Sunday, November 05, 2006

When cricket takes a back seat.........

We were all supposed to be enjoying the cricket that was happening in the ICC Champions Trophy but the sad fact is that the 'Game' happening on the field has sadly taken a back seat and the happenings outside the field are stealing the headlines.



A couple of things that have been show stoppers for the tournament:
1) Akthar & Asif being sent back to Pakistan on the allegations of doping
2) The 'Dew' factor playing a major role in the matches. It was ridiculous to see almost all the captains talking about the dew factor as though it is their 12th man!!!! One of the primary reasons for having day-night fixtures is to pull in more people & sponsorships. The empty stadiums did not actually do a lot of justice to that decision. The crowd turnout was so bad to the extent that Lara was reported to have said that he was happy to see an almost full crowd for their semifinals against South Africa.
3) The 2 year ban for Akthar & the 1 year ban for Asif. (It was really funny to see the interview of Asif in NDTV. He had the 'Guts' to say that he doesn't know about drug testing. Are you kidding me????)
4) The removal of Darrell Hair from the elite panel of ICC umpires
5) Last but not the least, an uninspiring & insipid performance by the Indian team. Has the Indian team already touched the abyss or is that performance reserved for the 'Tour of South Africa' & the 2007 World Cup? (On a personal note, I hate to see the Dravid's Ad's for Hutch & Anchor swiches. I have seen 3 different versions of the Hutch Ad. Why doesn't this people concentrate on their preparation for the world cup?)

P.S: Found an interesting item that happened, for a 'Change', on the field during the semifinals between Australia & New Zealand. Check it out here

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