Rain fails to dampen Ontario B's march to inaugural Twenty20 title
Rather than the continuous flow of excitement that it was supposed to be, cricket was a stop-start affair at Canada's National Twenty20 Cricket Championship at Maple Leaf Cricket Club in King City over the weekend, courtesy of the harsh weather.
The eight participating teams were drawn into two pools, with Pool A comprising of Alberta, B.C., Ontario B and Nova Scotia. Pool B included Manitoba, Ontario A, Quebec and Saskatchewan.
Although the players occasionally had to come off the field because of rain, Saturday proved to be a productive day with the league phase of the tournament being completed.
Some matches however could not last the full 20 overs per side and were adjusted according to the Duckworth-Lewis method, which is a complex formula used in world cricket that revises targets and accounts for time lost and available assets, namely overs and wickets.
B.C. topped Pool A, winning all three of their matches and Ontario B followed them into the semis with two wins out of three. Alberta could only beat a hapless Nova Scotia, but it was an emphatic victory, with Nova Scotia bundled out for 64 runs in 19.2 overs and the Albertans romping to the target in a mere nine overs, courtesy of a belligerent 42 not out from Zulfikar Hussain.
In Pool B, the story was much the same with Ontario A moving into the semifinals undefeated, followed by Quebec with two wins from its three matches.
Manitoba beat Saskatchewan to leave the latter winless in the tournament.
Sunday was to be the big day with two semifinals and the final, but the weather made play impossible. All three games were moved forward to yesterday, but again a wet outfield prevented any play from taking place until past 1 p.m.
The technical committee of Cricket Canada did what it could to salvage the situation and decided on playing the semifinals on a five overs per innings basis, with the final match being 15 overs per side.
Although it is debatable whether an innings of five overs has any place in a serious cricket match, it is worth noting that even the world's leading Twenty20 league, the Indian Premier League (IPL), operates on the technical basis that if teams can complete five overs each, a match has taken place.
Quebec defeated favourites B.C. and Ontario B triumphed over Ontario A to set up a thrilling final match.
Ontario B batting first made 120 runs in their 15 overs, with former Canadian international Sanjay Thuraisingham top-scoring with 36 off 23 balls with three fours and two sixes.
In reply Quebec gave spirited chase but could only muster 104 runs in their 15 overs. Quebec's hopes rested with their captain Qaisser Ali who is one the leading batsmen on the Canadian national team.
Ali fell for 22 runs and then Ontario's Eoin Katchay who, took three wickets for only eight runs, choked Quebec's batting to help his team to a 16-run win and the national Twenty20 title.
This tournament was to be the main national cricket event of the season and it is unfortunate that the weather played spoilsport. In future Cricket Canada may want to push the event deeper into the season and build up to it, rather than starting off the season with it and catching much of the cricketing public unaware.
The location of what should be a high-profile tournament, at the difficult to access King City location, is also a sore point and needs to be addressed for future engagements.
There are ample things to grumble about where Canadian cricket is concerned, but for now it is a relief to have the tournament completed, with a strong Ontario team as proud champions.
(c) Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2008
Lord's keen to host neutral Tests
The MCC is to explore the possibility of Lord's being used as a neutral venue for Test cricket.
The club is willing to allow overseas teams to use the ground during the English summers, if their national boards are interested in doing so.
However, with the Ashes series and Twenty 20 World Cup next year, such a match is unlikely until 2010.
"We are keen to host big matches at Lord's and are open to offers," said MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw.
"We would have to work with international governing bodies - as we do with the England and Wales Cricket Board - because ultimately it would be up to them."
Lord's hosted Test matches between Australia and South Africa in 1912 but that was part of a triangular series, also involving England.
Since then, Pakistan have played Sri Lanka, West Indies and Australia at neutral venues but that was because of security concerns.
New Zealand are touring England this summer and the possibility of using Lord's as a neutral venue is not one which appeals to their captain, Daniel Vettori.
"I know Australia and Pakistan played against each other in Sharjah because of security reasons and I suppose if Lord's is a venue switch because of that then people would jump at it," he said.
"For any other reason it would be difficult because people love playing in front of their home fans and having home advantage."
The MCC has, meanwhile, submitted a planning application to Westminster City Council for six temporary floodlights to be erected at Lord's.
If granted, the floodlights would be in place for the Twenty20 World Cup next summer and the MCC also wants to put them up at the start of each cricket season from 2009 for a period of five years.
BBC (c) MMVIII
Blues boost batting bank
Brad Haddin's elevation to the Australia Test squad has forced New South Wales to boost their keeping stocks by picking up Peter Nevill from Victoria. The arrival of Nevill, who was behind Adam Crosthwaite and Matthew Wade in the Bushrangers' plans, will push Daniel Smith for first-team appearances as Haddin steps up following Adam Gilchrist's retirement. Smith played three Pura Cup matches last season as cover for Haddin, but he has also played as a specialist batsman.
