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The venue shifts to Harare as India take on the hosts Zimbabwe... seeking revenge for the humiliation meted out to them in the first game of the tri - series. In another part of the world, West Indies will seek to salvage some pride by trying to beat the South Africans in the 5th ODI to be held at Port of Spain.
The Sulieman Benn incident left me completely muddled... I mean, have you ever heard of anything like this before? I was never ordered out of a cricket game even in school... even though I was pathetic. This was a top-flight One Day International! What's wrong with the West Indies? Is this the same team that was once represented by the likes of Gary Sobers, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd and other men who gave it their all for the team and their captain?
I pity Chris Gayle's situation. He is a man with capability of being a part of most top international teams. Sadly though, he does not have many such men at his disposal. He may get a once-in-a-while exceptional performance from the likes of Dwayne Bravo, but that's about it. The likes of Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul are also not as consistent as they used to be... and the biggest problem is that when one man performs, the others fail. They just don't seem to remember how to click together as a team.
I do have a suggestion... totally mad though it may seem! DISBAND THE WEST INDIES!
Why do all the islands have to play under the banner of the West Indies Cricket Board? All the other teams play for the pride of representing their nation... what do the Carribbean cricketers play for? Pride of what? The pride of Carribbean cricket's rich past seems to have been sadly forgotten and swept deep under the carpet.
I had this idea when I saw Trinidad and Tobago perform admirably in the inaugual edition of Champions League Twenty20 last year. They played with a fervour that was possibly better than that shown by the World Champions England last month! And I guess that it was because they were playing for their country... with their countrymen. They didn't have to compete for their spots with other nationalities and also suffer problems with a cricket board that governs cricket in several countries!
If Trinidad and Tobago or Barbados or Jamaica or even St. Lucia or St. Kitts represented themselves in international cricket instead of representing the West Indies, I believe it would do a lot of good for the game. They may not be world beaters straight away... but I feel it will encourage the growth of cricket in that region. The politics will reduce drastically and the competition will be a lot healthier.
And to top it all, it will also help if cricket is to be represented in events such as Olympics. West Indies cannot win a medal... but Barbados certainly can.
I don't know if anyone has thought of this idea before or if it is going to be implemented any time soon... but I really do think it is worth a shot! Simply because, the current situation seems completely hopeless... there is simply no light at the end of a tunnel! And when you see a glow there, it just turns out to be an oncoming train!
Something's got to be done... and something's got to be done fast!
Two of the semi finalists of the ICC World Twenty20 Championship have been confirmed. England and Pakistan. And it would be safe to say that Australia is also confirmed.
So there is a fight on for the last spot between three teams - Sri Lanka, West Indies and India.
This last spot is a very important one - not because it is a semi-final spot, but because the team that will take that spot will play England in the semi-finals. Now, I know that England is playing good cricket, Kevin Pietersen is in roaring form, even Tim Bresnan is coming up with match-winning performances... but I do not expect them to proceed any further in the tournament. Losing semi-finalists is a good enough performance by any English team in an ICC tournament.
While we all wonder about South Africa's choking tendencies, we tend to forget that England team is much the same. Only, their losses are never called 'choking' because no one really expects them to proceed further. With good reason.
This time though, there are expectations. And pretty high ones at that. Will that change anything? I really doubt it. And that is why, the two fixtures today become all the more important.
Sri Lanka and India have a better chance than West Indies of beating England with their spinners on the St. Lucia pitch in the semi-finals. This implies that the team who profits from the day's play will have a very realistic chance of facing Australia in the finals (oh yes, Australia is going to smash Pakistan like they have done all through their summer)!
All this means that Australia is going to win this tournament (no, no, no please!), I see no other alternative. The only chance of them losing is in the semi-finals... and I don't see it happening with Pakistan as their opponents. Once they reach the finals, they are bound to win it. The last time they lost the finals of a major multi-team (more than 3 teams) tournament was way back in 1996 to an Arjuna Ranatunga-led Sri Lanka. The only other time in history where they have lost such a final is in another generation - the 1975 World Cup final loss to Clive Lloyd's West Indies.
So, here's my verdict: Australia beat Sri Lanka / West Indies / India to lift the World Twenty20 Championship.
