Little to choose between the teams

Elmo RODRIGOPULLE

It is crunch time in the ICC 2011 World Cup cricket tournament and the captains of all quarter-final teams will be on tenter hooks with echoes of that Elvis Presley perennial. It’s now or ever!

Victories and defeats in the first round games would be bygones and would count for nothing when the death games are called to play by the umpires. The first game between Pakistan and West Indies begins in Dhaka, Bangladesh today and this has all the promise of a nail biter.

Sahid Afridi

Skipper Darren Sammy must be at his allround best

Tomorrow , Australia the reigning champions will battle India at Ahemadabad, on Friday South Africa will lock horns with New Zealand in Dhaka. And on Saturday Sri Lanka will front up to England at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

Practice

At the time of writing all teams are hard at practice in the middle fine tuning, with some getting back to the drawing boards to study where they went wrong and putting things right in an endeavour to come out firing all cylinders.

Before going on to analyze the fortunes of the eight teams, it would be appropriate to have a say on the Ricky Ponting episode and his not ‘walking’ when he knew he had got a touch and was caught behind.

Sri Lankan vice captain Mahela Jayawardena too was in similar predicament. True that Nathan McCallum grabbed the caught and bowled. But Jayawardena was right in staying and akin the on field umpires to refer. Jayawardena did not see the catch being taken.

Critics talk high of Indian cricketing demi-god Sachin Tendulkar as having been a sport and ‘walking’ when he touched the ball to the wicket keeper not waiting for the umpire to rule him out.

Example

Now we doff our hats to Tendulkar. That was great of Tendulkar. He was an example and a rare breed. What a lovely place the cricket field would be if there were more Tendulkars.

Having said that, we do not need to reiterate that there is more to the game unfortunately than sportsmanship. Money is one such consideration.

Today how you and I played the game is not what matters. The adage ‘It is not the winning or the losing that matters, but how you played the game’ is no more in vogue. Not to hit below the belt.

To play a straight bat are golden virtues among many others that were taught to us when we first began to handle a bat. Where are these virtues now? Today money has flooded the game and it has gone to decay and bury the true spirit of sport. Winning and winning at whatever cost is the war cry now. So don’t blame only Ponting for this.

Semi-final

To the first quarter-final today and cricket fans and especially all Pakistanis will wager on Pakistan beating the West Indies and booking for a slot in the semi-final line up.

Pakistan had a hiccup when they lost to New Zealand.

Who knows, they could have gone into the semis with an unbeaten record had wicket keeper Kamran Akmal had ‘yu hu’ on his gloves and gobbled the catch offered by Ross when he was on zero.

Now that Pakistan has found the winning combination they will not want to tinker. But it would not be a bad idea to let loose ‘Rawalpindi Express’ Sohaib Akhtar and ask him to derail the Windies batting with his express speed.

Sahid Afridi has marshaled his troops admirably. But when he takes strike he needs to bat with responsibility. The shot he played against the Aussies when his team was searching for victory should have no place in his repertoire. It could have led to defeat. But Umar Akmal and Abdul Razzaq rowed the boat ashore.

Varied attack

Pakistan has a varied attack that can worry the Windies batsmen. Their fielding will have to be impeccable. A crucial dropped catch can make winning that much more difficult for both teams. The Windies must get their dasher Chrys Gayle, Kemar Roach and Shiv Chanderpaul on the Park. Gayle is the one batsman who with his ruthless hitting could give them victory. Roach with his menacing pace could instill fear on the opponents batsmen. Chanderpaul if he plays can add muscle to the middle batting.

The big hitting Kieron Pollard must make it his business to come good.

A good game of cricket with no quarter asked or given is on the cards. As for the crowd support its anyone’s guess as to which side will be more favoured.