The most important event of 2015!!

[Gob]

I'm off to see Bangladesh vs Afghanistan today, top stuff!!!

[Lord Jim]

[Gob]

Oh come on Jim, two nations of equal standing, slogging it out. Sydney has a large Bangladeshi population, and the game is sold out. There will be food stalls and other "ethnic" entertainments from both nations.

A grand day out, (if the rain holds off!)

http://www.bom.gov.au/act/forecasts/canberra.shtml

Don't be such a Grinch!

[Lord Jim]

You're right Strop, I'm being too harsh...

I'm sure it's worth going just to see the famous Afghan Cricket Team's Cheer Leading Squad:

[Gob]

ETA:

It is the happiest story in cricket, the opposite of what is happening to the West Indies. Or the closest that cricket has come to a fairy story.

Twenty years ago cricket did not exist to all intents in war-ravaged Afghanistan. On Wednesday, their national team will play Bangladesh in their first 50-over World Cup match, and have every chance of beating that fragile Test-playing country, as they did in their only previous ODI encounter.

The rest of Afghanistan's qualifying matches are against Sri Lanka, Scotland, Australia - at Perth of all venues - New Zealand and England. Some progress, that is, since playing their first match in 2004 against Oman, and losing it by four wickets.

Enthusiastic hunger. This has been the secret of Afghanistan's meteoric rise, the like of which cricket has never known. Obstacles which no other country has seen - total devastation by a whole generation of war - have been overcome, thanks to this attitude.

Afghanistan have never played a game at home, and perhaps never will. Yet, without home advantage they have driven themselves to be the equal of Ireland, Scotland, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. What might they not have achieved in their own stadium at Kabul, Khost or Jalalabad, roared on by their own supporters?

Other countries have state-of-the-art infrastructures. Afghan cricket was born in something less than a stable, in the wasteland of the Kacha Gari refugee camp outside Peshawar - sans equipment, sans money, sans everything except insatiable hunger and enthusiasm.

In its favour it also had a couple of advantages. One was Peshawar itself.

In the 1980s cricket took off in the Pathan, or Pushto-speaking community, and the city became a hub of excellent club cricket. Afghans, many born and brought up in refugee camps, were included, taking nothing for granted.

A second advantage was that playing with sticks and stones has always been part of Afghan boyhood. All the wars ensured they would remain a physical not sedentary people.

The West Indies in the past, as well as Pakistan, have shown that bowling flat-out with a taped tennis ball, and hitting it as far as you can with a piece of wood, can be the best way for a cricketer to grow up. It has been the same nursery for Afghanistan's players. Nutrition, psychology, statistical analysis and all that stuff can be grafted on later. And because it was born among Afghans, not imposed from above, cricket is acceptable to all, including - and especially - the Taliban, however they may be defined.

"It brings peace to every tribe," Mohammad Nabi, Afghanistan's captain, told Tim Wigmore in a wonderful essay in a new book titled Second XI: Cricket in its Outposts.

It is not a contact sport, so Asian sensibilities are not affronted; it is played in long trousers, so Muslim traditions are observed. In his no less wonderful book about Pakistan cricket, Wounded Tiger, Peter Oborne relates how the Afghan army, backed by the West, have sent in heavy machinery to clear ground for the Taliban to play there. A modus vivendi is being built, by cricket.

[Guinevere]

"The Economist Explains Why Cricket's World Cup is Full of Meaningless Games"

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economis ... glessgames

Seems rather obvious to me .....

[Sue U]

"The Economist Explains Why Cricket's World Cup is Full of Meaningless Games"

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economis ... glessgames

Seems rather obvious to me .....

"All of them, Katie."

[Gob]

There's a lot of sense in that article. The ICC have milked India for far too long, and India are no longer the side they once were

Utterly brilliant match last night, one of the finest I've been too. The crowd was (approx) 80% Bangladeshi, 15% Aussie, 5% Afghani. I was sat between tow warring factions of Bangas and Afghanis, drum wars!!

Both nations were powerfully emotionally supported, but there was great sportsmanship an mutual respect shown. I ended up in a beer round with a few Banga guys, great fun.

The funny thing was the ground was a sea of reds and green as both nations flags are red and green, (with a little black in the Afghan.)

I'll stick some crowd shots up later if I get the chance.

[Lord Jim]

The ICC have milked India for far too long, and India are no longer the side they once were

Yes, but because of the Indian population, they also represent a bigger television revenue target audience then the rest of the "Cricket watching world" combined, so it's easy to understand why the promoters would want to figure out a way to have more of their games on the tube, regardless of the quality of the team...

[Gob]

Sad but true, fucking capitalism *spit*

[Gob]

[MajGenl.Meade]

So that's where wesw has been! Making friends with small Bangla Deshi boys! You old devil, wesw!

