The Reverse Sweep

It's time to get uplifted and inspired...

Alastair Cook’s hundred in Abu Dhabi (make that hundreds as he’s just hit another as we type) and Steve Finn’s splattering of Pakistan’s top order put a warm glow in us on Monday. It made us feel uncharacteristically positive and even a bit fluffy. Hence our feelgood piece for All Out Cricket this week about the twin fairytales served up by Afghanistan’s cricketers and Zambia’s football team last weekend.

We’re sure that an English batting collapse won’t be too long in coming and we’ll soon be back to our usual bitter and twisted selves. In the meantime, prepare to be uplifted and read Nothing Can Confound And Inspire In Equal Measure Quite Like Sport. You may even find yourself smiling at the end of it. Maybe.

Where next?

Alastair Cook takes a cue from Strauss as his ODI alma mater

Check out our Cricket XIs

Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes 

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

England, the Lions, a treacherous banana skin and a Buttler

As potential banana skins go, tomorrow’s 50 over warm-up match between England and the Lions is a particularly slippery one surrounded by a cricket square sized area of treacherous black ice that is invisible to the naked eye.

On the one hand you have a team mostly coming in on the back of a chastening 3-0 Test series whitewash trying to immediately adjust to the 50 over game. Either that or in the case of Ravi Bopara for example, having spent the last three weeks carrying drinks.

Whilst on the other you have a young side fresh from winning a series 3-2 against Sri Lanka A who have done nothing but play limited over cricket in Asia for the past few weeks.

When you also factor in that individuals like Jos Buttler and Jonathan Bairstow will be eager to impress coach Andy Flower in order to get the nod for the ODI series with Pakistan and others like Joe Root and Alex Hales will be striving to show that they are ready for a call-up to the first choice squad, it’s not difficult to see what is perhaps more than likely going to happen.

A couple of years ago, strong performances from Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb for the Lions against the senior squad propelled them into England’s T20 side for the victorious World Cup campaign in the Caribbean.

Who will be the big noise this time? We’re going to go for the safest of bets and predict that Buttler, a man who scored two centuries in the aforementioned trip to Sri Lanka and who averages 70.57 in List A games with a strike rate of 128. That’s pretty decent.

Flower and the senior squad are probably relieved that it is Pakistan and not they who are Afghanistan’s opposition in their first ODI tomorrow. Either way the senior side are likely to be up the Khyber come the end of proceedings tomorrow.

Where next?

How good are this England cricket team?

India v England ODI series: England marks out of 10

Pakistan vs England - England series marks out of 10

England's tale of woe against spin in Asia

Check out all our Reverse Sweep cricket heroes and zeroes

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

Arrogant ICC takes the magic out of the World Cup by killing the Associates

 

To make a dreadful decision once that provokes an outcry of disgust from the people that follow your sport is bad enough.

To do it again having seemingly agreed to review your erroneous decision is not only unforgivable but downright arrogant and stupid.

Everyone agrees that the Cricket World Cup is too long and that the last three editions have had too many meaningless matches.

But getting rid of the Associate nations and depriving them even of the chance to try and qualify for the tournament is not the answer.

It is the decision of a corrupt, out of touch and money grabbing organisation that wants to make the World Cup an exclusive old boys network – if you are not a full member you will be summarily removed and evicted for a minimum of eight years.

As we’ve written before, one of the ICC’s main objectives should be to spread the game of cricket worldwide.

Instead the decision to limit participation in the next World Cup to its 10 full members effectively makes cricket a closed shop.

Some of the most memorable moments in World Cup history have seen David upset Goliath.

Sri Lanka beat India in 1979 and were subsequently awarded Test status. In 1983, Zimbabwe stunned Australia at Trent Bridge. Kenya beat West Indies in 1996 and then triumphed over Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe en route to the semi-final in 2003.

And who can forget Ireland? In the last two tournaments they have beaten Pakistan, Bangladesh and England as well as achieving a tie with Zimbabwe – who they are actually higher than in the ICC’s own ODI rankings.

Of course it was Ireland’s success in 2007 as well as Bangladesh surprising India that has inadvertently caused the ICC to act in this heinous manner.

The ICC was not prepared to tolerate the likes of India and Pakistan being knocked out in the group stages.

It hit them where it hurts grubby administrators most – in the pocket.

