ICC Cricket T20 World Cup-2021: The Big One Tomorrow As Super-12 Rivalries Start!

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 started in Oman and UAE with an upset in Group-B qualifiers when Scotland delivered a shock defeat to Bangladesh on 17^th October and the qualifier stage concluded on 22^nd October with another history-making upset as Namibia edged out the test-playing nation Ireland and entered the Super-12 stage for the first time. So, we have now qualifiers: from Group-A—the topper Sri Lanka enters the Group-1 and runners-up Namibia in Group-2 of the Super-12 while the Group-B topper Scotland enters Group-2 and the runners-up Bangladesh in Group-1 of the Super-12 stage. The six teams in each group will play matches between themselves on a round-robin basis and the two top teams of each group will sail into the semi-finals. The highly competitive and tough rivalries of the Super-12 stage starts today with Australia meeting South Africa in the first match in Abu Dhabi and England facing defending champions the West Indies in the second match in Dubai. Notwithstanding the slower pitches of UAE we can expect class cricket and absolute thrillers even though some matches may turn out to be low-scoring with the spinners dominating the proceedings.

 

All attention in the subcontinent is naturally focused of the big encounter tomorrow, Sunday the 24^thOctober, between archrivals India and Pakistan—the kind of encounters that have become rare as the bilateral ties between the two countries have been going through continuous tension since the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 and later the terror attack on the Sri Lanka team in Pakistan in 2009 after which all international cricket matches stopped to be staged in Pakistan and the country was rejected as a co-host with India in the ICC Cricket World Cup-2011. Since then all bilateral cricket is no longer there except for a brief tour when the BCCI invited Pakistan to play three ODIs and two T20Is in India in 2012. Pakistan players were also not allowed to participate in the IPL bonanza.

 

It is natural for most of the Indians to have reservations against Pakistan playing cricket with India due to the former’s endless duplicity and repeated terror attacks on the Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir. However, we must take this in the spirit of inclusive sports in the form of World Cricket tournaments like in other international events like the Olympics. For their consolation the bilateral cricket has been completely suspended since 2012 even as genuine cricket lovers are really missing the classic encounters on the field. Therefore, the World Cricket tournaments offer us rare opportunities to have the privilege of watching the archrivals in full display. For that matter, Afghanistan, a participant, too was taken over by a terrorist group and that cannot lead to the team’s rejection in the same spirit of sports. Personally speaking human beings in all the countries are similar in sentiments and affection while the policies are made by only a few of the strategic rulers. For example, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan my first thought was about the safety of the lovely and sweet-behaved popular players like Rashid Khan in cricket and many others.

 

Coming back to the India-Pakistan encounter tomorrow evening India seem to have the advantage as they have won all of 12 matches in the one-day and T20 ICC World Cups so far, and lost only in the Champions Trophy with 2 wins for India against 3 by Pakistan. In Asia Cup cricket ODIs and T20Ia India won 7 against Pakistan’s 2 while the Asian Test Championship was won by the latter. Besides, India have been in ominous form in terms of both batting and bowling, gaining from the IPL-2021, the warm-up match wins and the recent victories over Australia and England in away-matches. In the last two years Pakistan won cricket series against Zimbabwe and South Africa while losing to New Zealand and England, and they lost the warm-up game against South Africa in this tournament. However, records don’t matter as far as the performances on the field in that particular day and that three and half hours are concerned. Pakistan has a balanced team with Captain Babar Azam as a dominant batsman joined by Shadab Khan and Fakhar Zaman, bowling all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez who can turn matches in his team’s favor anytime and Pakistan’s always-celebrated pacers and class spinners. All these factors only make the coming encounter in Dubai tomorrow a mouth-watering prospect.

