Musings on the Australian Cricket World Cup:

Who caught the cricket finale Saturday? Wasn’t it a rather dismal way for the Auzzies to finish a rather momentous winning streak.

What were the two umpires smoking? I have a certain fondness for Steve Bucknor. I love the way he shakes his head ‘No,’ when overzealous bowlers let out a cry for a wicket. But on Saturday he and his colleague dropped the ball big time (oh god my HR speak permeates everything I say these days…)

For those who didn’t see the match, picture this: It’s the last remaining overs; the game has been plagued by rain delays. As the match stands the Sri Lankans need a daunting nineteen runs per over the beat the Australians. It is also dark, verging on pitch black. The Umpires go up to the bats men and have a chat. Whatever it is, the Lankans accept, walking off the field. The Australians, fans, score boards and announcers naturally assume that common sense has prevailed, the game is done, and the Auzzies have won. They celebrate, they jump on each other, flash boards congratulate the Auzzies. The Barbadians begin to bring out the podium stands. The Rasta fella with the tight Jamaican Pumas begins to pick up the disks marking the field. The dancers get ready to do their thing. All until the umpires go around shaking their head going, saying: “Oh No the match isn’t over, “We gave the Sri Lankans a rain delay;” meaning that the teams would have to finish the game tomorrow.

The Sri Lankan Captain comes out, obviously concerned and makes the most sensible decision of the match, ‘let’s just get it over with.’ So to allow the game to run its natural conclusion, the two teams played the last few balls in utter darkness. And to add insanity to it all, one of the umpires even calls a wide.

The end of the match was another nail in the cricket organizations coffin. Frankly the whole tournament was marred by controversy and bad planning:
~Woolmers death – Still no idea who did it or why? BBC Update: he was poisoned, and strangled….but why?
~The format of the game was tedious, for instance why didn’t all teams play each other in the first round. The second round was a long bore.
~An obvious lack of competition for the Australians, who do we blame for this?
A lack of foresight for the possibility of losing their biggest fan base early on. The loss of India and Pakistan, the two countries with the largest base of viewer support for cricket was detrimental to these games. The result was a huge loss of advertising revenue and empty stadiums.
~You have to feel for the Caribbean countries who spent millions in hopes of the almighty tourist dollar. A mere glance at the stands during the second round, showed that the whole thing was a wash out.
~They got the countries to build new stadiums, how come they didn’t ask for flood lights?
~For such a long tournament, how come no braniac thought to put an extra day in for a possible rain delay in the finals?
~It’s a real shame to reduce the overs in a final. After all it’s a sold out match, and people want to see a real game.

What do you think they need to do to jump start a lickle cricket luv?