Hence the two groups of seven in the recently completed World Cup.

Even if one of the Associates managed to surprise a full member – as Ireland memorably did to England, the chances of them progressing to the quarter-finals were still thin as they would need to beat at least one other full member.

It’s called taking the magic out of the cup.

The ICC should expand the tournament not contract it.

It’s quite simple really. Four groups of four with the top two in each group going through to the quarter-finals.

Not only does it help spread the wonderful game of cricket worldwide, it also produces a shorter tournament with 31 matches instead of the 49 we had this time.

And it means every game matters.

By losing to Ireland, England would probably have been knocked out if they had been in a group of four. And they would have deserved it.

So instead of seeing the story of Irish cricket develop and the probable debut of Afghanistan in the World Cup (and who wouldn't shed a tear if that happened), we will be subjected to a members only dirge.

It stinks.

So, please follow the advice of cricketwithballs and tell the ICC exactly what you think about their shameful decision. You can contact them by email at [email protected] or you via Twitter @cricketicc.

Go on, your World Cup depends upon it.

Where next?

Our best XI of the 2011 World Cup

Bruce Springsteen was born to run, MS Dhoni was born to lead

Netherlands 1 ICC 0

REVEALED: The ICC's plans for the 2015 Groundhog Day Cricket World Cup 

An XI of unlikely World Cup heroes and a not so heroic 12th man

If you like this, follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

Pace sends brave Afghanistan up the Khyber

If the best bowler you had faced before was Boyd Rankin then how would you feel faced with Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel running in at full steam on a bouncy track in Barbados? Petrified is probably the answer. At the very least you would quickly understand how a deserter feels when faced with a firing squad.

This was Afghanistan's fate yesterday as Steyn and Morkel ripped through their top order like a pair of knives slicing through butter as the Afghan's hopes of successfully chasing down 140 to secure a place in the Super Eight stage went up in smoke. Pluck was not in short supply though, as the Afghans recovered from 14 for six and 32 for eight to reach an at least respectable 80 all out.

Given Afghanistan's rapid rise and the fact that unlike Ireland for example they had not played at this level before, they emerge with bats held high from their two defeats to India and South Africa. They certainly justified their belief that they should have the opportunity to play regular T20 and ODI against the top teams. Their fielding has been sharp, the bowlers have done well and even the batsmen performed reasonably against India despite being blown away by Steyn and Morkel yesterday.

Of course, if the ICC had done what it should have done and just had two groups of six teams at this competition, then the Afghans would have got five matches against top-class opposition; it was a long journey for two matches. It certainly would have been interesting to see how they would have fared against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. If the former's match against Australia was anything to go by, where the pace of Nannes and Tait undid Bangladesh after their bowlers had put them within range of a shock victory, then a match-up with Afghanistan could have been too close to call.

So as the Afghan's prepare for an arduous journey back to Kabul, they leave safe in the knowledge that the fact that they even reached the competition was one of the best stories in sport of recent times. Moreover, they depart having not embarrassed themselves and with the hope that this is just the end of the second chapter of what will become an ever more enthralling ride. 

Stand and Deliver: Karim Sadiq style

Afghanistan's bow in the World T20 against India was just how the script writers would have told it.

The plucky Afghans batted first and didn't embarrass themselves as they posted a total of 115 for eight off their 20 overs, with opener Noor Ali scoring an excellent fifty. Then India were made to work for a while before MS Dhoni eased them to victory with 31 balls remaining.

However, it was the brief innings of Noor Ali's fellow opener Karim Sadiq that I enjoyed most. It only lasted three balls and he was out for a duck, but it will be the most entertaining duck of the whole competition.

It went like this:

Ball one: Sadiq's first ball was the fifth ball of the match, but that didn't affect his confidence as he charged down the pitch to Praveen Kumar. The only problem was that he missed the ball by a mile and it passed through to Dhoni behind the stumps. Was it nerves, or did Sadiq think he was playing against Bermuda or the like in the ICC qualifying tournament?

Ball two: If it doesn't work once, try again seemed to be Sadiq's motto as he repeated the trick and tried to smash Kumar into the sea surrounding the ground in St Lucia. Again, all he connected with was fresh air and the ball passed through to a smiling Dhoni.

