Australia has won the One day series against England and to be honest, most people really couldn’t care. The Ashes were the big one and this is little consolation. Michael Clarke will however be pleased that he could finally score some runs, although whether this will quell the booing that greeted the Australian Captain only time will tell. IF he lifts the World Cup that should silence his critics.
This one day series each summer has definitely lost its appeal and England Batsman Kevin Pietersen’s criticism criticised of the format of the six-week long tournament, saying the gaps between matches were too long may be on the money.
He is quoted as saying “How can the England team play once and then in six days’ time play again, and then in six days’ time play again, it’s ridiculous but there’s nothing we can do about the schedules.” No doubt many will dismiss his valid point as simply whingeing, Cricket Australia are bound to.
Whether this will hamper England’s World Cup bid only time will tell. England have never won the ICC World Cup and have been losing finalists on three occasions and are the only team to have made it to the final never to have lifted the trophy.
England will leave for the World Cup in the subcontinent just three days after their ongoing tour of Australia, which began in October last year.
Some very valid points as always
I think you find the comments Peterson made about playing one game a week refer to the world cup, and not the current series against Australia.
I do think the current 7 game series is a bit of a joke, but I also understand that CA would be under extreme pressure from the state bodies to provide international games for them. Can you imagine the uproar if say Perth and Hobart were to miss out on a one day international, a fixture that is undoubtedly, next to tests, their biggest payday of the year.
Thankfully CA, unlike the FFA, understands the benifits of bringing the game to the people. Despite the one sided nature of the current series the Perth match has already been sold out.
Not all bouquets for CA though. They have copped a lot of criticism, not in my opinion all deserved but they have stuffed up the schedule in a world cup year. Why oh why would you change things that have worked so successfully over the last 3 world cups in the season before the next one. I refer to the decision to run a domestic 45 over competition and the dropping of the tri-nations series. Can you imagine if the A-League came out in a world cup year and decided they wanted to play a 10 a side domestic season.(Whoops, I shouldn’t give them any ideas). As for the one day internationals, surely with a world cup just weeks away Australia would have been better served by playing as many international teams as possible. It was initially explained away as a move to get rid of dead rubbers following last years less than interesting Tri-series.. This decision seems to once again suggest that CA in in the grips of the bean counters. As they trumpet there bottom lines and wallow in the trough that is 20/20 cricket they have forgotten what made Australia so good for so long, and it wasn’t letting marketers dictate schedules and when selections should take place.
As for Kev, well, as a cricketer he only needs to know “Yes, No , Wait (or in Englands case, maybe), and Howzat”. Kev should keep it that way lest he prove, with apologies to Mark Twain, what many of us already think.