 

The T20 is the shortest format of the game of cricket and arguably the most unpredictable as everything happens within the three and half hours like a movie. Therefore, it is indeed a very difficult question about who is going to win the tournament. India is one of the strongest favorites for the title while World Champions in the ODI World Cup-2019 England has also been on top in recent times followed closely by Australia and a very tough team of New Zealand. Defending champions West Indies and Pakistan can pull off anything on a particular day while the poor show of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the qualifying stage should not make any team complacent. India will also have to contend with new rivalries from a very able Scotland and a spirited Namibia, apart from Pakistan, New Zealand and Afghanistan—the latter no less tough an opponent against any team on their day. The suspense promises to be nail-biting as well as delightful starting today, with double-headers almost every day till the semi-final stage that’d start from 10^th November 2021.

Cricket New Normal: England Triumph In Closed-Door Tests!

Cricket in COVID-19 times started in England from the 8^th of July 2020 in empty stadiums and with the strictest of norms and measures. The first 3-Test Series since the outbreak of the pandemic was played against the visiting West Indies. The visitors won the first test by 4 wickets on the fifth and last day of the closely fought encounter. However, the hosts came back stronger in the second and the third test matches, winning the second match by 113 runs and then routing the unpredictable, as ever, West Indies by 269 runs in the concluding match, thus winning the Test Series 2-1. In Test cricket, English seamer Stuart Broad became the 2^nd seam bowler from England, the fourth fast bowler of the world and the seventh bowler overall of the world, to capture 500 wickets in the last encounter that concluded on the 28^thof July 2020. Pity, no home supporters or any other supporters were there to cheer him and the team win! The most promising aspect of the New Normal Cricket was that no health-related issues daunted the efforts. And, cricket in empty stadiums continued.

Next came the team of Pakistan for a 3-match Test Series and a 3-match T20I Series against the hosts England. The first test match between England and Pakistan was played from the 5^th of August, and England, keeping up the winning streak, won the match by 3 wickets. The match, played at the Emirates Old Trafford ground in Manchester, was a cliffhanger, and England managed eventually to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat on the final day, the hosts going 1-0 up in the series. Rains and bad light continuously interrupted proceedings of the second test at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, allowing only 150 overs to be bowled overall, and the match ended in a frustrating draw for both teams, particularly for Pakistan smarting under the shock defeat in the first match. The third and the final match of the series, a much-awaited showdown, started from 21^st August 2020 at the same venue. England sealed the deal by putting up a mammoth score of 583 for 8 declared, and then going on to rout Pakistan for 273 in the first innings forcing them to follow on. Thanks to rain interruptions England could not go on to win, and Pakistan saved the match at 187 for 4 wickets. However, history was created in that Test match.

38-year-old English fast bowling stalwart, James Anderson, took his 29^thfive-wicket haul in Pakistan’s first innings and then captured two more scalps in the second innings to complete a record-breaking 600 wickets. The right-arm fast bowler became the first pace-bowler in international Test cricket to achieve the feat of 600 wickets leaving Glen McGrath of Australia in the second place with 563 scalps , and the fourth bowler overall, Sri Lanka’s Muralitharan sitting at the top with incredible 800 wickets, followed by Australia’s SK Warne with 708 in the second position and India’s  Anil Kumble with 619 wickets in the third position. James Anderson made his ODI debut in 2002 and earned a place in the 2003 ICC World Cup squad, and he stamped his mark in international cricket. His Test debut came in 2003, and from then onward he played in 156 test matches for England till history was made on the 25^th of August 2020. The tall pacer has often been criticized as ‘English-conditions-only’ seamer, and his career was interrupted often as he was either ‘rested’ or dropped due to external factors. However, he proved all his critics wrong, finally, and emerged as one of the finest bowlers of world cricket. Pity again, English fans or any other spectators could not be present at the Rose Bowl to cherish the historical moment. Anyway, the hosts won the series 1-0.

Pakistan is also scheduled to figure in a 3-match T20 international series against the hosts England. The first match on 28^th of August, the second on 30^th of August and the final match on 1^stof September 2020.