Ball three: Now facing Ashish Nehra, Sadiq was not prepared to take a step back. Despite the ball being deliberately short, Sadiq still took a step down the wicket and even though he was completely in the wrong position, tried to play a Ricky Ponting style pull shot. Again he failed to connect with the bat, but the ball hit his glove giving a bemused Dhoni an easy catch behind the stumps.

I cannot wait to see Sadiq try and repeat his approach against Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and can only hope he lasts longer than three balls next time and really does stand and deliver. If he actually manages to hit the ball it could go into orbit.

World T20 preview and predictions

Just five days after the end of the IPL season, international cricket resumes with the World T20 in the Caribbean. Although, it will be a less frenzied affair with no DLF maximums, no timeouts and praise be to God, no Danny Morrison, it is not exactly an example of good scheduling by the ICC. And coming under a year after the last World T20 in England, no-one could argue that cricket in general is adopting a less is more approach to the youngest form of the game.

The competition itself is structured in the same way as a year ago with four initial groups of three being whittled down to two groups of four in the Super Eight stage, before the semi-finals and final. Group A sees holders Pakistan up against Bangladesh and Australia, and with Shahid Afridi captaining pretty much anything could happen. Shorn of Shoaib Malik, Rana Naved, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan through the mismanagement of Ijaz Butt and one of the best T20 bowlers in the world in Umar Gul through injury, Pakistan may even struggle to get past unpredictable Bangladesh.

Despite losing a warm-up match to Zimbabwe and Brett Lee to injury, Australia has to rank amongst the favourites for the trophy; though the decision to leave Doug Bollinger at home could come back to haunt them. We'll take the Aussies to top the group and Bangladesh to get past Pakistan and cause more match-fixing allegations from their oh so wonderful politicians.

Group B sees last year's runners up Sri Lanka take on New Zealand and Zimbabwe. King Kumar's boys should do well on the expected slow pitches of the Caribbean and New Zealand don't generally get beaten by the minnows, so despite the boon of beating Australia, the ever-improving Zimbabwe are likely to miss out here.

The wonderful story that is Afghanistan qualifying for the competition is likely to end abruptly with India and South Africa the opposition in Group C, and the hosts West Indies and England will have too much firepower for Ireland in Group D.

Then the real business will start with the Super Eight stage although the bizarre way in which those groups will be constituted is confusing to say the least. By our reckoning, assuming Australia, Sri Lanka, India and England win the preliminary groups, the two Super Eight groups will be Bangladesh, New Zealand, South Africa and England in Group E, and Australia, Sri Lanka, India and West Indies in a much tougher looking Group F. But we could be wrong and we're already on the phone to Professor Stephen Hawking in order to get a better understanding of how this works.

Anyway, taking for granted that we are correct; and for England's sake we hope we are, then the Reverse Sweep's belief that 2010 is going to follow 1966 and 2003 in the annals of English sporting glory looks a distinct possibility. With T20 being a great leveller, the selectors finally picking the right squad and England having a good balance between bat and ball, Paul Collingwood's men should be right up there in contention for the trophy. We take them to go through to the semi-finals with South Africa from this supposed Group E.

If Group F looked like this then it would rightly be called the group of death. All four teams look strong with India led by the excellent MS Dhoni and Australia the two favourites for the competition. But don't rule out the hosts who will be looking to make up for their disappointing performance when hosting the World Cup in 2007. With Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard, West Indies have the impact players that win a T20 match in a five over spell. And with T20 having that element of unpredictability we go for the hosts to join India in the last four.

With South Africa likely to choke in the semi-final and the West Indies probably running out of steam, we at the Reverse Sweep are predicting an India-England final with the absence of Sachin Tendulkar meaning that England will finally break its duck of having never won a limited overs ICC world trophy. But we won't be massively surprised if we get it wrong.

In terms of the cricketers to look out for, here are our tips (one per country) as the likely stars: England - Kevin Pietersen, India - MS Dhoni, South Africa - Dale Steyn, West Indies - Kieron Pollard, Australia - Cameron White, Sri Lanka - Angelo Mathews, Bangladesh - Tamim Iqbal, New Zealand - Ross Taylor, Pakistan - Shahid Afridi, Zimbabwe - Elton Chigumbura, Ireland - Niall O'Brien, Afghanistan - Mohammad Shahzad.

Let the festivities begin, and then roll-on quickly so we can get some test cricket...