Big Sporting Weekend

This weekend is going to be a big one. Some of the biggest sporting events of this calendar year are ending during this weekend. The Rugby World Cup final will be held on saturday at midnight and the Formula One season will be closing on Sunday night with a three way battle between Lewis, Alonso and Kimi.

So what’s it going to be. Will South Africa triumph over England or will Wilkinson and the boys be able to retain the trophy and be crowned World Champs for the second time in a row. No one absolutely expected England to make this so far and it looks like they might edge out South Africa and retain the trophy.

In Formula One it will be a very close battle between Lewis, Alonso and Kimi. All Lewis has to do is to finish second and he will win his first championship in his debut season and all Alonso has to do is to finish first and make sure Lewis finishes third or below. Kimi of course has an outside chance if both of these individuals don’t score any points which at the moment seems highly unlikely however there is no counting the iceman out of this battle.

Amongst all this will be the Twenty20 encounter between India and Australia which will give Australia a chance to avenge their elimination from the T20 World Cup and also give India a chance to avenge their one day series loss to Australia. However the Twenty20 is rather small compared to the other two big events during the this weekend but it adds a bit of spice to everything.

All I am going to do this weekend is sit back and relax while watching the biggest sporting events as they unfold right before my very eyes. And by the time I finish all these events I would have to face the reality of coming back to work on monday.

 

Twenty20 the future of cricket

Twenty20 somehow seems to suit everyone due to the short time required to play the game and not to mention that it is interesting too. The duration of this format is just longer than football and rugby. Before the T20 World Cup started many dismissed this as a game where the bowlers will be totally demolished and there will be plenty of slogging but we have seen instances where the bowlers have had their shot at fame in this format and some great cricketing shots being played.

I was watching a debate on NDTV just before the final of the T20 tournament and it was interesting to note that it was mentioned that the ICC had decided that there will not be any more than two T20 games played during any tour. It seems to be that there are some old timers in the ICC who do not want the world to embrace T20 cricket. I guess that this is not only a problem in the ICC but everywhere since on the NDTV debate some retired old time cricketing blokes were extremely worried about the future of Test Cricket (yawn).

With the Twenty20 format the ICC will be able to introduce this version into the SAF Games, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and finally as an Olympic Sport. This format would also help cricket to become more popular in countries that do not play cricket. In addition the Twenty20 league being planned by the Indian Cricket Board will consist of club cricket between teams from India, Australia, England and I read somewhere that Sri Lanka may also pitch in. So we may have a FA Cup, Barclays Premier League or UEFA cup style tournament in cricket too. I honestly feel sorry for the Zee TV people since their ICL (Indian Cricket League) was planned to capitalize on the loss by the Indian Cricket Team during the ICC World Cup and they never expected India to win the T20 World Cup. Now that the BCCI has planned to launch their own T20 league together with Australia and England it is probably a bad blow to the ICL.

The ICC hopefully does not stem the growth of Twenty20 just to make sure that Test Cricket (yawn) does not fade away (okay who watches Test Cricket anyway, I can’t remember the last time I watched a Test match). The way the 50 over game is played will change most definitely by taking some tips from the T20 format.

The players except a few seem to be okay with T20 cricket but most importantly the cricket fans love it and where ever the fans are so will be the big broadcasters and the commercial sponsors. Eventually T20 will become the most popular and will be played many more times than the 50 over game. Unless Test Cricket (yawn) receives a face lift it’s future looks bleak. If the T20 format is suppressed then the ICC will not have any chance of increasing the popularity of cricket in other nations.

Three cheers to T20 Cricket, by the way are there any T20 matches planned for the England tour of Sri Lanka? The Australia tour of India has one T20 game which is yet to be confirmed.

 

Sports Galore

This month is a real boom for sports enthusiasts as the Rugby World Cup and the Twenty20 World Cup are to be held. It would have been better to have the two big sporting events in different months but since there are not too many Rugby fans in Sri Lanka there is not going to be too many clashes between the events as not all the Rugby matches will be telecast on pay or free to air television. However all the Twenty20 matches will be telecast live.

Not many people I have spoken to have any idea that the Rugby World Cup is starting tomorrow. Most people in this region are into cricket than any other sport. Even the most recent athletic tournament in which some Sri Lankans took part were not shown over local television. I just hope many Sri Lankans will become more interested in sports than cricket too.

