Copa Cricketana

Statistics can tell you a lot, and interesting ones at that - for example, I just discovered that that there are more than just a handful of cricket fans in Argentina!! That, in spite of whatever me and a million other self-acclaimed cricket experts may claim, the ICC's plans to globalize cricket may have actually worked alright. Okay, it may not have anything to do with ICC, but what the heck, I have lambasted the ICC so often on this blog, that it's only justice that I give them the benefit of doubt here. Afterall, they are the ones batting!

Statistics also tell me that besides Argentina, there may be as many cricket followers in France too. That, a website entirely devoted to Cricket in Bermuda, Canada, Kenya, Ireland, Scotland and Ulster can actually muster up a decent traffic. It's with the sudden discovery of this site this morning, that i got curious. I was looking up the net for some information for my Cricket Quiz Blog when I happened to land at CricketEurope.Net. My first thought was that it would be mainly about English Cricket and a bit on the sides about Ireland and Scotland, but I was entirely wrong. It was about anything but England. But, the skeptic in me had my doubts - afterall the web is full of sites which are built to just decay. So, i digged further..

Alexa ranks CricketEurope at a very decent 2,00,000 and with the World Cup round the corner, like all other cricket sites, it's also picking up. The last week traffic rank was close to 1,70,000 - which is not the greatest, but not bad at all. It also has a Google PageRank 5, so it must be a well-recommended one too. Now, some of you may doubt the veracity of both this pieces of data, Alexa especially is not the most honoured one, but it's still the best indicator of things, and in the lack of any other source, I would rather go by it. On the traffic ranks by countries, England and India are expectedly on the top, but Australia is completely missing from the leader board. Instead, there are Ireland, France and UAE amongst the top 7. So, i decided to burrow in..

Cricinfo claims that cricket was played in Argentina as early as 1806. PlayArgentina.com tells you that the 3 South American countries - Brazil, Chile and Argentina have strong international sides which compete for the South American Championship. There is active club cricket happening there. This is all the more interesting when you realize that Argentina or Brazil are not even amongst the accepted minnows of cricket. This is like the game's division 3, and it's in a healthy and active state. Not bad at all for cricket, just one fear - i hope the ICC doesn't expand the game further by increasing the number of teams in the next World Cup to 24 or something. Else, all the best to the Argentina Cricket XI.

Who will it be?

"England are dark horses to lift trophy."

- an upbeat Michael Bevan talking to the Mirror

"Boring South Africa will not win the World Cup."

- who else, but Warnie could have said that. Shane thinks the Kiwis and

Lankans are the top contenders this time round.

"One of six teams could win it."

- Mickey Arthur, South African coach. Need i tell you which this six are?

"India is amongst 7 or 8 teams which could win the World Cup"

- the Indian Captain goes one step further than Mickey

"South Africa are cricket's equivalent to the Spanish football side. It does not matter how they

are performing in the build-up - they will fall short."

- John Dobson, writing for Sportingo.com thinks fate will seal SA's fate yet again.

"Inzamam under pressure to emulate Imran Khan and win the Cup for Pakistan."

- Pakistani Press

India will bring home the World Cup because of the sheer passion generated by the game in the country.

- That's quite an un-Gavaskar like remark,

I picked up that last one from a wordpress blog. Hope the information itself is accurate

World Cup Losing Pace...

Brett Lee was already gone, and now the Pakistan Cricket Board has announced that Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif won't go either. Razzaq is gone too...

I am really and seriously worried about the past and future of Pakistan cricket now...they seem to be going further back and back, literally. First, they resurrected Azhar Mahmood out of nowhere and now they have also recalled Mohammad Sami..at this rate, i just hope we don't see Wasim Akram moving out from the commentary box onto the greens.

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Though I wonder what the real reasons behind the ouster of Akhtar and Asif is. Can you blame me for thinking it's more to do with some powdery substances rather than injuries?

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Matt Hayden & Andrew Symonds should be satisfied with PCB now. Describing Akhtar's inclusion as not fair, Hayden couldn't stop himself from remarking (they had been specifically asked by Cricket Australia to keep their big mouths shut over this) that " It's a laughable point among our players because we've worked very hard to be clean with athletes. It's ludicrous and it's not very fair."

The World Cup doesn't make a difference to the Indian captain

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, on the eve of Team India's departure for the West Indies, Dravid said he would not be under any added pressure because he was leading the side in this, his third, World Cup. "I've never viewed going into a tournament as being under less or more pressure. Obviously as captain there are some more responsibilities, the hunger to perform and to do well for the team does not matter if I am a captain, vice-captain or just a player," he said. "It does not make a difference to me. "

Dravid also dismissed the idea of the World Cup being "a final frontier", a term made much famous by the very successful ex-Aussie captain, Steve Waugh.
Just as the Indian captain was giving this soundbytes to the Indian media in Mumbai, a few hundred miles up northwest in Varanasi, a crowd of a thousand plus were participating in a "Shubhkamna Yatra". The procession moved towards the Ganges where they offered prayers to 11 cricket bats.

