, and half of the countries come from one continent, the spread is limited. As mentioned previously, the ICC’s aim is for cricket to be the most supported sport, but just how many countries officially play cricket?

The ICC has 104 member nations – to add context, there are 211 in FIFA, 206 in the Olympic movement and 193 in the United Nations. The ICC divides it’s members into 2 categories – full members and associate members. There are 12 full members, the 10 playing at the current CWC19 plus Ireland and Zimbabwe. Ireland are the newest full member and will play a first test match against England at Lord’s this summer. So why are Ireland and Zimbabwe not playing in CWC19?

Looking at the ODI rankings, Zimbabwe and Ireland are 11th and 12th; followed by Scotland, Nepal and UAE. So they could be playing but are not ranked high enough. This rating is worked out by dividing the points scored by the match/series total, with the answer given to the nearest whole number. It can be compared with a batting average, but with points instead of total runs scored and a match/series total instead of number of times dismissed. Clear? It does not really answer the question as to why there are only 10 nations involved this time.

Perhaps it is due to the upcoming England vs Australia Ashes series, where the teams will play 5 Test matches, with the final match starting at the Oval on 12th September, so there is a lot of cricket to squeeze into the summer – here is a list of all the England men’s fixtures this summer. The next world cup is scheduled to be hosted by India, from 9 February to 26 March 2023 with 10 teams again – no conflict with Ashes there. How can Ireland, Scotland or Zimbabwe qualify? There is another competition that will decide who joins India at the tournament.

The 2020–22 ICC Cricket World Cup Super League will be the inaugural edition of the ODI league. The league will last from May 2020 to March 2022 and will serve as part of the qualification process for the 2023 Cricket World Cup.

It will feature thirteen countries, the twelve Full members of the ICC and the Netherlands, who won the 2015–17 ICC World Cricket League Championship to qualify for this competition. Each team will play an ODI series against eight of the twelve opponents, four series at home and four away. Each series will consist of three ODIs.

So still only 10 nations playing – not so much of a ‘world’ cup!

Oh the answer : The first international match was played in New York in 1844 – between USA and Canada. Canada won by 23 runs. On the first day, there were from 5000 to 20000 spectators. Both Canada and USA are associate members.

Match Abandoned – Rain

Liam Tebb

A busy few days at CWC19 and we have seen the first complete washout of this year’s tournament. Unbelievably the match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was only the 3rd full washout in Cricket World Cup history dating back to 1975. The powerhouse teams of England and New Zealand managed to deal with lower ranking sides without too much trouble in Cardiff and Taunton. India and Australia shared nearly 670 runs but India coming out on top at the Oval by 36 runs.

The first men’s tournament was held in England 2 years after the first women’s tournament. 8 men’s teams participated – with the top 6 ranked sides and 2 invited teams from Sri Lanka and a combined team from Kenya, Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania playing as East Africa. ODIs were still in the early stages with only 18 matches taking place between Test match playing countries.

Unlike more recent ODIs the first world cup had matches of 60 overs per side, with England and India taking part in the first fixture. England scored a 2019 esque 334/4 in their allocated overs, however India may not really have grasped the concept and scored a tortuous 132/3 in their 60 overs with Sunil Gavaskar scoring 36 not out in the full 60 overs. The tournament only lasted a fortnight – as there was not much thought for the television audience with matches on the same day through the 2 group round robin stage. The semi-finals were between England and Australia, West Indies and New Zealand – this is the only time in CWC history that no team from the Indian sub continent in this stage of the tournament. England, ominously the pre-tournament favourites, were rolled over by the Australians for 93 all out, who then knocked off the runs with 4 wickets left. WI had to score just 156 to beat the Kiwis to set up the final on the year’s longest day.

In the final, the West Indies beat Australia by 17 runs, after a captain’s innings from  Clive Lloyd (102). The Australian innings was marked by top-order batsmen being run out when going for runs after mis-fields. A total of five of their team were run out, three by Vivian Richards.

Cricket World Cup

Liam Tebb

Having watched my son’s Twickenham U15s cricket team play against Switzerland U-15s on 02 June and then attending a Cricket World Cup (CWC19) match at the Oval between Bangladesh and New Zealand on 05 June, I have felt inspired to write about the tournament and world cricket in general.

The world game, and the current tournament in England, is run by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Their stated goal and ambition is for cricket to become the world’s favourite sport – not sure how that can be measured but with the timings of the matches, the huge fan bases in the India, Pakistan and Bangladesh will be fully engaged. The Bangladesh fans at the Oval certainly made for a fantastic atmosphere.

The CWC19 involves the top 10 ranked One Day International (ODI) teams in the world so the likes of Ireland, Scotland, Zimbabwe and Nepal miss out with Afghanistan come to the party. Are Afghanistan the dark horses? 2 of their current players are in the top 3 rankings for all-rounders (players who bat and bowl with equal ability). Indeed both Bangladesh and Afghanistan have more bowlers ranked in the top 25 than England do!

England are the number 1 ranked side and favourites for the current tournament. They have 4 all-rounders in the top 20, and 5 batsmen.

The format of this tournament is different to the last one, held in and won by Australia. Each team will play against each other in matches scheduled to be 50 overs each side. After these round-robin matches, the top 4 teams will proceed to the semi-finals and the final taking place at Lords on 14th July.