This month and the next is going to be full of discussions on Rugby and Cricket, not to mention the nail biting finish of the 2007 Formula One Season.

For most Sri Lankans the Twenty20 will be the one to watch but I for one will be among those who will be enjoying the Rugby, Twenty20 and the Formula One season finale.

 

Lewis Hamilton – the next Schumacher?

Ever the last formula one season ended and the retirement of Michael Schumacher was upon us. I couldn’t help it but wonder whether anyone else would really be able to achieve all what he has accomplished to far. Well looks like this season has answered the question. Lewis Hamilton on his first season in formula one season has put double world champion and his team mate Fernando Alonso on the back foot. From the first race onwards he has been a force to be reckoned with. He has achieved things that no rookie driver has done so far and looking at it, I must say that it is extremely unfair to call him rookie.

In some races and in the statements that are being made it seems that Fernando Alonso is not enjoying playing second fiddle to Lewis at McLaren. It is not only at McLaren that this is happening but in Ferrari Filipe Massa is fairing much better than Kimi Raikkonen who was brought into the team to fill Schumacher’s shoes. He is probably not enjoying the fact of playing second fiddle to Massa either.

One thing is for certain this season Formula One has seen young guns emerging and in the next few years there are going to very interesting title fights between the likes of Massa, Hamilton, Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen, etc. At the moment Lewis Hamilton seems to be the most impressive youngster in the lot and has all the opportunities in world to make Schumacher’s achievements look like child’s play.

This year the championship is a four way battle between Kimi, Massa, Lewis, Alonso and  hopefully Lewis or Massa would come out on top.  Looking forward to the day that Lewis Hamilton joins Ferrari.

 

Are Sri Lankans bad losers?

Well the World Cup drew to a close last saturday night amidst a lot of fireworks courtesy the general public and a few others. It is almost a week and according to some of the comments that I hear it seems that some of my fellow countrymen have not taken up losing that well.

First there was talk about the squash ball in glove, which I feel if Gilchrist wanted to keep it a secret then he could have but he openly commented about it in public. The squash ball is legal until proven illegal and if there are no rules to call it illegal then it is absolutely legal. If Gilchrist hadn’t had a go at the Sri Lankans then surely some other Aussie batsmen would have done it since they have a very strong batting lineup.

In todays Daily News a Dr. Sarath Fernando in an article titled “Are the Aussies guilty of performance enhancing Drugs?” has written that Matthew Hayden and Gilchrist have used performance enhancing drugs. Apparently he says so citing that Hayden and Gilchrist were able to perform well for the duration of the tournament. What this doctor forgot was that Gilchrist performed well only in the last match and Hayden did not perform that well in the final match. Hayden is a batsman in form and he was probably able to see the ball very well enabling him to perform well during the tournament. Another doctor in the letters section has suggested that Sri Lanka be made joint World Champions. I wonder what’s up with these doctors?

The fact is now that we have lost the World Cup and there is nothing much that we can do about it. This is probably the worst World Cup that was ever held and credit should go to the Australians for winning their fourth one and their third in a row.

Sri Lanka did not perform badly and they went down fighting but the Aussies were the better team on that day. Lets not be bad losers by calling the Aussies cheats and crying about the loss. After all we have to concentrate on the next World Cup since some of our senior players may have called it a day by then.

More important than the World Cup is a solution to the current conflict since if we do not solve it soon we might have to watch the next world cup while living in air raid bunkers.

 

Of cricket and conflicts

So the World Cup is coming to an end and life will finally become normal in Sri Lanka depending on what “normal” is exactly.

It was interesting to note that prior to the semi final against New Zealand there was a multi religious ceremony at the cricket board. There were astrologers who were brought into the picture to capture the winning star. Religious ceremonies have been held in certain churches, hindu temples, buddhist temples, etc to invoke the blessings on the team. People gathered at public places to support the home team on its way to victory. So that is Sri Lanka when it comes to cricket. Politicians are also now planning a joy ride to Barbados to watch the final at the expense of the state.

So how come we are much different when we take the conflict into consideration. We do not have the same unity. There so much of a difference in opinion on what should be done and the path that Sri Lanka should follow to solve the conflict. The people seem oblivious to the fact that many innocent soldiers and civilians are being killed on a daily basis.

Why can’t we put the same enthusiasm, energy and unity that we put into cricket and channel it towards finding a solution to this conflict. It may be easier said than done but it has to be done or else it may be too late. We in the south are enjoying the cricket but the soldiers are risking their lives every second of their lives and the people in the north have the feeling of insecurity.

