All this bad weather has been terrible for the World Cup. When India beat Australia I thought the tournament was slowly beginning to heat up, but it’s been a damp squib (literally) ever since. The format doesn’t exactly help either. There’s a lack of tension in the early weeks because teams know they can lose a game or two and still progress.
I asked our Twitter followers how excited they were about the World Cup and over 300 people had their say. The results suggest that a lot of people are apathetic but most, like myself, are somewhat interested and hoping things will get interesting soon.
I’m sensing a general lack of enthusiasm (or less enthusiasm than I’d anticipated) for the #CWC19 So with that in mind … how excited are you by the World Cup?
— The Full Toss Blog (@thefulltoss) June 11, 2019
The viewing figures on Sky – a pretty pathetic average of 500k viewers for the England games while the women’s world cup is averaging 4 million – suggests the tournament needs an injection of excitement too. And soon.
Thankfully, however, a rather appetising game is on the agenda for tomorrow. England face the West Indies at The Rose Bowl in what could be a very spicy encounter indeed – especially considering events this winter. Jason Holder’s men landed some egg on England faces in the test series and held us to an entertaining 2-2 draw in the ODIs.
There’s also the Jofra Archer factor to consider. One imagines the Windies would like nothing more than to send the cricketer they snubbed packing. Archer, on the other hand, will be looking to prove a point big time. If the weather’s warm we might see him hit 95mph again with some regularity.
Personally I think this game will be a stern test for England. The West Indies have plenty of firepower themselves – the word is that Andre Russell will be fit to play – and our much vaunted batting line-up has a bit of a weakness against top class fast bowling:
Eoin Morgan has always been vulnerable against the short ball, as has Moeen if he plays. And Jonny Bairstow struggled against fast bowling early in his career too. I also sense that Jos Buttler will receive his share of chin music. He didn’t like it in the 2015 Ashes and he hasn’t been tested in this way since his international recall. If I was Jason Holder I’d be keeping a few Russell overs up my sleeve for when Jos walks to the wicket.
Although I’ll obviously be supporting England on Friday, I must confess I have a soft spot for the West Indies. They were absolutely formidable in the 1980s and 1990s (the years when I was growing up) and I have so many fond memories of Malcolm Marshall, Viv Richards, Jeff Dujon, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Greenidge and Haynes, and of course, Brian Lara. If England don’t win the World Cup then I really hope the West Indies do.
What’s more, although they’ve had false dawns before, one senses that cricket in the Caribbean is finally heading in the right direction (albeit slowly). A recent interview with Ambrose, Joel Garner, and Shiv Chanderpaul in the Betway Insider blog confirms as much. Chanderpaul’s thoughts are particularly encouraging, especially when one considers where the Windies were when Shiv was a young man:
We do not have the money that is being pushed into cricket that another board might have. But we’ve done a lot in the last few years. I used to do everything on my own without any money, no contracts, nothing. I had to find my own money if I had to travel. Now the countries in the Caribbean all have contracted players, the local boys all have contracts. That means all the boys are going to play in regional tournaments.
This sounds promising to me. What’s more, I think it’s pretty evident that Jason Holder’s team are a lot more ‘together’ (Eoin Morgan would probably say they’ve got a better ‘culture’) than the Windies have been for a long time. I’m sure some of that it down to Holder’s excellent leadership, but it wouldn’t surprise me if off-field changes are having some impact too.
The Caribbean franchise T20 tournament is also presumably bringing more money into West Indies cricket. The key, as Joel Garner explains, is to use this windfall wisely:
T20 cricket is good for the consumers and people who run the tournaments. But it’s important that the money goes back into cricket. If we want to have the future of cricket, then you invest the money you make back into the grassroots level. That is where the next set of cricketers are coming from.
He’s not wrong. If there’s one thing cricket boards excel at it’s squandering money. However, at least there finally appears to be some young talent coming through the ranks. Indeed, even big Curtly is beginning to sound a little more optimistic of late.
Although Ambrose concedes that it has taken “a little too long, in my opinion, to bounce back” he seems to suggest that some of the Windies problems were cyclical, and that the next generation of players are finally capable of restoring some pride:
There was always going to be a decline. No team can rule the world forever. There is going to be a time when you lose players. It was going to be difficult to find another Clive Lloyd, another Viv Richards, another Brian Lara, another Malcolm Marshall. But I believe we have enough talent in the region to get back somewhere in the top three of world cricket.
I have some sympathy for Ambrose’s view. A fall is always harder to take, not to mention a lot more obvious, when the highs were so extraordinarily high. Australia haven’t fallen as low as the Windies – they’e got a wealthier board, of course – but even they have struggled badly to replace the likes of Steve Waugh, Ponting, Hayden, Gilchrist, Warne, and McGrath. It was probably always going to be thus.
However, if recent performances are any indicator then the West Indies might be on their way back. I doubt they’ll dominate the world anytime soon but the long droughts – they won just 2 of 33 test matches between February 2009 and July 2012, and failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy in 2017 – should be a thing of the past.
