Just a day after singing minno praise, I almost felt sorry watching South Africa tear apart the Dutch attack. With all the talk about 500 runs being scored in an one day game, one cannot help wonder if that would have been possible in this game if not for rain reducing it to a 40 over game.
But Gibbs scoring 6 sixes in an over was something I never thought will happen in an international match. I really don't know whether to celebrate the feat or just sit and feel sorry for the Dutch attack. Brings us back to the debate about what all these records mean when you have these minnows playing cricket once in a blue moon against the top nations.
While I perfectly agree that the best way for these nations to improve themselves is to play against the top countries and that diversity is needed for World cup, I think the record books should be kept exclusive to matches involving the main test playing nations. In other words, records from games like today should not be considered in the same page as records involving the top 10 nations.
Secondly, I think it is very important for ICC to force the test-playing nations to allow these minnows to play in their domestic cricket league on a regular basis. And as a reward for winning the associate nation tournaments, the minnows should also earn a right to play at least 3-5 ODIs against the leading nations on a yearly basis. That would be improving the quality of cricket rather than just have them play a match once in every four years in the World Cup. Something for the policy makers in ICC to seriously consider. But do they ever care?
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2 comments:
is there money to be made in minnows playing the big daddies in ODIs?
Sadly, thats exactly what ICC goes by unfortunately. Anyway, there is always money to be made no matter where India plays. Or ICC should do it in such a way that it is always a tri-series tournament, so there are two big teams that attract the money and a third minnow that gains from experience of playing two big guns.
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