The Cricket World Cup 2019

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The lackluster build-up

It has been a while since I have written, but with the 12th Cricket World Cup starting tomorrow, I thought I would make a welcome return to my blog.

Personally being based in London in these days, the lack of excitement about the tournament is worrying.  My initial concerns about the World Cup schedule when first released were about its length – the tournament spans across 7 weeks!  Moreover, the organisers have really let themselves down with the astronomical ticket prices (lowest category tickets for the peak England matches are priced at £70 each).

Many of my friends have also rightly complained about the ticketing ballot.  With the tournament starting tomorrow, I still have not received my tickets in the post.  Moreover, the public ticket allocation was very sparse, with corporate sponsors no doubt taking the majority of allocations.

It is a real shame as to how the ECB/ICC has handled the ticketing situation.  Cricket is a dying sport in the UK, and this was a real opportunity to bring it back to the big stage – especially with England being the competition favourites too.

I still remember visiting Melbourne for the 2015 World Cup – a ticket in the members pavilion for England vs. Australia was priced around A$60 – an equivalent ticket for the fixture at Lords in priced at £235…

 

What to expect from the tournament?

Now onto the tournament itself – I think there are a few important things to note.

Firstly, this will be a tournament dominated by batsmen… short boundaries, two new balls and flat wickets will mean that bowlers are in for a tough time (anything less than 300 will not even be competitive on some grounds).

As a result – most teams will look to bowl first and chase.  Inferring from the recent ODIs played in England – it is difficult to gauge what a good score batting first will be.  Moreover, with rain and Duckworth-Lewis in the mix, most teams will be more comfortable chasing.

Despite the bias towards batsmen and chasing – this will probably be the most fiercely competed World Cup in recent times.  What I really like about the one group format is that the best and most consistent teams will go through to the semi-finals – short-term form will not be sufficient to carry a team over the line.  Furthermore, with no major minnows around – ‘anyone can beat anyone on their day’ – and this will make for exciting viewing.

 

My pick for the tournament

With England and India being touted as most people’s favourites, I honestly think Australia have the strongest and most well-balanced squad.  It almost appears that people have forgot about them in wake of the recent ball tampering controversy.

They are coming into the tournament with form – registering notable victories against Pakistan and India in the sub-continent.

There are many parallels to the way the Australian team has approached this World Cup to 1999.  Again, they were relatively unfancied then, but went on to win the tournament in comprehensive style.

The return of Warner and Smith should also not be underestimated – both are phenomenal players and appear to have hit form at the right time.  In addition, the presence of Khawaja, Finch, Marsh and Maxwell really makes their batting very solid.

On the bowling front – Adam Zampa is my bet for the leading bowler in the tournament, and along with Starc, Cummins and Richardson provides the much needed pace-off option with the ball in the middle overs.

 

England have home advantage, but have a lot to prove in their quest for a first 50 overs title.  Again, their squad is very well balanced and their batting firepower has already been well documented – but I do have questions about their ability to handle pressure and crunch moments.  Losing the Champions Trophy semi-final to Pakistan in 2017 is a perfect example of this.

That said – the formidable opening partnership of Roy and Bairstow, along with Buttler (probably the most destructive player in the world at present), is enough to put any team out of the game.

 

India for the first time appear to have the bowling to support their batting superstars. However, I do worry how their middle to lower order will fare if they lose their top three (Sharma, Dhawan and Kohli) early – especially on an overcast day when the ball may move around a little.

That said, India are a form and momentum team.  If they start well, and the middle order of Dhoni, Rahul and Pandya provides strong back up – they could also be serious contenders especially with the Indian crowd and support in England.

 

New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa will impress in patches, but I do not think they will have the consistency to win this 7-week long tournament.

A note on Pakistan and West Indies though – if they were to reach the semi-finals, then they could also be serious contenders.  The English conditions in July will suit them, and they are more likely to thrive with the underdogs tag in the knockout stages (as we saw in the Champions Trophy with Pakistan a couple of years back).

 

Five players to watch

Adam Zampa – Australia

KL Rahul – India

Q De Kock – South Africa

J Buttler – England

A Russell – West Indies

 

Five games not to miss 

3rd June – England vs. Pakistan

9th June – India vs. Australia

19th June – South Africa vs. New Zealand

27th June – India vs. West Indies

30th June – England vs India – probably the most anticipated group game, with the game scheduled on a weekend, the atmosphere at Edgbaston is likely to be incredible

 

The Latest Spot-Fixing Scandal

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Since the suspension of Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif, I have been flooded with emails and messages asking about my opinions on the latest spot-fixing scandal.

