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I have just read a wonderful post by Sambit Bal, the editor of Cricinfo, titled Tendulkar breaks Cricinfo records. Just when you start thinking what else remains, Sachin Tendulkar comes up with something new.
Sambit Bal says that Cricinfo recorded its highest traffic on the day when Sachin broke the 200 barrier in ODIs. He mentions that when Sachin was a couple of runs away from the mark, the viewer traffic became so large that it crashed a couple of Cricinfo servers.
One interesting thing that he mentions is that Cricinfo recorded the highest number of unique users from United States of America on 24th February 2010. When Sachin scored his first 100 runs in that match, the sun had not risen in USA. And the country was just waking up when Sachin blasted his last 100 runs in 57 balls.
So there you go, SRT robbed a number of his fans based in the USA from sleep. Not that they would mind it!
The big news in the smaller cricketing circles is the progress made by Afghanistan in their cricket. Their star paceman, Hamid Hassan, has already likened the success of the Afghan cricket team to that of Rocky. 22 year old Hasan, who has played at Lord's, played for MCC Young Cricketers' Team and the Pakistan Customs team, was quoted as saying, "I think that there is a similarity in the story of Rocky and the Afghanistan cricket team - we both started at the bottom and gradually made our way up the rankings."
Last year, the Afghan team missed out on qualifying for the World Cup 2011 to be held in the sub - continent. Now, they are at Dubai on the verge of qualification into the World Twenty20 World Cup to be held in the Caribbean islands in May.
Continuing on his Rocky theme, Hassan adds: "We all want to win the tournament. Having the chance to play against India or South Africa at the ICC World Twenty20 really would be like Rocky having the chance to fight the champion and we are determined to make our dreams come true."
Afghanistan are certainly on a high having an undefeated run in the Qualifying tournament so far. Not only did they beat the more fancied Ireland and Scotland, they have also beaten the United States of America comprehensively in a match that they desperately wanted to win because of their recent past.
Even though the journey gets more difficult for them from here on (Netherlands later today and hosts UAE tomorrow), one wouldn't put in past Afghanistan to be seen in their blue and red apparels at the Providence Stadium, Guyana or the Beausejour Stadium, Gros Islet, St Lucia taking on either West Indies or India in their first taste of the highest level of the game.
February 11, 2010: it's going to be an interesting day for cricket. I know that India v South Africa First Test gets over on 10th and a New Zealand - Bangladesh ODI hardly qualifies as interesting.
Well, it's not going to be interesting in the conventional sense. It's going to be an interesting day because Afghanistan take on the United States of America at Dubai in the World T20 Qualifiers Tournament. This tournament will decide which associate nations will take part in the World T20 Championship to be held in the Caribbean Islands in June this year.
If you are still wondering what's so interesting about this match (I hope not!), then let me remind you that USA (or rather George W. Bush) had, in the not so distant past, declared a war on Afghanistan in its fight against terrorism. I guess that I would be right in presuming that many of Afghanistan's cricketers might have lost their near and dear ones as a direct result of that war. The scars have certainly not faded. They will be keen and desperate to get the better of USA on the cricket field.
I know that this rivalry does not match the hype and passion generated by an Indo - Pak or an Ashes contest, but its going to be a heated battle nonetheless. Afghanistan are on a roll, and are being regarded as the most improved Associate side during the last year. USA, on the other hand, has failed to live up to the initial promise shown by them. However, they will have the advantage of having Lennox Cush in their team. Lennox Cush, incidentally, played a part in the infamous Stanford Superstars versus England match, and so will have some experience of top - flight cricket behind him.
I doubt this match will generate a lot of crowd (scheduled to start at 10:00 am on a weekday), but Afghanistan can expect the support of whatever little Dubai crowd gathers at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