In order to prevent future embarrassments, the authorities have finally made their entire domestic setup professional. It has taken six years but youngsters are finally incentivised to choose cricket as a full-time career. This should slow down the much talked about haemorrhaging of talent to American sports.
So maybe, just maybe, the next time a Jofra Archer comes through the Windies ranks he’ll be identified, developed, cherished, and possibly well remunerated too. The CWI won’t be able to compete with the ECB when it comes to wages, but with IPL riches also up for grabs, perhaps the best West Indian talent will be inclined to stick around and help the national team for longer.
James Morgan
All sports work in cycles, teams are up and down and then rebuild. Cricket is no different at any level. I don’t know the circumstances of Jofra Archer’s snub by the West Indies but I wonder if England could have taken a bigger picture view and said no to Archer and sent him back to the Windies – they probably need him more than England. The weather is skewing the standings, I don’t believe NZ are the top team looking at who they have played and getting a bonus point off India. Australia are the only team to have played four games. I think it is India for the final and good luck to the other team.
A lot of talk about Archer but it’s actually Wood who has bowled the fastest stuff so far this tournament. I imagine windies (as shown previously) will be more nervous of Wood’s less familiar ‘skiddy’ pace which isn’t coming from that ‘bean pole’ height.
Kemar Roach has that “skiddy” pace (as did Marshall and Roberts before him). OK, he’s not as quick as when he started out (he broke Ricky Ponting’s arm with a 150k delivery), but he’s a quality bowler. Russell is rapid, as is Oshane Thomas (who reminds me a bit of Patrick Patterson).
I think (and hope) West Indies cricket has finally turned the corner (though Cricket West Indies has an almost unique talent for screwing up). They do need to make more of an accommodation with the IPL, Certainly CWI should not insist on players playing a whole Shell Shield (or whatever it is now) season to be picked (if they still do). West Indies have lost a lot of talent to England (Jordan and Archer recently), US sports and athletics (both Bolt and Yohan Blake are decent fast bowlers – of course!). I think this has always been an issue in WI cricket, but in the 1970’s athletics was (at least nominally) amateur, so a promising young fast bowler and 400m runner would choose cricket over athletics (batsmen may have come to regret Michael Holding’s choice!). At least Garner (Chair of the Barbados Cricket Board) has been there, done that (and you wouldn’t argue with him!).
First “international” match I ever saw (was billed as a test match at the time) was the 1970 England v Rest of World game at Lord’s, day 2. A few great West Indians in the RoW side: I got to watch Lloyd bat, then Sobers came in and smashed 180 odd (having taken 6/20 odd the previous day). Sobers regularly fought with the WICB (as it then was). Money issues have gone on forever in WI cricket.
Well I will admit my bias up front but in my opinion, and I am not alone, the West Indies have elected Ricky Skeritt as President and that is a huge step in the right direction. Ricky is a successful business man who managed the West Indies team in the early 2000’s before becoming a minister in the St Kitts government and playing a substantial role in building up the tourism sector.
Already he has made significant changes to the administration, we actually have seen minutes from board meetings sent out as press releases, a governance review has been initiated, the Windies has been reinstated as the West Indies, selection process and panel reformed all in the space of a few months.
So expect to see more of the above and a re-energised focus in both the men and women’s team squads.
May be a bit early to say they back but definitely watch this space.
It’s odd how we want a strong Windies to emerge again after what they did to us over a 20 year period a few decades ago. I seem to remember us always being 23 for 3 and recovering, thanks to Grieg, Knotty and some improbable David Steele type character, to 170 odd all out. Then Richards would make a double hundred after Greenidge and Haynes had softened us up and we would lose by an innings. There was certainly no love lost then, as Lloyd bodylined his army of quicks one after another. Look how many batsmen were hit in those days. Even batsmen like Lamb, Willey and Botham, hardly shrinking violets, despaired, especially on the underprepared Caribbean wickets.
Personally I hope we slaughter them, put their quickies to the sword and expose their lack of depth batting. The Aussies, who are not world beaters, showed sheer cussed determination can get you over the line against players who show vulnerability when put under pressure. Of course we can lose, this is England we are talking about, whose consistency is not anything to write home about, but I believe we are better than the ‘flat track bullies’ we are labelled as and a strong showing here could be a platform for success. After some indifferent performances out there this winter, which I am sure will give them hope, we need to redress the balance in spades. I don’t want a close game, I want an intense annhialation, and we have the ammunition to deliver. It would certainly send out a message to the other hopefuls.
Vic Marks has an interesting piece on this in the Grauniad on line.
So Sky are apparently discussing putting the Final on an FTA platform? They should – of course – but it’s as satisfactory as giving away the final episode of a long-running series or the final chapter of a book for free. This things acquire emotional heft by being part of a narrative, it’s a shallow experience otherwise.