Some of the questions that have been asked: Why did the cricketers engage in spot-fixing activities?  Why did the PCB not have appropriate measures in place?  Why is it that only Pakistani crickets get involved and caught in spot-fixing?

I like many others do not have answers to these questions.  But I must confess one thing, I was not surprised to see such a scandal rocking Pakistan cricket again.  For some reason, I had a strong gut feeling that the spot-fixing fiasco of 2010 would repeat itself again in the future.

Below are my thoughts as to why the events happened, and more worryingly, why they may happen again in the future:

The questionable role of the PCB

Many media pundits, journalists and current players have lauded PCB’s role in handling of the current situation.  There is a strong belief and perception that the PCB is setting a strong example for zero-tolerance on spot-fixing.

However, I strongly disagree with this view.  In any commercial or sporting organization, the failure of its employees must lie with the management, and moreover the policies and procedures it has in place.  I feel that the PCB smartly executed the exit of the concerned players from Dubai and shied away from the responsibility of taking ownership of what may have caused these events.

One must seriously question and ask the PCB management that why it didn’t have enough sanctions on the PSL players to meet unknown strangers in the lobby of hotels, why there wasn’t more stringent monitoring of pre-match phone message exchanges before actual spot-fixing incidents took place, and lastly, why didn’t the PCB learn from its mistakes of 2010 to avoid an exact repeat scenario.

Very recently I visited the National Stadium in Karachi to watch a high profile domestic game.  I agree that the game was no way near the same scale to that of a PSL or international fixture, but I was amazed to see a completely unguarded pavilion door which almost allowed any spectator like myself to walk into the dressing room.  I also sadly saw many players in the pavilion casually using their phones.

There is also another theory regarding the inactive role of the PCB.  Some sources have claimed that it wasn’t the PCB who uncovered the latest spot-fixing scandal, but actually the ICC themselves who in Dubai were also closely monitoring the situation.  The PCB was thus left with no choice but to take the chosen stance and action – and in the process falsely glorifying itself in driving corruption out of Pakistan cricket.  This theory shouldn’t be discarded, after all, what incentive was there for the PCB management to tarnish its main showcase event in controversy.

The setup of a tribunal

It has now been over 45 days since Sharjeel Khan and Khalid Latif were sent home from the PSL, and yet there has been no formal sanction or action imposed.  This again is not surprising given the history of the PCB with similar past incidents.  It is famously said that when one doesn’t want to make a decision, they setup a committee or tribunal.

The same can be said about the current spot-fixing scandal.  We have already seen many times in the past that the PCB committees have been weak and ineffective at pushing bans from the cases of Shoaib Akhtar and Muhammad Asif drug scandal to more worryingly upholding the recommendations of the Qayyum report in the first public wave of match fixing.  It must also be remembered that the PCB did nothing to impose a stricter penalty on the offenders of 2010, which were largely imposed by the ICC.

The case of Sharjeel Khan will be the most complicated. He out of all the players involved is the most promising and upcoming, both in terms of talent and performances.  It may well be the case that the PCB smartly maneuvers his case so that he is available for selection again shortly.  If this turns out to be the case, again one shouldn’t be surprised.

Rewinding back to 2010

Lastly, a lot has been said about the fact that the return of the 2010 offenders has not served as a strong enough deterrent.

Again, I feel it has been rather unfair to point blame at the relatively soft treatment of Mohammad Amir, which apparently gave further encouragement to this latest generation of cricketers.  I guess the question to ask is that would these players have engaged in spot-fixing had Mohammad Amir not made a comeback.  I guess that the answer is not that straightforward, and in reality, would even the current incident deter future spot-fixing activities?  My guess in all honesty is no.  The cash rich nature of the game today is such that players will always be enticed by greed no matter how severe punishments become, especially if the administrators are weak.

The responsibility must lie with the administrators to ensure that a disciplined environment prevails.  It is often easy for any organization to blame its employees, but ultimately the accountability and responsibility must remain with the management.

