Breaking/Brief news
April 29, 2007
What the rest of the cricketing world should not do
After yesterday's World Cup win, Glenn McGrath retired from international cricket, indeed from all forms of cricket, which makes him an automatic inclusion in the All-Star Book Cricket XI, in tests and ODIs. This means that the test XI would be: Mark Richardson, Michael Slater, Nasser Hussain, Damien Martyn, Graham Thorpe, Chris Cairns, Heath Streak (c), Jack Russell (wk), Cathryn Fitzpatrick, Glenn McGrath and Allan Donald. Fitzpatrick replaces Pearson while McGrath comes in instead of DeFreitas.
The ODI XI would be: Craig Wishart, Michael Slater/Nasser Hussain, Damien Martyn, Graham Thorpe, Michael Bevan (c), Chris Cairns, Heath Streak, Ridley Jacobs (wk), Glenn McGrath and Allan Donald. Once again, he replaces DeFreitas in the side.
Oh, for a good spinner to form two world beating sides!
What the other cricketing teams cannot and must not do is to wait for Australia's bowling lineup to disintegrate in the absence of Warne & McGrath. That may or may not happen. Even if it does, it could be short-lived. The onus is on the other teams to improve and become better each day - physically & mentally, at batting, bowling and fielding.
Australia have taken one-day cricket to a new level, especially after Ricky Ponting took over. New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa have, at different points in time during the tournament, looked capable of rocking Australia's boat. But these were unsustained efforts. To beat Australia now, opponents need to be at the top of their game across 100 overs, like I pointed out after the ICC Champions Trophy. Sri Lanka bowled well (barring Vaas) for the first half-dozen overs. Sri Lanka batted well for around half-a-dozen overs when Sangakkara and Jayasuriya stepped it up. It was never going to be enough!
Labels: 2007 world cup, book cricket, mcgrath, retire, world cup, world cup final
Did you like the post? [ Subscribe to the blog feed -
|
We'd prefer if you posted comments with your real name to add more credibility to your opinions. However, the moderators reserve the right to delete comments, especially those containing offensive or unsuitable language. The opinions in the comments are your own views. You are welcome to provide a URL to your own cricket blog, but the moderators reserve the right to delete comments which only reference sites for viewing live streams.
Links within entries open in a new window. Some of the links may now be broken/not take you to the expected report since the original content providers may have archived/removed the contents. Some of the sites linked may require registration/subscription.
All opinions expressed are those of the authors alone. The authors' respective employers (past, present or future) are in no way connected to the opinions expressed here.
All pictures, photographs used are copyrights of the original owners. We do not intend to infringe on any copyright. Pictures and photographs are used here to merely accentuate and enhance the content value to our readers.
|
|
|
|
Post a Comment