A Preview of the Upcoming ACC T/20 Cup Part 1: Group A

Asian Non-test playing cricket is back in the United Arab Emirates with the ACC T/20 Cup due to start in a couple of weeks at the magnificent Sheikh Zayed in Abu Dhabi, and the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Dubai. The tournament which was originally intended to be a qualifier for the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou is now devoid of any substantial meaning as it was decided that countries should apply to participate directly with their Olympic Associations. It is, however, a wonderful opportunity for many of these teams to compete in a tournament of reasonably high quality (in the non-test cricket scenario) on international standard turf wickets. For some of the more established sides – Hong Kong, Oman, Singapore, UAE, Nepal – it provides perfect opportunity to test out new talent, toughen up promising youngsters, and test themselves under the rigours of T/20 cricket ahead of a busy 2010 highlighted by the U-19 World Cup, the ACC Elite Cup, the World Cricket League, the 2010 T/20 World Cup Qualifiers and the 2010 Asian Games.

Twelve teams have confirmed their participation with Maldives, Bhutan, and Thailand being the notable omissions. One fails to see why these countries have refused to send teams.

Part 1 of this preview is a short analysis of Group A, which consists of upcoming giants and first seeds Afghanistan, perennial challengers the UAE, a confident Singapore side fresh from an impressive unbeaten run in WCL Division 6, ACC Trophy Champions Hong Kong, an unpredictable Saudi Arabian outfit, and newcomers China.

Afghanistan

On the back of consistently awe inspiring performances in the World Cricket League and an exceptional showing in its recent tours of Zimbabwe, and the Netherlands as an ODI country, Afghanistan have got to be overwhelming favourites for the trophy. Having played with Hamid Hassan, I am quite aware of the destructive capabilities of his bowling. Their batting, too has matured impressively especially with blossoming of opener Noor Ali, and Mohammad Shezhad. They bring with them talent, lots of experience, and most importantly a do or die attititude towards winning. While their first match against China could be one of the most one-sided in international cricket history, their second against Singapore should be an intriguing prospects and one that indicates the side’s strength and quality.

Key Players: Hamid Hassan, Nowroz Mangal (captain), Noor Ali, Mohammed Shezhad
X-Factor: the pace and fire of Hamid Hassan
Prediction in Group Stages: 1st
Overall Prediction: 1st

UAE

If there’s one side in the tournament capable of uprooting the Afghan challenge, its the UAE, however despite the presence of world class facilities, recent performances have been below par, and much has been said about the country’s continued reliance on Pakistani and Indian expats to bring home the goods. While they haven’t officially named their side yet, presumably, much will depend on the class of veteran Khurram Khan, the experience of two other stalwarts in Arshad Ali and Saqib Ali. Amjad Javed is known for his big hitting and could be a headache for opposition sides opening the batting, and bowling his skiddy medium pacers. Whoever is picked in the squad, coach Colin Wells will be hoping his boys can turn the tables and restamp their authority on the Asian region.

Key Players: Khurram Khan (if playing), Saqib Ali, Amjad Javed, Zahid Shah, Fayyaz Ahmed
X-Factor: the success of their spinners in backing up their dependable top six.
Group Prediction: I do not see them beating Afghanistan. Let me make a big call here by saying I think Hong Kong and Singapore have a one up on them at this stage. 4th
Overall Prediction: 7th.

Singapore

Singapore are seeded 3rd in a tough group, but going by their recent performances they will be a handful for any team in the competition. Encouraged by the well-oiled organizational engines, and professionalism of the Singapore Cricket Association, a recent association with Trever Chappell, and their unblemished record in the recent World Cricket League Division 6 Tournament, they will be brimming with self-confidence and ambition: an ambition to no doubt lay their hands on the trophy. Buddhika Mendis was fantastic for them with a number of fifties and a hundred in the recent WCL tournament, while there were handy contributions Munish Arora, Chetan Suryawanshi, Pramodh Raja, and Dharmichand Mulewa as well. A repeat of their WCL Division 5 victory against Afghanistan could definitely see them sneak into the semi-finals, and from there on anything is possible.