[Gob]

As cricketers, the Afghans defied the cliche-monger's desire to make them embody their country's war-torn history and their sport's homespun, against-the-odds origins.

Their cricket was neither exotic nor rustic. To the contrary, they performed like a well-drilled county side, far more suggestive of the influence of their coach, former Warwickshire opener Andy Moles, than of The Kite Runner. Their outcricket was sharp, enthusiastic and attentive to detail. Their first World Cup wicket was a diving left-handed catch by wicketkeeper Afsar Khan Zazai, and if they play for 100 years they will take few better.

Their tactics were sensible, with field settings as orthodox as those expected from New Zealand or South Africa. Their spinners pinged the ball at safely flat trajectory. While their opening bowlers offered a colourful gloss – Hamid Hassan in his Rambo headband and facepaint, the towering Shahpur Zadran looking like the lovechild of Mohammed Irfan and Ishant Sharma – their most damaging bowler was a bald trundler who would not be out of place taking the old ball for Fenny Compton against Shipston-on-Stour, a sight to gladden Moles's heart.

Merwais Ashraf came on to replace the 145km/h Hamid in the ninth over and swiftly choked any Bangladeshi hopes that the pressure had gone off with the pace. Encouraged by the stopping wicket – the exact opposite of an overexcited speed merchant at the WACA – Merwais almost got his slow-medium wobblers to stick and freeze mid-pitch. He thoroughly confounded the batsmen, removing both Bangladeshi openers, deranging the right-handed Anamul Haque Bijoy into wasting a referral in a moment of sheer disappointment.

At this point, Bangladesh were in danger of suffocating on their unaccustomed status as the establishment overdog. Merwais' first eight overs, bowled on the trot, cost 17 runs for two wickets. Shahpur's figures were far less flamboyant than his hair: four runs off his first three-over spell.

While Afghanistan kept things tight, Bangladesh's top order played tight, as if too aware of how much was at stake. Only the arrival of the experienced young wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim to join their highest one-day run-getter, Shakib al-Hasan, in the 30th over stole the initiative away from the Afghans. Their partnership of 114 in 15.2 overs delighted the crowd and made it all the harder for Afghanistan to live up to a message from the US embassy in Kabul, sent out on Twitter, congratulating them for their win. Issued during the 10th over of the match, the celebratory tweet expressed, inadvertently but aptly, how much of the country's cricket had been built upon hope.

ETA:

Zimbabwe vs UAE today, another battle of the minnows.

[Gob]

Sean Williams ensured Zimbabwe would not become the first top tier side to lose to United Arab Emirates when his counter-attacking half century secured a four-wicket victory in their World Cup clash in Nelson on Thursday.

Williams (76 not out) and Sean Ervine (42) were required to rescue their side with an 83-run partnership after UAE's bowlers had reduced them to 5-167 in the 33rd over of their innings in the Pool B clash at Saxton Oval.

The left-handed pair had already settled any nerves by the time 29-year old Ervine was caught and bowled by Krishna Chandran with just 36 runs from seven overs required.

Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura came in to see his side safely to their target of 286 with two overs to spare and he finished on 14 not out.

UAE, making their first World Cup appearance since 1996, posted a competitive 7-285 and then took wickets at crucial moments with wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor's dismissal in the 28th over looking almost fatal at the time.

Taylor was well set and looking to up his scoring rate when he attempted to sweep a full delivery from Nasir Aziz and was struck low on his front pad.

He was given out for 47 but reviewed the decision only for technology to show the ball would have hit the middle stump.

Their tails up, UAE looked on course to record their first win over a Test nation in their 20th official one-day international until Williams and Ervine intervened.

The victory ended Zimbabwe's losing streak of seven matches stretching back to their three-wicket win over Australia in Harare last August.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Their partnership of 114 in 15.2 overs delighted the crowd and made it all the harder for Afghanistan to live up to a message from the US embassy in Kabul, sent out on Twitter, congratulating them for their win. Issued during the 10th over of the match, the celebratory tweet expressed, inadvertently but aptly, how much of the country's cricket had been built upon hope

"Mission accomplished"?

[oldr_n_wsr]

A "Dewey Wins " moment?

[Gob]

Important match today, England vs New Zealand.

England off to a shite start!

[MajGenl.Meade]

Yeah but nobody does shite like we do shite! That's good.... innit?

[Gob]

BBC has good coverage mate!

http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/cricket/31021064

[MajGenl.Meade]

123 all out?! NZ 112-1 needing a fourpenny bus ride to win? Now THIS really is SHITE! Well, we've always been plucky losers (1966 apart) and at least our lads are holding up the tradition, if not their bats.