Why would they do it? Genuine engagement – or they want as many people to be listening to the “how brilliantly the ECB have been running the game – and it’s all thanks to that Sky money” celebration that a Final involving England will be turned into? Yes, those “this justifies everything” pieces have been written and are ready to go (and any comm who won’t sing that hymn sheet can do a Michael Holding). The irony that to get anyone to listen they’d have to junk the business model they’d be celebrating would escape them.
I’m suspicious of why the currently pitiful viewing figures have reached the public domain. They’re normally harder to discover than Andy Flower’s latest movements. There’s some agenda at play here.
You know the answer.. they are hoping beyond hope England win the World Cup, in a game they have sole rights too.. put the final on FTA after finally realising that barely anyone is caring or watching both this World Cup or Cricket in general. This will (they hope) make people go ‘oh, England are winning, I need to watch this and jump on the bandwagon’.. then 12-24 months of subscriptions follow until they get bored of white ball and fall away
Personally I think it’s the sponsors putting pressure on Sky to raise viewing figures, so giving them greater exposure. I don’t think it has anything to do with the public interest, or lack of it. The fact that the women’s terrestrial footie has over ten times the audience, allegedly, tells us everything we want to know about arrogant media monopolies who think every other household has their ear. The same will happen with ‘The Hundred’ as sponsors wake up to the fact that cricket, in all its forms, is just too long a game to sustain significant public interest. A couple of hours is about it for attention span. Pretty much all other team sports, movies, theatre, concerts and general TV programmes run to that remit. Why do film and TV companies baulk at the idea of longer entertainments and often insist on editing reduce times? Because they understand this, and have done for decades. I used to work in the business and saw it first hand.
You will never make cricket a truly popular game as it’s too complicated to play and watch and it doesn’t have its roots in the working classes that make up about three quarters of this country’s population. It used to be more popular with youngsters until the ubiquitous computer game stations produced their fantasy worlds for the kids, where they can be their own heroes and not rely on outsiders. Depressing yes, but here to stay twelve months of the year.
Roy goes off clutching hamstring…. obvious replacement alienated by some twaddle about culture…. there’s going to be a cricket team called the Manchester Originals….
What a time to be alive!
Looks like England will win this extremely comfortably. The next 26 matches will then be nothing but a glorified warmup for the semis. What a great tourney.
Yet another one sided, boring white ball game.. all hyped up yet again but failing to deliver.. how many of these do we need before people start questioning the format….
It wasn’t England’s fault. It was men v boys. Agree about the hype, it was childishly ludicrous. This present West Indies side has the same issues when put under pressure as it’s always had. Their overrated so called quickies turned into brainless powder puffs. Even though the pitch quickened up later in the day, Woakes still looked comfortable at 3. Mr Cotterill’s salute celebration noticeably absent. Holder’s body language poor for a captain and his players followed suit. They were beaten well before the end. Root and Woakes played proper cricket to the end. Well chuffed and just what we needed to up the anti. Now outclassed 3 of 4 opponents with one off day, about par for the course for us recently. What Roy and Butler might have done to this lot can only be imagined.
One thing that has impressed over this whole tournament are the attendances for non England games. I have watched the highlights of every game and most of the grounds have been well over half full with the cosmopolitan nature of population in this country helping to create a good deal of atmosphere. I can’t think of another cricket playing country in the world which would have the same levels of general active support, despite the cold and wet weather. The ultimate being yesterday’s encounter, where there were apparantly over 3/4 million applications for the 28,000 tickets at Old Trafford. Of course the ECB and ICC can take no credit for this and to my knowledge have sensibly decided to lie low about the matter. It maybe that the tournament is too long with too many relatively meaningless encounters, but try telling that to the punters at the grounds, many of whom get to see precious little international cricket. Ticket prices have been relatively cheap for non England games, many not exceeding a Premiership football ticket price for 3 to 4 times the length of play. The only disappointment so far is how few close encounters there have been, which again is not the fault of the organisers, but maybe to do with a format that teams are too familiar with. I still say that the original 40 over John Player system of the 1960’s and 70’s has yet to be bettered. It’s long enough for the early batsmen to set themselves and short enough to keep momentum going, not creating a mid innings hiatus that often seems to draw the life out of the 50 over game. There’s too many runs being scored too often by the side batting first, making chasing a definite disadvantage over such a prolonged period and if you don’t score enough the flat pitches make the chase a meander, which is not creating excitement. I’d love to see pitches with some turn so bringing spinners back into the equation. Presently, with the weight of the modern bat most boundaries can be reached on the full with a mishit. Maybe we should look at restricting bat weights and raising the ball seam to bring scores down to more manageable levels. Low scoring games can be as exciting as high scoring ones.
It will be interesting to se England play Afghanistan on the same Old Trafford strip that the Indian spinners were getting some response from towards the end. The Afghans have a couple of decent spinners who turn the ball more than Rashid or Moin.