Key Players: Buddhika Mendis, Dharmichand Mulewa, Saad Janjua, Chetan Suryawanshi
X-Factor: the big hitting of Sagar Kulkarni (who has scored a 200 in a domestic game), and Christopher Janik
Group Prediction: They will be competitive but will struggle in a group that includes Afghanistan and Hong Kong. 3rd.
Overall Prediction: 5th

Hong Kong

Hong Kong have definitely emerged as one of the top competitors in the Asian region over the last three or four years. They are coming into this tournament with the tags of ACC Trophy Champions, and ACC U-19 Cup Champions (they’ve also qualified for the U-19 World Cup). That said, the abrupt departure of former England ODI player Aftab Habib as coach, and the decision to send no less than eight U-19 players to this tournament to give them more exposure before New Zealand, could hurt them.

Nevertheless, they will still be very difficult to beat with players such as the Ahmed brothers, Najeeb Amar who scored a hundred in the ACC Trophy final against UAE, and Hussain Butt, in their ranks. Two difficult games against Afghanistan and UAE in the first three days will decide their fate.

Key Players: Nadeem Ahmed, Hussain Butt, Najeeb Amar, Moner Ahmed
X-Factor: If Irfan Ahmed gets going with the bat or ball, things will become alot easier for the dragons.
Group Prediction: 2nd behind Afghanistan
Overall Prediction: Finalists

Saudi Arabia

Much like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia are somewhat of an enigma. Scintillating victories against the likes of UAE, have been accompanied by ordinary losses against teams like Malaysia in the last three years. A key concern in the past has been players’ fitness over a period of more than seven days, and if the men in green can cope with the rigours and intensity of six games in the space of eight days, they could be dangerous. In all reality though, they cannot possibly be a match for any of the other sides in the group bar China. However, cricket is a funny game and we just have to wait and see.

Key Players: Suhrab Kilsingatakam is one name in the squad that has stood out over the past two or three ACC tournaments.
X-Factor: The flat decks and a lightning outfields outfields of Abu Dhabi and Dubai will suit their explosive style of batting.
Group Prediction: 5th
Overall Prediction: 10th

China

This tournament will be quite the learning curve for a Chinese team that is being quite keenly pushed for accelerated growth and development by the ACC and ICC. The Chinese’ only previous exposure to the rigours of men’s international cricket has seen team struggle considerably against teams like Thailand, the Maldives, and Iran, and tournament will in all likelihood see them struggle somewhere. Coach Rashid Khan, and everyone in the international cricket community will be happy to see some semblance of improvement in the team’s results over the course of the tournament. In all likelihood, however, they will be cannon fodder. I shudder to think of what will happen to them at the Asian Games next year.

Key Players: Unknown
X-Factor: Nothing I can think of. The off-chance of rain will definitely work in their favor.
Group Prediction: 6th
Overall Prediction: Last (12th)

Why even bother with cricket development?

On all the development blogs, we worry about the “what, how, good and bad” of cricket development. But sometimes, people ask a very basic question: take a step back, and ask exactly what the point is of developing cricket in the associate countries? If they have the culture of cricket, the numbers etc, then they will improve themselves. Why are we proactively worried about it?

From the other side, some baffoons give statements about focussing on only China and US as they have great money potential. As if the game is starving for money right now.

Here is the problem with this thinking. It is not the associates that need cricket. Cricket needs the associates. The game needs something new, all the time, something fresh.

No one denies that one of the best world cup ever to take place was the 1992 one in Australia/NZ. It was for multiple reasons: colored clothing, day night cricket,  great format, great game production, and last but not least, a new team. SA was the one thing that every cricket watcher noticed. Unknown players, good standard, almost a cinderalla team.

The novelty aspect of the game is long gone after the advent of cable. Now, you will never wonder what a player is like that you have heard about so much. You will never wonder if someone is really as fast as they say he is. If he has been playing ODI or Tests against other countries, the chances are that you have seen him, and know the answer to that already.  Its pretty easy to follow global cricket when there are only 8-9 teams playing it. There is no mystery there.