Now I'm not justifying the actions of these Varanasi crowd or anything, but the Indian captain needs to understand that he is not just leading any other nation into the Cricket World Cup - but India, which is home to close a billion cricket fans including millions of cricket fanatics like the ones at Varanasi. Even outside home, the stadiums in quite a few other countries are filled up with more Indian fans than locals. The Indian team doesn't need a Barmy-Army to travel across the world supporting the team, there is one, often more than one in every cricket centre across the world. Dravid needs to factor this in before speaking - he has a responsiblility, unlike any one else in the world.

Even if I were to remove the above factors for the sake of an argument, Dravid's words were unbecoming of any leader. How can the World Cup not make a difference? How can his being the captain not make any difference to him? Shouldn't it goad him on, motivate him only that much more. Can you even imagine Mike Brearley or Saurav Ganguly or Mark Taylor even saying that?

A World Cup win can stir the nation, leave a billion people happier, i would daresay that - even if temporary, the Sensex will rise. It makes a difference to me, Mr. Dravid and it makes a difference to a billion more like me. And I'm sad that we have chosen someone like you to lead us - someone, to whom it doesn't make a difference.

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Read this quote by Dravid to see for yourself how amibitious / aspirational / inspirational my cricket captain is:

" India is one of the most dangerous ODI teams. There will be 7-8 teams that will be capable of winning the World Cup, and I want India to be one of them."

Now who can stop India from being one of the top 7 or 8 ? Is he fearing Bangladesh whom me see in our first match on the 17th March or Bermuda?!!

Want more gems from Dravid? I quote the Indian captain again.

" The World Cup is a big event, but i don't think you can base your career on winning it. There's a lot more you can achieve. You can't judge everything from one tournament."

Cricket Dollars for Pakistan

Did the PCB get a whiff of the secret Cricket meet in Kolkata, or what? ( the one i discussed yesterday in my post titled "Cricket worth...") The Pakistan Cricket Board has announced a whopping bonus of US $ 1.2 millions for the Pakistan team, should they win the World Cup. That works out to a cool 84,000 $ for each player. (almost 5 million Pakistani Rupees). Even if they make it to the semis, each Pakistani cricketer stands to earn a bonus of 42,000 $. Some money, that!!

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Actually the net expense of the PCB won't be much if they just look at the odds that are available on Pakistan. Bookies are offering odds of upto 14 on Pakistan taking home the World Cup. So all that the mandarins at PCB need to do is take a risk of about 100,000 $. That shouldn't be too much for them.

Cricket worth US $ 600, 000 millions

Not too far away from the famous Eden Gardens in Kolkata, a few days back, Cricket experts from 4 different important cricket centres in India (Jaipur, Indore, Guwahati and Kolkata) met for a very important meeting. However, this meeting was different from almost all other cricket meetings in one important way - this one was illegal.

The 4 gentlemen, after due deliberation and after factoring in past data and trends, arrived at the whopping figure of Rs.25,000 crores - yes, that's the amount of business that they expect that the betting trade will handle during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007. Compare this to the total prize money that was distributed during the 2003 South Africa World Cup - US $ 5000,000 - an otherwise decent sum of money, but compared to the other figure that's almost measly - under 1% of the betting business!!

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Odds decided by the 4 cricket-experts for the World Cup 2007:

Australia still rules: 2.6

SA should challenge the Oz in the finals: 4.3

WI: 9.0, Sri Lanka:9.4, India:9.5

England:10.0, NZ: 10.25 and Pakistan:12.0

sources: Hindustan Times, Cric Info and a friend

Cricket's Eye-Candy

Guess what's the surest sign that cricket's mega-event is round the corner?

Yes, when Mandira Bedi begins to be seen in the glossies and on your daily's Page 3 every other day, you know that the World Cup can't be too far off now and that noodle-strap Bedi will soon move from the glossies into your drawing room very soon - and for a whopping one and a half months this time.

Excerpts from an interview she gave to Hindustan Times ( HT City, the Delhi city supplement)

> Mandira says she loves it when people call her Cricket Candy

> For the Caribbean calypso, we will be spared the noodle straps, i think. In Mandira's own words, her wardrobe this time is full of sassy clothes from tubes to corsets and some Satya Paul Saris. Phew.

> "I plan to have a ball at the Caribbean. I will play holi...."

> Cricket is her passion!!

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if you are dumb-founded about who Ms Bedi is, well she is one of the regulars on the expert panel on Set Max, the TV channel that will be beaming the Cricket World Cup live to billions of cricket fans in India. She is already a veteran with a couple of World Cup and 4 ICC Trophies to her name. And yes, i like that skirt!!

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Remember the other beauty?