The Frank Worrell Trophy round-up

I have been forced back into the world of blogging due to the rather shocking events that transpired yesterday. Yes, I am talking about the release of MLA Jhina Hikaka by the Maoists in Orissa. But there has been some cricket taking place in the meantime and I'm certainly more excited to talk about that rather than the negotiating strategies of the government of Orissa.
An important series which is on its last day is the Frank Worrell Trophy between West Indies and Australia and it has been tense stuff. I won't use the word exhilarating because it hasn't been a stream of quick wickets or runs but an ongoing interrogation of batting technique as well as the patience of bowlers. A particular spell to underline this battle was the spell of Fidel Edwards to James Pattinson, where the bat was beaten on almost every second ball, but Pattinson survived by being not quite good enough to hit any of the balls and Edwards went away a man thinking the world was against him. It is this sort of play that makes for tense but admittedly tedious play and why Test Cricket shall remain the pinnacle of display of cricketing technique.
One thing which has been interesting to look at how the two sides are coping with the current team composition. While Australia have David Warner at the top, West Indies are missing their own enforcer by way of IPL, leaving Kraigg Brathwaite at the top. Now Brathwaite is the sort of opening batsman that has been made extinct thanks to Sehwag and Warner is the new breed. However, looking at the way he has gone about his business, Warner is willing to graft for his suns as well, which is a great sign for the Aussie teams of the future. Enough cannot be said about the continued inspection on Ponting and his form, but as Ed Cowan said, Ponting's average of 24.33 in this series masks the fact how difficult it has been to score at any pace in this series.
I think another round of congratulations should be handed out to Shivnarine Chanderpaul for reaching the milestone of 10,000 runs. Playing Dravid to Lara's Tendulkar is a job not greatly appreciated and the irony is that some of the most useful players through time have simply not been appreciated and the biggest of them is perhaps Jacques Kallis.
A major reason why I stayed up to watch these games is Lara Darren Bravo. His style is so similar to a certain other West Indian that it is almost a time machine back into the late 90's. In fact many of the commentators have mistaken him for another man from Trinidad repeatedly and who can blame them. For me, watching till 3 in the night is worth it as long I get to sample another of those flashes outside the off-stump after which the ball magically disappears to the backward point fence.
  

Did the Argus Committee Report work?

Most committee’s are known to work as well as a piece of cheese in hammering out the dents in a militarized tank, i.e. not very well. (But might provide some useful results if persisted with over a long period of time. For e.g., the cheese might melt on the metal body, thereby providing you a hot plate on which to cook delicious continental food, or in inventing the tastiest tank ever, the use of which shall be in the battle against obesity. Generally though, its contributions towards fixing dents might be minimal.) They sit around, wasting financial resources on obscene amounts of caffeine and generally twiddling of thumbs. However, Cricket Australia (CA) employed such a committee to publish a report that would save Australian cricket through well thought out critique and provide direction to its administrators. And it did so by quite unequivocally stating that the Australian cricket team “can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t field.”

Somehow, this had been exactly what the CA needed to hear about a cricket team which, quite specifically, needed to learn how to play cricket. So they sacked a lot of people in administration, brought in a bunch of other people, sacked a batsman with an average of 50 over the last three years, kept a batsman with an average of 29 over the last three years, refused to let go of a keeper who has still not learnt how to bat, managed fast bowlers on the basis of whoever is not injured is picked, finally coming back to a bowling attack that is similar to the one that was told it can’t bowl, but have now drawn two series and are on the cusp of winning one. That is on the go dynamic administration for you.

However, their success cannot be argued against. To draw a series against the current world no.2 and now on the verge of winning a series against the current-current world no.2 is not an easy task. Sure the Indians have been as likely to pull together 2 full innings without a batting collapse as a person smelling a cricket ball with his teeth (unless of course you are a certain Afridi, in which case the normal standardized organs for smell detection are nothing but a rule meant to be broken), but the Australians have capitalized and in no small measure thanks to the effort of Captain Clarke, who apparently never misses a trick when on the attack, are now looking to steamroll the side that was no.1 as well as no.3 in the world this year.

So the big question is, do committees make better cricketers? The answer, quite obviously, is apparently, yes. Thus, from now on, all cricket boards should form committees that are given guidelines to tell the players, in no uncertain terms, that the only way to win cricket matches is to play better cricket.