The other novelty aspect, that you get to play different teams, with different strengths and weaknesses, thats not there either. The same teams play each other all the time. England played Australia for 7 ODIs, then were also playing them in the semis of the Champions Trophy. The result was also in line with how things had been in the past. Ind/Nz/Sri played each other in a triseries, and Pak played Srilanka for 5 ODIs right before Champions trophy. Pak and NZ now start an ODI series after their semi. And ofcourse, just 2 months before all that, there was the T20 tournament. Even Pakistan vs India, the most viciously watched game, was becoming somewhat of a passing by event due to the 2006-2008 overdose.

More teams ARE needed, more fresh players are needed. Otherwise the game will get completely pointless. I personally believed that the Champions Trophy should have been only 6 teams. With 8 teams, its just the world cup ! But if there are 20 competitive cricket teams, even at Bangladesh standard, they would create some freshness.

The second reason is from the perspective of association. Why do illetrate people in Pakistan know that there is a country across the world down under where there was a man called Don Bradman? Why would people find interesting that Usain Bolt’s favorite sportman as a child was Waqar Younis? Through the common aspect of the sport, you tend to begin and understand the other culture, methods, people a lot better. Wouldnt the Indians want that Sachin Tendulkar is known well in the 1.3 billion chinese population? Wouldnt the Australians want that Brett Lee is well known in the US. Wouldnt these players want it themselves?

Third reason is a basic one. If its a global sport, then it should not be limited to 1/3 of the worlds population. There should be an attempt to help promote it in the other 2/3.

The 4th reason is talent based. The greatest talents can be anywhere in the world. The one billion population of India did not produce Viv Richards. He was from of Antigua, a country of 60K people across the world. The world of cricket is better off because of Viv Richards. Since talent can be anywhere, you have to make sure you go everywhere to find it.

Money is the 5th reason. It is there, I dont deny it. But its not the main reason. If you make this the main reason and then only go after high GDP/capita countries, its foolish, and you lose out on the other points. Money is important as it creates more of a cricket economy, even for people in cricket playing nations in the developing world.

News: Masakadza overtakes Ponting for most runs in 2009

After the high scores against Kenya, Zimbabwean opener Hamilton Masakadza is currently the highest run getter in ODIs in the world for 2009. He just beat out Ricky Ponting.

For the full list, click here to go to the cricinfo site.

And now Rankin?

This story is quite interesting. Rankin’s response is also interesting. He is right that he cannot play test cricket for Ireland, so he has to make the most of that opening if it comes.

What happens if 6-7 Irish crickers are playing for England? Will the team still be called England or Ireland?

Zim takes 2-0 lead over Kenya …

This is pretty much what everyone had expected. I am personally quite disappointed in Kenya still being a one trick pony relying on Tikolo.

Some things need to be kept in perspective. Zim thrashing Kenya does not necessarily mean that Zim is much higher than the associates. Zim should play Ireland, Afghanistan, Netherlands and Canada to see whether they can do so consistently against higher ranked associates than Kenya or not. Personally I think the ICC missed a trick when they did not get Afghanistan to play ODIs against Zim when the toured for the Intercontinental cup.

For Zim, their batting is quite strong, even in the absense of Taibu. It was their pace bowling that was weak, but they seem to have found a good quickie in Jarvis.

Thailand’s Women – Pioneering Success

The profile of women’s cricket on a global scale has risen considerably over the last few years. We’ve seen increased coverage of the game on television characterized by the widespread broadcast of the recent World Cup in Australia. Sponsorship levels have gone up and many more countries are professionalizing their domestic set-ups. Regional bodies such as the European Cricket Council (ECC), the Africa Cricket Association (ACA), and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) have also been pulling their weight and organizing more tournaments, both junior and senior for their region’s women. Many countries have been taking advantage of these developments, and one of these is Thailand.

The country has traditionally produced able, yet unspectacular men’s teams and never really challenged the top rung of ACC nations such as UAE, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, and Nepal in the men’s game. On the back of a 3rd place finish at the inaugural ACC U-19 Cup in 2008, and a runners-up finish (they lost in the finals by 4 runs to Hong Kong and beat Nepal, Singapore, Qatar, Bhutan, Iran on the way) at the ACC Women’s 20/20 Asian Games Qualifying Tournament, Thailand’s women are slowly developing a name for themselves.