As often is the case with Pakistan cricket, it will be interesting to see how the coming weeks play out.  Will we see the PCB finally taking some bold definite steps, or on the other extreme will we be talking about the return of Sharjeel Khan and Salman Butt in a few months.  My prediction is with the latter…

Let’s keep our focus on cricketing matters – England vs. Pakistan

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Recent Pakistan cricket tours of England have been controversial to say the least: accusations of ball tampering in the famous Wasim-Waqar series of 1992, the Hair-Inzamam fiasco of 2006 and the unforgettable spot-fixing scandal of 2010 have somewhat overshadowed the high quality cricket that was played in those series.

With the much anticipated Test series between England and Pakistan a couple of days away, I really hope that the focus of the media and general public stays solely on cricketing matters.

I wrote 6 months ago that Mohammed Amir could ironically make a Test comeback at the same ground he was caught spot fixing 6 years ago. As fate has it, his comeback is not only attracting a lot of media attention, but is also unnecessarily diverting attention from what should be an exciting contest.

The spotlight on Mohammed Amir….

There seem to be 2 polar opinions on Amir. The anti-Amir camp seems to have not forgotten his actions from 6 years ago. The pro-Amir camp on the other hand is already touting him as Pakistan’s only hope. In my opinion, both camps are quite wrong in their extreme views.

The comments made by Alastair Cook in a pre-series press conference were extremely disappointing. It must be remembered that Amir has done all that was asked of him and has now fully served his ban. It was a poor choice of words from Cook, who really should have been more welcoming about Amir’s transformation.

“My feelings are clear, if you get caught matchfixing, you should be banned for life.”
Alastair Cook

Conversely, I feel people at the other end of the spectrum are taking things to the other extreme and forgetting that Pakistan will need a lot more than a fully firing Amir to be able to compete against England. Let’s not forget that Pakistan have recently beaten England twice in the UAE without having Amir in their bowling line-up.

Getting ready for an enthralling summer of cricket

Setting aside the issue of Amir, we should be in for an enthralling summer of cricket.

England, fresh from their one-sided victory against a weak Sri Lankan team start as clear favourites. Pakistan’s recent record outside the UAE has been patchy and their brittle batting line-up will be put to the test against some quality English seam bowlers. To compound matters further, the wet and bowler friendly ‘overcast summer’ is expected to continue, which will make life more difficult for the Pakistani batsmen. Their techniques and temperament will be tested to the limit.

That said, the team has made an encouraging start in the warm-up matches and the team management also appears to be in order for a change. Whilst a series win for Pakistan looks unlikely, they must treat this tour as an opportunity to strengthen their poor away record ahead of touring Australia this winter.

After closely monitoring England’s performance against Sri Lanka over the past few months, I highlight some areas that Pakistan must focus on to put-up a competitive show:

1. Combating the new ball

Pakistan have historically had a poor record and game-plan to counter the swinging and moving ball. Thus, the top 3 batsmen will have to be fully prepared to combat new ball spells from James Anderson and Stuart Broad – both of whom have been in exceptional form this summer. Pakistan’s main batting strength lies in Misbah, Younis and Sarfaraz, and inability to negate the new ball will further expose these batsmen.

2. Targeting England’s untested middle order

With the exclusions of James Taylor, Ben Stokes and Ian Bell – England’s unstable middle order is more susceptible than ever and could also be exposed to early wickets. This will no doubt place more pressure on England’s big guns – both Joe Root and Alastair Cook.

Root in particular had a relatively quiet series against Sri Lanka, and will be under pressure if he gets a couple of low scores to start the series. It will also be interesting to see how Cook fares against Amir – Cook historically struggled against him in the 2010 series, and has not been as successful against left handers who have pitched the ball up (Mitchell Johnson in particular).

3. Slip catching

Given that seam bowling is Pakistan’s main strength, it will be critical for the slip-fielders to hold their chances. I can still very clearly recall the number of chances the team dropped on the 2006 and 2010 tours. With Kamran Akmal leading the way, it was almost embarrassing to see most English batsmen being given 2-3 lives.

If Pakistan can address the above issues, they should give England a good run for their money. Another weapon that Pakistan have in their artilliary is Yasir Shah – and if Pakistan are able to push England to Day 4-5 of most matches, Yasir could even lead Pakistan to an unlikely victory.

However, my prediction for the series is 2-1 England.