Now to come in England’s arch-rivals Australia, for a 3-Match T20I Series and a 3-match ODI Series. The T20 matches will be played on the 4^th, 6^th and 8^th of September while the one-day international matches are scheduled on the 11^th, 13^th and 16^thof September 2020.

In a most likely extension of the New Normal Cricket India is set to begin their Tour of Australia 2020-21 from the month of October 2020. Cricket Australia has recently announced the full schedule of the matches between the two teams: the first of the 3-match T20I would take place on the 11^th of October, followed by a 4-match Test Series from 3^rd December and the 3-match ODI Series would begin from the 12^th of January 2021. As per the discussion between the two Boards the second test starting from the 11^thof December at the Adelaide Oval would be a day and night affair with the pink ball. Continue enjoying cricket from home!  

Cricket New Normal: Saliva Ban, No Huddles, Empty Stadiums!

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has been having brainstorming virtual sessions with all stakeholders on resumption of cricket in the past months under the shadow of the Coronavirus pandemic. Till now the Council has not been able to take a final call on the main issue of contention: when to hold the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup. It's very ironical that in a year which can also be termed as T20 the T20 mega event just cannot get underway that was originally scheduled in October, 2020 in Australia. Now, the Indian cricket board, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has been eagerly waiting for the decision on the T20 World Cup, because since its postponment is almost final the ICC decision will give the BCCI a window during October-November to organize its favorite money-spinner, the Indian Premiere League (IPL), of course, without the noisy reveling crowds. 

All the while the ICC has been busy framing new rules for the most popular game of the world, a craze in India. Indian spin bowling great Anil Kumble who was appointed as Chairman of the ICC's Cricket Committee in 2012 had been assigned this job. Kumble has already made recommendations and the ICC approved most of these. The first of course is the obvious: ban on the use of saliva during play. We have seen over the decades how intensive had been the use of saliva of almost all the players fielding to keep the ball shining. Now, saliva is a direct trigger for COVID-19 spread and therefore its use has been banned forthwith. This is set to affect the pacers in particular very adversely, and perhaps the dry ball will be of help to the spinners. The suggestion of using external substances got rejected mainly because the international cricket bodies had been opposing this tooth and nail for decades. There is one more suggestion for allowing a new ball for every fifty overs in Test matches which is under consideration.

The ICC (International Cricket Council) rule to have neutral umpires in international series has also been waived off to prevent extensive globe-trotting that the international umpires had had to embark upon. Home umpires will now do the job. Another very important recommendation that has been accepted is of allowing COVID substitutes in Test matches that go on for five days. Any player showing any symptoms of flu, cough or fever during this period will be out of the match and a substitute player will be allowed to take his/her place in the playing eleven like under the present concussion regulation. Naturally, this rule wouldn't apply to the shorter formats of ODIs and T20Is. 

The defined cricket new normal will obviously include various other demonstrative physical attributes of the game: the huddles by rival teams that we have witnessed increasingly in competitive cricket in recent years will no longer be allowed; display of physical excitement in group like in the case of a fall of a wicket or in a hat-trick or a superlative catch or scoring a ton will be gone and all sorts of hugging, shake-hands, pavilion or dressing-room celebrations  and the like will no longer be there till Corona thinks otherwise. And, of course, there will be no spectators. Players will have to undergo all of the excitement on field in an empty stadium without supporting or singing or celebrating or flags-displaying cricket-loving crowds which would obviously be a daunting challenge to keep up the competitive spirit of the players. Unfortunately, there's no other option available at the moment and cricketers will have to adapt so that the sport resumes. 

It is a huge development that the first instance of international cricket resumption has already begun. Except for three players the West Indies team had agreed to participate in a Test Series against England in England--one of the worst-hit countries in terms of COVID deaths. The West Indies team had already arrived in England, all players tested before departure and thoroughly tested after arrival. They will live and prepare there for three weeks before the first Test of the three-match series scheduled to start from July 8, 2020. Hope the great game of cricket would pass the unprecedented COVID test successfully and with full honors.