An 100% ethnic Thai squad made up of former national baseball, basketball, and volleyball players, all natural athletes, a school cricket program for women in three provinces, and the recent introduction of cricket into the annual National (Makhamwan) Games, and the ASEAN University Games are all indications of a bright future for the country’s female cricketers. To top it all off, the girls have sealed qualification to the Asian Games Women’s Cricket Competition in Guangzhou next year where they will compete against four test-playing countries, 2 other qualifiers (Nepal, Hong Kong), and hosts China. This will be the country’s first cricketing soujourn at this level and it is hoped that this will generate interest for the sport amongst the general public, and ring in the sponsors. For this to have long term effects, the embarrassment of one-sided thrashings by the test nations needs to be avoided and to make sure this happens, the country will have to train extensively for the tournament, and expose itself to quality competition (in the form of series against Hong Kong, Bangladesh or other leading Associates such as PNG, and Ireland) on a regular basis

It is hoped the success of the women’s sides will rub onto the men sooner or later, and that they will start to produce cricketers capable of leading the country to the higher echelons of ACC competition, and into the World Cricket League in the near future. In wake of the women’s success on the regional stage, all that’s need is some clear strategic planning, and the development of an ethnic player base and appropriate domestic development and competition structures for the men to do the same. Thailand has the population, the facilities, and the government support to take Asian Cricket by storm.

PS: A recent profile on the Asian Cricket Council Website (http://www.asiancricket.org/h_1009_thaiwomen.cfm) documents their development and success in detail.

About Associates losing top players …

The following is a list of the WC winning Sri lankan team in 1996. Additionally, the first value is the year in which they essentially became regular in the Sri lankan team. The year in the bracket is the official debut year

1982 Ranatunga (1982)
1984 Aravinda (1984)
1985 Gurusinha (1985)
1986 Mahanama (1986)
1988 Tilkeratna (1986/1989)
1991 Jayasuriya (1989/1991)
1992 Wickremasinghe (1990/1991)
1992 Kaluwitharna (1990/1992)
1993 Muralitharan (1992/1993)
1993 Dharmasena (1993/1994)
1994 Vaas (1994)

What is important to note is that no one can get all 11 world class players immediately within a year, and neither can teams improve and add to their available world class players without being in the same league as the best in the world. What would have happenned if every year, the one bright player that SL found would be lost to another Full Member country as there were better oppurtunities there?

Ireland first lost Joyce, and now have lost Morgan. Maybe next year or the next they will lose another player too. As a result, the Ireland team stays weak because anyone who actually is world class, needs to leave Ireland to pursue his potential and improve further.

ICC has to relax the 4 year rule. Players should be able to return to their native team after at most 1 year out of Full Member team.

The other thing, long time ago the idea was mentioned by someone else; a Rest of the World Test team which is completely on the ICC FTP calender. That will give the players the oppurtunity to play in front of big crowds, make good money, have fan following etc without having to qualify for another Test playing country. Initially, when the idea came about, my thinking was that it was not doable. But people should just think of this as any job, they would all have to probably move to UAE as that would be their base, and also where they will play home games.

One caveat that the Rest of the World Team has is qualification. Would it become a mechanism for Full Member country players to try and emigrate to Associate countries so that they can get into the Rest of the World team? I think, the ROW team will need much stricter rules, for example, if you have ever held a full member country passport, you cannot qualify for ROW. Would it have made good sense if a ROW team in 2008 was dominated by Davison, Bilcliff, Cheema, Johnston, Nannes, Hemp etc? It would be a competitive team, sure, but not what the ROW Test team was trying to achieve. In addition to never having held the Full Member country passport, you can also have residence rules for 10+ years.

Then again, there is the second caveat: player availability. If the 3 best Irish players are touring NZ with ROW for a test series, how can they make themselves available for an ODI that Ireland is playing against say, England. You may end up with the same problem. Given the fact that the ROW team might have players from 5 associates, synchronizing ROW schedule with the tours of those 5 associates so as to avoid an overlap would be next to impossible.