The Blues handed a deal to the fast bowler Burt Cockley who, like Nevill, is aged 22. Cockley made his Pura Cup debut in February after impressing in the Sydney grade competition. Craig Simmons, Tim Lang and Martin Paskal were left off the 19-strong full-contract list. With ten other Blues players on Cricket Australia deals as well, the state list has been afforded a strong emphasis on youth, with seven rookies also in the fold.
Rookies Phillip Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Stephen O'Keefe, Steven Smith and David Warner were rewarded with full contracts after strong seasons. Hughes averaged 62.11 in seven first-class matches, including his initial century in the successful Pura Cup final. He was vice-captain of Australia's Under-19 World Cup side this year and won the state's rising star award.
Khawaja, a left-hander, was the leading run scorer at grade level, making 1134 runs at 59.68. On Pura Cup debut he made a mature 85 at home in February against the eventual finalists Victoria. Smith, a leg-spinning allrounder who was also in the national Under-19 squad this year, has the chance to further push his claims for a regular spot after debuting in both Pura and FR Cups last season and impressing in the Twenty20 competition.
Josh Hazlewood, the 17-year-old fast bowler who was the youngest member of the Australia Under-19 World Cup squad this year, earned a rookie contract, as did Daniel Burns, a left-arm orthodox bowler who was also at the youth World Cup, and former junior internationals Sam Robson, a legspinning allrounder, and Mitchell Starc, a left-arm fast bowler.
James Crosthwaite, Adam's brother and like him a wicketkeeper, also picked up a deal after representing Scotland and ACT. Joshua Lalor, a left-arm fast bowler, and the left-hander Scott Henry complete the rookie set.
The New South Wales chief executive David Gilbert is happy with the depth of the squad but warned that every player must play his part. "The absence of our Australian players will make the 2008-09 season a very challenging one," Gilbert said, "so it will be imperative that the younger players rise to the occasion."
The Blues have lost three players from their 2007-08 group. Matthew Nicholson announced his retirement earlier this year while Aaron O'Brien and Tom Cooper have both transferred to South Australia. The Redbacks were also chasing Greg Mail and Grant Lambert but both decided to stay in New South Wales for study or family reasons.
Squad Aaron Bird, Mark Cameron, Burt Cockley, Ed Cowan, Scott Coyte, Peter Forrest, Nathan Hauritz, Moises Henriques, Phillip Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Grant Lambert, Greg Mail, Peter Nevill, Stephen O'Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Daniel Smith, Steven Smith, Dominic Thornely, David Warner.
Import Peter Nevill.
Rookies Daniel Burns, James Crosthwaite, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Henry, Joshua Lalor, Sam Robson, Mitchell Starc.
Players on the transfer list Craig Simmons, Tim Lang and Martin Paskal.
(c) Cricinfo
But what if Stanford could see beyond the shoot-out?
We don't have a Setanta subscription in our house, so I haven't watched any of the Indian Premier League. But I followed it, right through all the pre-competition hype and blether and the rather undignified scramble by players to get their hands on some of the rich people's pots of gold, and all the way to the end of what appeared to be a duff first match salvaged from ridicule only by Brendon McCullum's remarkable pyrotechnics. At that point I lost all interest in the IPL, an Indian domestic competition after all and no more meaningful to me here than the County Championship is in Sydney.
So from a purely parochial viewpoint the prospect of an England league and a series of winner-takes-all shoot-outs against some sort of West Indies side is much more enticing. India, strictly on the back of an unexpected success in the World Twenty20 in South Africa last year, made a dramatic about-turn in their interest in the format and have taken the promotion of the game to a new level. But there is no reason that the England and Wales Cricket Board, who devised the genre and for reasons of altruism (it wished the world to have a standard format rather than a variety of copy-cat spin-offs) and financial constraints (the expense of patenting and copyrighting globally was deemed massively prohibitive) kept the rights themselves only in the UK and EU, should not try to take things on a stage further.
The talks this week involving ECB executives, the West Indies Board and Sir Allen Stanford, the American billionaire who runs his own Caribbean tournament on his own very special ground near VC Bird airport in Antigua, have been instructive, not least the honest admission from Stanford that he is investing in cricket for the long haul and that he is not a wealthy philanthropist in search of a new toy and an ego trip but a businessman, an entrepreneur who wants a proper return which might one day come from his native country.
Details of an England Premier League, played at a time when the rest of the cricket world is out of season, are sketchy yet and come only from Stanford himself rather than the more reticent ECB, whose people will be calculating what is in it for them as well. But it could involve large-scale private investment in teams, if not IPL-style franchising (the ECB is insistent that it would remain county based). There could be all sorts of clashes of interest, from selection of sides to staffing, but nothing should be insurmountable.
