Under the Spotlights

Written by Alan Rothkopf

Monday, 02 April 2007

It's been a rather busy World Cup, one that has given the game's followers much to talk about. From this vast sea of drama, Alan Rothkopf picks out some of the Highlights and Lowlights of the past week. Not surprisingly, the ICC features prominently in the latter category.

Highlights

Lasith Malinga's 4-wicket burst - This previously unachieved feat - 4 wickets in 4 consecutive deliveries - turned a routine run chase into an ordeal for South Africa.  I have not had the chance to see Malinga bowl yet, but he's known for a sidearm action.  Apparrently, this action was developed from playing tennis ball cricket.  He must have been no-balled too many times for balls bouncing over the batsman's head, so he changed to the sidearm action to reduce the bounce.  With the leather ball, bounce is generally considered advantageous, but he seems to be able to get bounce when he wants it, and, in addition, bastmen have trouble seeing the ball early because of the unusual release point.  Speaking as someone who has generally had trouble picking up the flight of the ball early (or at all, on some occasions), I can attest that this creates problems when batting.

Glenn McGrath becomes the all-time leading World Cup wicket taker - In the past, the World Cup has not been kind to fast bowlers on the verge of retirement.  Not so in the case of McGrath, who has perhaps retired a bit sooner than he could have.

Irish fans greet Andrew Flintoff by singing "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" - This is the perfect witty sledge, given Flintoff's recent pedal boat antics. It didn't have any effect on the outcome of the match, which was unexciting, apart from a late scoring burst by Paul Collingwood.

Australian openers on fire - The Aussie team looks like the obvious favorite at the moment.  Hayden and Gilchrist have been clubbing the ball.  Yesterday they overhauled Bangladesh's total without losing a wicket.  Hayden's worst performance in this World Cup was 29 vs. the Netherlands, of all teams.  Besides that match, he has not been out for less than 50, and he has two centuries, including a whopping 158 vs. the West Indies.

New Zealand remained the other undefeated team.

No one died this week.

Lowlights

Empty seats - There's a lot of negative buzz about how the ICC priced tickets too high for the locals because they were counting on an influx of tourists from the U.K. and North America. I guess their thinking was that if you're already paying thousands of dollars for airfare and hotels (and rumor has it that a visa to the region costs $130), what's a few hundred more for tickets?  Add to this the fact that the event is difficult to watch on TV, with exclusive rights going to for-pay options), and of course people will shell out money for those valuable tickets. It was a lovely vision, but apparently the high airfare, hotel and visa costs have discouraged the fans from travelling.  The only hope for a wave of cricket tourists from North America (where the ICC has failed miserably to promote the sport, choosing instead to extract money from expatriates for TV coverage) was lost when India was eliminated.

Rather than respond to the situation by offering bargain tickets, the ICC has apparently stood by its pricing so far, meaning the cheapest place to get tickets may be eBay. It's a far cry from the 2005 Ashes, when it was prohibitively expensive to get a seat, and huge crowds were turned away.

ICC Going after YouTube - This week it was announced that they ordered YouTube to remove video clips. I don't begrudge the ICC defending their legal rights, but I think it's stupid. Short video clips are like fertilizer. They're worthless if you don't spread them around a bit. This is yet another case of the ICC trying to put profits ahead of the advancement of the sport and achieving neither.

Fortunately, YouTube is a bit slow to respond, so this morning I was finally able to see the aforementioned bowling feat by Lasith Malinga.

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