Joyce waiting for ICC clearance?

I saw this on cricinfo today, and was wondering if anyone knows any more on this special clearance that Joyce has applied for. According to ICC rules, a player cannot play for 4 years for another country after representing a full member. He probably has another couple of years to go on that, and may miss out on Ireland’s world cup team. Perhaps the special request is to allow him to play for Ireland after less than 4 years, but that also means that he has to take the decision on England right now.

On the u19 World Cup qualifier …

Sorry, this posting is about 1 month late, as I was not writing before.

About two and a half years ago, I wrote this post on this blog that the ICC is missing an u19 qualifier tournament. It is good to see that the ICC finally realized it themselves.

If this tournament had not been in place, the ICC couldnt have done better than second guessing. They would have given 2 spots to Europe, and 1 each to the other regions. That would have meant that the following teams would have qualified: Ireland, Netherlands, Canada, PNG, Uganda and Afgahnistan. As it turned out, due to the qualifier, there was no qualification from Africa on the account of them being too weak. and Netherlands were not able to make it either, primarily becuase their 2 super star batsmen who are more than half their batting were missing. Whatever the excuse might be, the stronger teams ended up qualifying and the regions also got a sense of where they stand. Netherlands should however, look at why their best players were available, and that too at this level for only 2 weeks !

Now on to the future of such a tournament, the fact that almost 12 players vanished from Afghan and Uganda squads will create a lot of trouble for such a tournament to be held in what are traditionally known as developed countries. I was actually appalled at what happenned, especially in the Afghan coach also ran away. Now Uganda was pretty bad in the tournament so you can suspect that they might have selected players who were not thinking of a cricket future, but just paid their way through and were planning on running away anyway. But Afghan team, it was runners up ! And their coach ran away too !

Uganda will find it difficult now to tour countries like Aus, USA or Canada again. So will other african countries. But what made it very appalling was that these were kids! u19 players !. Its not unthinkable that this would happen, but at u19 level its probably the first of its kind. ICC could have done a better job policing the teams, especially since Sierra Leone were not allowed especially for these apprehensions.

Hong Kong, USA and Canada all had only 4 players each born in that country. Others were born elsewhere. Hopefully the players migrated to these countries in their early years and represent somewhat of the development level of that country. Personally, I was rooting for Netherlands to qualify instead of HK, becuase I knew that they were much stronger in reality if Kervezee and Allema were playing. But then again who knows, maybe these 2 would have founf something more important to do in the actual world cup as well instead of playing for their team. I guess, to each, his own.

On Zimbabwe XI beating Kenya …

Since Zimbabwe was drafted into the intercontinental cup, everyone was on thier case for not fielding their full team. The common argument at that time was that Zimbabwe will field essentially their full team, lose, and then say its just their second string team. My thinking was also the same.

But time proved that Zimbabwe full team might be too strong for the intercontinental cup. The current Zim XI team, in terms of batting, only had Sibanda from the front runners in the main team. There was no H. Masakadza, Vermulen, Taibu, Taylor, Chigambura,Utseya, Price or Coventry. If Kenya is expecting to get into the full fold of ICC, then they need to perform like this against A team of top sides, not Zimbabwe !

2-3 years ago, Kenya nearly beat Zimbabwe in a 5 match series. But Kenya overall have not been impressive, either in their A team, or their u19 team. You think about the fact taht Uganda was the best u19 team from Africa, and in the World Qualifier league, they were the almost the worst. Kenya was not even runner up in Africa u19 qualifier . They need to pick up their adminsitration, as just talk of tremendous talent is not enough. They have enough funds I think now to nourish the talent, and at least be super competitive at u19 level on the global stage.

I am reminded of a player called Nolan Clarke who appeared in the Netherlands team in the 1996 WC at the age of 47. He had been a West Indian player from the 70s.  While he did hit Shaun Pollock for an amazing six, I just hope in 10 years time Kenya is still not relying of their star batsman called Steve Tikolo.

And they are naturally atheletic and well built. why cant they find quick pace bowlers !!