1 The best-laid plans
Sitting rock-bottom in Pool A after two harrowing defeats – albeit from their two toughest fixtures – England will wonder how the grand idea of a winter one-day boot camp blew up in their faces so spectacularly.
The England and Wales Cricket Board’s decision to clear the decks for a diet of white-ball cricket before the World Cup, by shifting the Ashes forward 12 months, has not only led to the break-up of the Test side but now looks a wasted opportunity courtesy of months of indecision.
England dithered over the captaincy of Alastair Cook, moved Ian Bell from opener to No3 to out of the side to opener and then parachuted Gary Ballance into the side with a single warm-up game under his belt, shunting James Taylor down from first-drop in the process. I’ll spare you the gruesome analysis of the bowling.
The commercial pay-off for the pre-tournament Tri-Series was, if you remember, a five-match home clash with Australia in 2012 – at the expense of a fourth Test against South Africa –handsomely won 4-0 to help Cook’s side claim the No1 spot in the rankings by the end of that summer.
It felt at the time like they were on to something.
2 The Kiwis are flying
Shorn of their regular dark horse status and installed as the thinking man’s favourites ahead of the World Cup, Brendon McCullum’s side have so far lived up to the pre-tournament hype.
A gameplan based on aggressive batting – they’ve scored at just under seven runs an over– and a deadly pace attack – 30 wickets at 17 runs apiece – has seen the co-hosts race out of the traps in week one with three clinical wins.
What England’s samey all right-arm attack would do for quick leftie Mitchell McGlenaghan, who takes a one-day wicket every 25 balls. He currently can’t get a game.
3 The Aussies are in disarray
OK, that might be putting a ripping spin on things. But for all the electric, exciting cricket on display at the MCG against England last Saturday – albeit with a Mitchell-reliant attack – it has been curious to watch from afar as the narrative surrounding their team has centred on Michael Clarke’s comeback from a hamstring tear.
The return of a batsman who averages 44.86 in ODIs – and 83.62 in World Cups – would be a formality for most sides. And yet with Clarke it never seems to be simple.
George Bailey, the man set to step aside, has led the side impeccably with seven wins from his past seven, despite having lost the toss six times. From 70 for three, his 55 in a stand of 146 with Aaron Finch was the platform for the England evisceration.
Clarke meanwhile has played just six one-dayers since the start of last year – twice pulling up lame – while the buildup to the World Cup has been dogged by talk of a rift with the selectors and a team more than happy in his absence.
With Cyclone Marcia looking set to delay his slated return against Bangladesh in Brisbane on Saturday, the chatter will continue.
4 There’s a gaping hole in the ODI playing regulations
When Australia wrapped up a 111-run victory (it felt like more) against England last Saturday with the run-out of James Anderson, a glitch in the ICC ODI playing regulations was exposed and as yet it remains worryingly unresolved.
When James Taylor successfully overturning an lbw decision via the decision review system, the events that followed should have been irrelevant with the ball called dead as per 3.6a of appendix 6 of the DRS.
Say the delivery had been the last of the innings, with England needing four to win (unlikely, granted). Even if the ball shot down to the boundary rope off the pad, a successfully overturned lbw decision would still go down in the scorebook as a dot ball – and not leg byes – with the fielding side emerging victorious.
However this anomaly is resolved, best to do it before the scenario painted above comes to pass, surely.
5 It’s one rule for the players …
How two on-field umpires, a TV umpire, a fourth umpire and a match referee can experience such a collective meltdown – as explored by my colleague Mike Selvey here – was baffling, not least because England’s James Taylor, two runs short of a maiden ODI century, was quite clearly seen pointing out their error at the time.
That Ireland’s John Mooney and West Indies’ Darren Sammy were docked 30% of their match fees for on-air expletives during their World Cup opener, mistakes similarly made during the heat of the moment, and the five officials were left free to carry on their tournaments without the ignominy of being stood down for a match or two, sticks in the craw somewhat.
