So we have a new T20 cricket world champion in England, who lost their league match to lowly ranked Ireland. Other finalist Pakistan started even more pathetically losing the first two close games to arch rival India and Zimbabwe. Favourites India lost to South Africa and just about managed to scrape through Bangladesh. Cricketing minnows such as Netherlands, Afghanistan, Ireland troubled the big teams.
One thing is clear from the World Cup fixtures this year that there’s no first among equals and on their day, any team can defeat any other team. Some look strong on paper, other appears tough mentally. Some bat deep, while some other has deadly bowling attack. But there’s no clear favourite in this clamour and while some of the established cricketing nations like Srilanka and West Indies have already apparently hit a nadir, many of the emerging teams are going to throw their gauntlet as serious contenders.
European nations such as Germany, Holland, Spain, Poland started playing hockey much later but along with Australia, these countries seem to be lording over hockey supremacy that was once the domain of Asian countries India, Pakistan and Malaysia. Let’s strategise and work harder to protect our cricketing domain. 130 crore cricket loving Indians deserve a better show by their beloved Team India that needs to be more predictable and consistent. While they played superlatively well against Pakistan, their meek surrender to England in semis was rather heart wrenching!
Till the next edition, let’s plug our loopholes!
Arvind Arya blog 