Peeking into county cricket – Part 1
I have been really bored with the current sporting inactivity. And so, in an effort to kill time, I decided to check out the latest happenings in county cricket. After all, it’s the closest thing in cricket to premiership football; for which I have been waiting like a Christian kid waits for Christmas.
I sifted through cricinfo and found lots of interesting county cricket news. I did not bother to trawl the ocean of numerous limited over competitions and focused my attentions only on the main four day county championships. And yes, I was biased and looking mostly for Indians –related information. So here’s my own version of the latest county round- news.
A list of the top batsmen (in terms of batting averages) has Sachin Tendulkar on top after his century against the English Lions, and an unknown AV Suppiah at number ten. But these guys have just played one great innings each. Far creditable is the performance of former Australian bowlers; Andy Bichel (fifth) and Ian Harvey (fourth), both of whom have scored centuries in each of their two completed innings! However, my greatest delight comes in finding the names of future England prospect Samit Patel and current one-day player Ravi Bopara with averages of 73.66 and 63.54 after 8 and 9 games respectively. Iam like a Brazilian in Rio watching Deco win the Champions League for Porto.
The list has the usual heavy share of Australians; discards, retirees and prospects. In the old days the English went to Australia to start a new life. Now county cricket is the land of opportunities for any half decent Australian cricketer. In fact, former player Stuart Law is now a British citizen. I have great sympathy for him. He got just one test, where he debuted alongside Ricky Ponting and both guys got unbeaten half- centuries. And see where they stand today. His name is missing in the averages list but finds a place in the top batsmen list by runs scored.
I sifted through cricinfo and found lots of interesting county cricket news. I did not bother to trawl the ocean of numerous limited over competitions and focused my attentions only on the main four day county championships. And yes, I was biased and looking mostly for Indians –related information. So here’s my own version of the latest county round- news.
A list of the top batsmen (in terms of batting averages) has Sachin Tendulkar on top after his century against the English Lions, and an unknown AV Suppiah at number ten. But these guys have just played one great innings each. Far creditable is the performance of former Australian bowlers; Andy Bichel (fifth) and Ian Harvey (fourth), both of whom have scored centuries in each of their two completed innings! However, my greatest delight comes in finding the names of future England prospect Samit Patel and current one-day player Ravi Bopara with averages of 73.66 and 63.54 after 8 and 9 games respectively. Iam like a Brazilian in Rio watching Deco win the Champions League for Porto.
The list has the usual heavy share of Australians; discards, retirees and prospects. In the old days the English went to Australia to start a new life. Now county cricket is the land of opportunities for any half decent Australian cricketer. In fact, former player Stuart Law is now a British citizen. I have great sympathy for him. He got just one test, where he debuted alongside Ricky Ponting and both guys got unbeaten half- centuries. And see where they stand today. His name is missing in the averages list but finds a place in the top batsmen list by runs scored.
This list also has some other sentimental and emotional favorites. Zimbabweans - Murray Goodwin, Grant Flower and Graeme Hick- each in England for a reason of his own. You also find in there Amrita Arora’s beau – Usman Afzaal. He happens to be the top Pakistani on the list. The only other Pakistani (and someone who is actually a Pakistani International) is Younis Khan. Pretty bad show by our neighbours, right? Wait till you read about the bowlers.
Coming soon. Part 2 about the bowlers.
3 comments:
How can you say that there is inactivity on the sports arena? Tour de France is in full swing and I have become a big fan of this (I guess any sports lover will get hooked up). There was the Copa America that you probably skipped writing on. Also, did not see your update regarding one of the greatest wimbledon finals in recent memory. Even I have written about this one!
My dear wise man. I will write an entire post to respond to your comment.And by the way, is this the first time you are watching the Tour. No wonder you are watching!!!
Hey Sankara old friend, I think I have now given you my thoughts on both the Copa America and Tour de France. I have written something on Wimbledon as well. You will get to read it soon. Any plans for Chennai anytime soon. We can catch up for some sports banter
Post a Comment