Apparently the government and the LTTE did have an unofficial truce for the duration of the match and I did not hear of any truce violations during that period. If we can have a truce for cricket why not a truce to bring an end to all this bloodshed.

After all a World Cup comes around every four years but a life lost can never be regained. Winning the World Cup will not matter if Sri Lanka does not resolve the present conflict.

 

Mahela’s Tragedy or Strategy

First it is nice to be back after the New Year holidays. The Super 8 encounter between Sri Lanka and Australia on 16th April has opened gaping questions as well as interesting views on the Sri Lankan team selection for that particular match.

I feel that Sri Lanka should have fielded a full strength side for that match and then rested the key players for the match against Ireland. A victory against Australia would have had a positive affect on the team morale as well as a negative effect on the Australian’s. If Sri Lanka made the final then we would have a had a psychological advantage over Australia.

There seems to be no strategical advantage that Sri Lanka can gain over Australia by not playing Vass, Murali and Malinga. They are not secret weapons that can be unleashed on the Australian’s since the Aussies have played them before, well at least they have played Vass and Murali before but not sure whether they have played Malinga.

This match was termed as the big one and a probable dress rehearsal of the final and with the team selection the entire atmosphere fizzled out.

Only time will tell whether the team selection will end up as being a work of successful cricketing strategy or else turn out to be a tragedy.

 

Amnesty International and Cricket

Amnesty International is supposedly carrying out a campaign called “Play by the rules” which is aimed at highlighting the plight of human rights abuses in this country. I read in yesterdays edition of The Daily Mirror that the Sri Lankan Government is planning a massive media campaign to counter this campaign. According to the report the government is apparently countering this because they believe this will demoralize the Sri Lankan cricket team.

Lets get this straight, it is obvious that human rights violations are taking place in Sri Lanka. There are so many things happening in Sri Lanka now because of this so called humanitarian war resulting in all sides involved in this conflict committing human rights offences. Anyone who denies this is nothing but a fool. There are thousands who are displaced, several abducted, restriction of movement on civilians, etc.

So shouting at Amnesty International is not going to help Sri Lanka at all. Sri Lanka has to gets it’s act together and face the reality of the situation. Everyone knows that the authorities are claiming that this campaign is aimed at demoralizing the Sri Lankan cricket team in order to get the support of Sri Lankans and shifting focus from the real situation of human rights.

Sri Lanka is going from bad to worse and it is a pathetic situation that this country is in, and instead of using the AI campaign in a positive manner all what we are doing now is shouting that the cricketers are being demoralized. Of course the cricketers are not being affected in any way and the only people who are actually being affected are the authorities since their shrewd ideologies, intentions and actions are being made public internationally and the only way they can think of countering this is by drawing sympathy towards the cricketers.

 

ICC World Cup 2007 – Download & maintain your very own points sheet

Just now I uploaded a points sheet that all of us can fill in as the World Cup progresses and keep track of the team positions and their points.

To download please visit the link ICC World Cup 2007 – Points Sheet.

Hopefully all the cricket fanatics out there will enjoy filling up the sheet and keeping track of your favourite teams at this tournament.

 

Effects of the ICC World Cup 2007

In light of the World Cup that starts tomorrow and lasts for almost two months, I wonder whether offices in Sri Lanka will be efficient until the tournament comes to an end. The matches are expected to start at around 7 to 8pm and will end at about 3am the next day and this will mean that many will come to office nodding and may end up working rather slow and also less efficiently. There is also going to be a sudden increase of the number of people who sleep in public transport during the next two months. Hopefully no accidents involving people at the wheel falling asleep.

Employees may turn up late into office but I figure state institutions will be worse. It is already difficult to get any work done in them and we may have to avoid going there in the morning because many will be coming to office late. Who knows they even take a nap after lunch called “The World Cup Nap”.

There is surely going to be a surge in electricity usage too and not to mention higher electricity bills.

Things will probably be worse on the day after a match involving Sri Lanka. So this World Cup is going to have an affect on all walks of society and will alter the sleeping patterns of people of this nation and surrounding nations too since we are not alone in this. Cricket lovers in this part of the world will become Nocturnal for the next two months.

I for one have not decided what to do, I want to watch the matches too but I want to be able to work properly the next day. Any Suggestions please? How are you folks out there going to do it?