International Cricket must recognise Nations

In 1976, as class six student in what is now Jharkhand,I faced quiz question: where are the Indian cricketers playing cricket right now? answered Trinidad & Tobago.It was in the middle of the 404 match at Port of Spain and the quiz master gave that one to our team even though he had West Indies on his answer sheet.Though I was aware of the Test Series, I also knew that the Indians could not possibly be in the West Indies.They could be in Jamaica, Barbados,Guyana in South America or even in those many countries who field collective first class teams.

The next twenty years or so the West Indies had a very good time cricket wise.Today things are different.They are ranked 9th in ODI rankings.If they are allowed to start like afghanistan in Divison Five, in less than a year, several National teams including one from the South American continent will be vying for full ODI status.In fact their Caribbean Four day tournament could be given the status of Division II Tests or they may continue as one team for Test matches.If Soca Junior can be at the World Cup,T&T and Jamaica have every right to be playing at cricket's World Cup.
Imagine Bangladesh running into Jamaica or Barbados at Durban or Perth.The match would be interesting.
The added advantage of having over twenty ODI playing nations besides at least four reasonably big 20:20 leagues, we have a sporting world next only to the Football.Instead of hoping for the west Indies to recover,this would be better way forward.They are small countries but they have bigger playing base than Ireland or even Afghanistan.

A Contest shaping up in Mirpur

The three matches between the current Test sides were rather tame.while the dutch produced some excitement at Nagpur,the Irish are playing a rather good game in Mirpur.With some tight spin it is possible that Bangladesh may somehow pull a win, but instead of eliminating Associates from the next World Cup, it might be a good idea to let only the top six have automatic places and the remaining sides may play a qualifying tournament to bring two remqining teams for the final eight who can play three weeks of interesting cricket as in 1983.

1983 produced some great drama in retrospect.The wooden spooner of 1979, India and qualifier Zimbabwe saw to Australia's exit at group stage and India went on to win going on to prove that past performance don't quite matter in a short competitive tournament.

Some Scheduling

On a Friday,Australia vs New Zealand has been kept as a day game.Makes one long for the scheduling of the first three World Cups.The first two were almost pre television in India and we saw the India semi final and the final on Doordarshan in 1983 and the rest as they say is history.However so lowly was the one day World Cup rated that 1979 World Cup was not covered on All India Radio while the test series with England that followed was covered ball by ball by AIR.The BBC Test Match special which at that time broadcast on the world service as well was what kept us in India clued in to the World Cup.The BBC coverage of up to four matches a day was good. AIR used the BBC feed after India started doing well in 1983 and it was the all Indian team of Ashish Ray and Farokh Engineer who were on the air when india went throughto the Finals.
Of late All India Radio has consigned the overseas test Matches to off tube commentary mode even though India as number one side in this form has a considerable following.All India Radio is covering the India based games live but AIR is absent from the Internet. Even as I write this NewZealand vs Australia game is being broadcast live on Radio sport NZ.

ICC Cricket World Cup

In November 1975,as pre teens waiting for our turn to bat in an evening compulsory cricket game, discussion veered on the Ranji Trophy.Some who were from calcutta had actually seen a few of Ranji matches and they even spoke of the great Eden win over the WINDIES in 1974-75.Amidst all that somebody spoke about the West Indies having won the Pudential Cup June.One particularly well informed kid said," But it wasn't first class cricket." It wasn't and at that time even ODI was not so well known abbreviation nad List Awas many years away.

It has been a long time since then and as the West indies begin their challenge in the 2011 edition of cricket's Worldcup,one cannot but feel about the depths that they have plummeted.Even so for a team which has Gayle, Chanderpaul,Sarwan and Roach must put an extraordinary performance,so that North Americans followers of the game can have more than just Canada to cheer about and the Worl Cup will be really about the world as more than a dozen nations comprise the West Indies cricket team.

To go back to our chat near the Pig sty on the edge of the Junior Small Field in 1975,when a football fanatic said that 1978 World Cup in Argentina will be the real World Cup as only eight teams had taken part in the prudential Cup, our knowledgeable friend counted all the Carribean and East African counties and added them to the six and Pudential World Cup had more teams participating than the Football 1974 World Cup held in West Germany.The Prudential Cup was "the" WORLD CUP.QED