The shoot-outs are an enticing prospect - 20 million dollars a time which, by my calculation, would earn the winning side more from a single delivery than I made from bowling around 60,000 of them. These are high stakes, so the teams and administrators would do well to make sure everyone was clear on the rules of engagement. Imagine a game going to the wire, only for the umpire to adjudge the last man lbw despite a thin inside edge - or a catch that may not have carried. Even more mouthwatering for the mischievous is the thought of another close game, three to win, one ball to go, last man in, a monumental skier and Monty circling underneath it. They could feed the roses for a year on that.
Stanford has made strides already to regenerate the profile of cricket across the Caribbean. His tournament is not confined to the traditional islands but encompasses the small countries too. Yet this is an annual one-off chance for one island to make a killing. And inevitably top players will be drawn to where they can make money that is unavailable at home.
Perhaps this is where Stanford could make a lasting, telling contribution to cricket's resurrection in the region at the highest level. How much would it cost him to take over the central contracts of the top players and up their wages to the sort of stratospheric levels that would prevent them from seeking greener grass elsewhere? A real legacy could be created. It may lack the business attraction of a gladiatorial contest but I bet there is bit of the philanthropist in him. The man who helped bring cricket ambition and glory back to the Caribbean: imagine the prestige in that.
(c) Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
World Cup Semi finals set up nicely
The Cricket world cup has entered its knock out stage & we see the four best teams nicely placed in the Semi finals - Sri Lanka will play New Zealand & Australia will play South Africa. I give all the four teams equal chance to beat each other. Even though the Australian team has clearly looked unbeatable in this tournament, when you come to a one off game its just the team that performs best on the that particular day will be the winner.
One point to note here is that Australia has already beaten all the other three semi finalists in the tournament & without having lost even a single game. They have got into the habit of winning and so it going to be a huge task for the South African team to come up with a great effort to beat the hot Australian team.
Tendulkar dropped & not rested.
The team for the coming Bangladesh tour for the Indian cricket team has been announced & as I have been saying all along that Tendulkar should be dropped, this is exactly what has happened. Even though the Chairman of selectors Mr Dilip Vengsarkar has said that Tendulkar is being rested, it is clearly not the case. I think it is a good & bold step forward in the Indian cricket, because even the biggest names should not be taking their place for granted. Sachin Tendulkar has been included in the Indian test team for the Bangladesh tour but it is good to see him being left out of the one day team for that tour & i hope that like Sourav Ganguly in the recent past that he works hard on his game & makes a strong come back. There is no doubt that Sachin Tendulkar has lot of cricket left in him to give to Indian cricket, but we have to make sure that he does not take his place for granted on his past records only. It is also good to see Harbhajan Singh has been dropped & the better off spinner Ramesh Powar taking his place.
The current world cup of cricket has already taken its toll on two captains i.e. Inzamam of Pakistan & Brian Lara of West Indies, but we in India have still insisted with retaining Rahul Dravid as the Captain? Its quite sure the BCCI is willing to make the changes after our early loss in the World Cup, but not at the pace it should be doing. Does Indian team need to be defeated again in Bangladesh in the forthcoming tour to wake up the Cricket officials running the affairs of the game in India?
World Cup win is an unfulfilled dream - Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar has said winning the World Cup is an "unfulfilled dream" for him and though he said he would like to play the 2011 edition of the tournament he didn't want to commit to anything that far away.
If Tendulkar plays in the tournament that will be jointly hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, it'll be a record sixth World Cup appearance for him. "I am enjoying my cricket at the moment and don't want to think too much into the future," Tendulkar told CNN-Lokmat, a regional language news channel. "I have been playing almost non-stop for 20 years and want to focus only on the present. I prefer to take series by series."
Though he didn't specify when he would retire, Tendulkar said even after he quit he would like to be associated with the game. "I would like to spend more time with my family, but will in some way be connected with cricket. The only thing I have known in all these years is to play cricket and I would have to be always associated with the game."
Tendulkar missed the second Test against South Africa in Ahmedabad - where India suffered an innings defeat - and is set to miss the third one in Kanpur as well because of a groin injury he picked up during the first Test in Chennai. He said playing cricket had never been for the money.
"I never played the game thinking about the money I would make out of it, and neither do the youngsters [think like that] today. This game has given me sleepless nights, just thinking of how I will play the next day. That excitement can never be measured in terms of money. Right from the start, all I wanted was to play well and score as many runs as possible. That has been my motivation, not money."
Tendulkar also denied reports that there were rifts in the Indian team. "These reports of senior-junior rift are totally false. In the team, seniors and juniors respect each other, and we realise the importance of playing for the country. The media is damaging its credibility by giving stories without authentic information."