6 Fletcher strolling towards the exit door
Seating plans, as any married couple knows, are an awkward affair at the best of the times. But the sight of Ravi Shastri at the front of the Indian balcony in their 76-run victory over Pakistan, with Duncan Fletcher very much planted at the back, told its own story.
Fletcher’s position as India’s head coach looked shaky when Shastri was parachuted into the management setup as the team director after their 3-1 Test defeat to England last summer. More so when the Zimbabwean’s trusted lieutenants Joe Dawes and Trevor Penney were subsequently relieved of their duties after the tour.
Fletcher continued in the role. But the issue was raised again when the Indian news outlet Times Now released footage on Tuesday of what they claimed was Fletcher out for a stroll in Melbourne while Shastri held an impromptu team meeting to discuss tactics for Sunday’s Pool B clash with South Africa at the MCG. The BCCI spokesperson Dr RN Baba hit back at the report, claiming it was baseless.
Either way, don’t expect a change of heart and fresh terms for the 66-year-old when his contract expires at the end of the tournament.
7 Kohli has Sachin in his sights
With a seemingly effortless 107 chalked up against Pakistan in Sunday’s cruise at the Adelaide Oval, Virat Kohli now has just the great Sachin Tendulkar looking down on him from on top of the list of Indian one-day centurions.
At just 26, the right-hander drew level with the next-best Sourav Ganguly’s tally of 22 hundreds in just his 151st appearance – 157 games fewer than the Prince of Kolkata.
At the same point of his career, caps-wise, Tendulkar had registered just 12 of his eventual 49 one-day hundreds. At his current rate, Kohli will boast 67 three-figure scores should his career to enjoy the same longevity as the Little Master’s 463-cap epic.
Sachin never had the luxury of just four men outside the circle, of course.
8 Irish ire
Not so the Irish who, emboldened by their win over West Indies in Nelson on Monday, have spoken openly and angrily about the governing body’s plan to cut the current 14-team format by four sides in 2019.
“I feel it’s a retrograde step to move to a 10-team World Cup,” said the batsman Ed Joyce, who then made a point of tweeting a link to Andy Bull’s latest Spin column on the subject. “I don’t see how that contributes to growing the game.”
“It’s not like that in any other sport,” bristled the captain, William Porterfield, on the subject of Test and associate status. “I don’t see why it has to be like that in ours.”
They’re not going away quietly.
9 Fix talk is tweet
The old adage that a stopped clock tells the right time twice day (once if it is digital) sprung to mind after speculation that the India versus Pakistan match was fixed due to the prediction of a mystic tweeter.
Social media became awash with such chatter after one @AslamkhanTanoli tweeted, five hours before the end result, that India would post 300 and Pakistan make 220 in reply (our man was four runs out on the latter, as it happens).
The scribe in question – who describes himself as a supporter and worker of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – has shot to fame in Pakistan, even appearing on the evening news. He maintains he just called it the match as he saw it. Others believe his trick was to tweet a host of scenarios multiples of 10 before deleting all but the one that came closest.
The US embassy in Kabul copped similar fix accusations when their Twitter feed congratulated Afghanistan on their win over Bangladesh just 10 overs into the match. They went on to lose, naturally.
10 It takes time
The sight of the diminutive Bangladesh wicketkeeper, Mushfiqur Rahim, demolishing the stumps to finish off Afghanistan in their Pool A opener in Canberra, before leading his side on a lap of honour, was one of genuine unbridled joy.
But that did not stop a mean-spirited reaction online (you’ll never guess on which platform), scoffing at how a Test nation could derive such pleasure from beating a lowly associate side when Ireland had, just the day before, been subdued at sinking West Indies.
That the ICC, who cynically over-promoted Bangladesh to the top table 15 years ago, will squeeze out the chasing pack with a 10-team tournament in four years’ time still seems a poor reason to sniff at a band of young, enthusiastic cricketers, five of whom tasted a World Cup victory for the first time.
As the shrewdies pointed out when Scotland slumped to 12 for four in Dunedin on Tuesday, it took New Zealand, the tournament frontrunners, 26 years and 45 Test matches to record their first win. Development in international cricket takes time and Bangladesh – the team – are still in the early stages of their own journey.