Asked who he thought was the most inspiring captain he had encountered, Tendulkar said Nasser Hussain, the former England captain, was one who was always two steps ahead of the game.
Meanwhile, Lalchand Rajput, the coach of the Mumbai Indians, is confident Tendulkar will be fit in time to lead the franchise in the IPL. "Sachin is a player who does not like to miss any games," he told PTI. "I am sure the physio will take care of him and he will be all right in time for the IPL."
(c) Cricinfo
Questions persist in Cricket World Cup spending
Further questions have been raised about the involvement of Ambassador David Shoul in the contracts associated with Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007, after the emergence of documents which suggest that he may have been deeply involved in the award of a stadium works contract to the C.O. Williams Construction company.
There is also evidence that Minister of Works Wilmoth Daniel was sufficiently concerned about Shoul's role in the C.O. Williams deal to appeal to Attorney-General Justin Simon for a legal opinion on the level of Shoul's involvement.
The road construction and ancillary work associated with the stadium became controversial after it was revealed that there were massive cost overruns associated with the project. While Williams' company was originally asked to complete $27 million in works, its role was eventually expanded and C. O. Williams Construction received over $53.4 million of the $82.7 million in contracts the Ministry of Public Works administered in relation to the cricket stadium.
The opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP) has, for several months, been demanding an accounting of both the contract process and the spending associated with the project, and has picketed Shoul's office demanding such answers.
Both Health Minister John Maginley, who served as the chairman of World Cup Antigua Inc., the local organising committee in the run-up to CWC, and Director of Works Charlesworth "Barry" Davis have publicly stated that Ambassador Shoul had no influence over the award of contracts or payments associated with the CWC stadium works.
The Antigua Sun contacted Ambassador Shoul yesterday for a reaction to the various allegations which have been publicly levied against him and while he was unavailable for an immediate interview, he has indicated that he will address the issue with the SUN shortly.
The SUN has been provided with copies of two letters relevant to the issue of Shoul's involvement in the C.O. Williams deal.
The first was a letter from Minister Daniel to Attorney- General Justin Simon, dated 2 Feb., 2006 in which Daniel appears to take issue with the procedure undertaken for the award of the contract to C.O. Williams.
Enclosing a copy of a letter from Shoul to Williams, Daniel pointed out to the attorney-general that PM Spencer, Dr. Cort and Shoul were the ones to make the project proposal to the construction company.
"I also enclose a copy of a letter addressed to me from H.E. (His Excellency David Shoul) in which he describes the above letter to Sir Charles O. Williams as the proposal dated 20 Jan., 2006 which he claims was sanctioned by the prime minister before dispatch.
"Sir David graciously supplied me with a copy for my information.
"I should be obliged to receive your comments and opinion on these
"transactions in light of your recent pronouncement that the government of Antigua and Barbuda accepted the Don Mitchell CBE, QC report which recommends that the amateurish way in which I had conducted negotiations in the past should be discontinued."
Daniel went on to request an opinion for the attorney-general on the issue, asking that this be dealt with urgently.
Daniel's letter was copied to the members of Cabinet as it was composed at the time.
The SUN understands that the minister of works did not receive a response to his letter from the attorney-general.
The SUN is also in possession of the letter from Ambassador Shoul about which Minister Daniel expressed concern. This second letter was addressed to Sir Charles O. Williams, C.O. Williams Construction (Antigua) Ltd.
In that letter, dated 20 Jan., 2006, Ambassador Shoul informed Williams that at a meeting held the previous day between Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer, Minister of Finance and the Economy Dr. Errol Cort and Ambassador Shoul as co-ordinator of the Intra-Governmental Working Group for CWC 2007, it was agreed that the government would engage the services of the construction company "to continue the infrastructure works at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium."
The letter went on to outline some of the terms of the agreement. These included commitments by the government to give C.O. Williams Construction $2 million as payment for mobilisation of the project within 14 days of the company's commencement of work at the stadium.
An additional $2 million was to be paid within 60 days of the project's commencement "as the first monthly payment upon receipt of invoice."
The letter also laid out arrangements for monthly payments for works completed.
The company was asked to communicate it acceptance of these terms "so that you can commence work immediately and we proceed hastily with the preparation of the necessary documentation and legal approvals."
"You have the assurance that following your acceptance and subsequent commencement of work, the government will address the schedule of payment of the country's indebtedness to your company and the cautions placed on your company's lands," the letter concluded.
The letter was copied to the prime minister, the minister of finance and Minister of Works Wilmoth Daniel.
Minister Daniel was not available for comment on this issue yesterday.
(c) SUN Printing & Publishing LTD 2003-2008. All Rights Reserved.
|
