Afghanistan win the ICC World T20 Qualifiers

Romance in sport is what drives the fans to the grounds. And makes them flick their television sets on more eagerly than any other time. A generation or two onwards, when the fans look back at cricket as we know it today, they would probably be savouring the emergence of a new powerhouse in the international cricket, Afghanistan!

For the time from when the Afghanistan team had won the Division Five title in ICC’s qualifiers for the World Cup of 2011, their story has been seeped in romance, grit, gumption, and to say the least, glory. They had narrowly missed out on qualifying for the World Cup 2011, but thanks to that performance, they had managed to qualify for the ICC World T20 Qualifiers which was played in Dubai recently.

There were ten teams in that tournament, and only two out of those were to qualify for the ICC World T20 in West Indies to be played in April this year. In the competition were the teams like Ireland, who have played in the World Cup before and qualified for the Super Eights in 2007, Netherlands, who have not only played in the World Cup, but also in the 2009 edition of the ICC World T20 and beaten England, Kenya, who have featured in the semi-finals of the 2003 edition of the World Cup and others like Canada, UAE and Scotland, all of whom have done their bit at the highest level.

So, while Afghanistan’s record before the tournament would have put them amongst the top four favourites, they were up against some fierce competition across the board.

And not only did they pass the examination, but they also aced them with wins over Ireland, Scotland, USA and UAE in the league stage. This ensured their place in the finals of the tournament, and more importantly, a slot in the ICC World T20 to be played in West Indies later this year. The cherry on the cake was then provided by Nowroz Mangal and Mohammad Shahzad, both of whom assisted the side in a facile win over the Irish in the finals of the tournament, to lift the trophy as well! In turn, this gave them a right to play India and South Africa in the World T20.

Ireland, on the other hand, had qualified for the finals after their first match loss to Afghanistan. They beat Scotland, USA, UAE and Netherlands, en route the finals, and had it not been for a rather arduous schedule, they would have probably done much better than they actually did.

Like all of the other teams, they played their first three league matches in three days, and qualifying for the Super Fours meant that they had to play their remaining two games off consecutive days as well. So, after featuring in five matches in as many days, they qualified for the finals, which was to be played on the same day as the final league game; ensuring back-to-back games for the Irish, in a span of a couple of hours!

The coach, Phil Simmons, a former West Indian all-rounder was obviously an unhappy man at the scheduling, but would have taken heart from the fact that they qualified for their second successive ICC World T20. Last year, they had played India and Bangladesh in the first round, and while they lost to the Indians, they had bundled Bangladesh out of the tournament and qualified for the second round. This time around, they face West Indies and England in the first round of the tournament.

I may be thinking far, but the romance that I was alluding to in sport may not be over. While expecting the Afghan side to beat India and South Africa may sound a bit far-fetched, they may give the two sides a run for their money. However, what could even be more probable is that Ireland could surprise either of West Indies or England in the first round to enter the second! That will be some day.

Finally makes peace between N. Srinivasan and Lalit Modi

There are two cricketing rivalries which have stood the tests of time, an Australia-England one that plays for the Ashes, and an India-Pakistan one that plays for everything and cricket! However, if ICC’s latest World T20 qualifiers are anything to go by, then, there could be another big one that could be added to the aforementioned list; something that could go on to assume colossal proportions in the years to come!

USA will be taking on Afghanistan in the Middle East in February, as a part of the qualifiers for the ICC World T20 that will be played in the month of April next year. The tournament is an eight-nation tournament, with the top two from them going on to be the part of the main event in the West Indies in 2010 in April.

The ICC World T20 is a 12-nation tournament, and the top ten countries – all the test playing nations – have already gained automatic qualifications. Apart from these ten, the top six countries in the world, and two special invitees from the ICC are featuring in this qualifier. These include Afghanistan, Scotland, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands, UAE, USA and Canada. While the remaining six are direct qualifiers for these qualifiers, USA and UAE have been doled out special invites. USA and Afghanistan have a political history going on for the last decade or so, and this match could spark off a new cricketing rivalry in the future.

Group A consists of Ireland and Scotland apart from these two, whereas Group B has Kenya, Netherlands, Canada and UAE. The top two from each group will then join a Super Fours group where each team will play the others once – except the team qualified from their own group – and the top two will not only qualify for the finals but also for the ICC World T20 – the T20 equivalent of the World Cup.

Back in India with the Indian Premier League, the BCCI has finally ended all speculations about the future of Lalit Modi as the chief of the tournament. He has been assigned the job since 2012, after it had been claimed in the media that he had lost his job. It was a long-standing feud between Modi and the secretary of the cricket board, N. Srinivasan that had led to these speculations, but the President of the Board, Shashank Manohar has laid all this to rest.

While the ego battle – or whatever else can be used to describe it – is definitely something for the Board members to rectify internally and move ahead, I wonder whether there is any ‘Succession Plan’ in place in the eventuality that Modi does end his reign as the leader of the pack. Because, while handling the BCCI is one thing, it is quite a different and a more challenging issue to handle a tournament of the magnitude of IPL without someone with the desired expertise.

In the meantime, Modi has also announced that the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League which will be played in 2011, will have two extra teams. There will, thus, be ten sides, and 94 games in all, making it a really grand event. However, what will not be so grand will be the fact that every side will thus play a minimum of 18 games, and hence travel as much through the couple of months through the length and the breadth of the country. Fatigue and tiredness will be a concern for all the players, as will be injury issues and fitness woes. Whether the rule that the Indian players can play a maximum of 12 games will make too much of a difference will remain to be seen, but the increase in the matches will definitely have its effect on viewership as well, as the viewer-fatigue is as big an issue as its players’ counterpart.

So, will there be a rule regarding the maximum number of games a fan can watch as well? Now that would be an interesting call, won’t it?!

The rationale behind the refutation was that the profits would then get reduced, but the messrs Lalit Modi and his marketing team seemed to have gotten their way. The chief of the IPL managed to convince most of the team owners that the introduction of two more sides would have contrasting changes to the sides’ fortunes to what they envisaged; more teams would end up getting the profits up. In all probabilities, this is not too far from the truth because given the kind of brand that the IPL has created for itself, it is only natural that the selling price of the additional two teams would be much more than the price that Mukesh Ambani had had to pay for his Mumbai Indians.

Also given the knack that Modi has for negotiations and re-negotiations, one is not too sure, but there is a reasonable possibility that the deal with the broadcasters could also be tweaked – read, the broadcaster would be cajoled into paying more – and hence the central kitty of funds would automatically increase for the sides. Apparently, the only side which has had a problem with this is the Chennai Super Kings, which is owned by N.Srinivasan, who, incidentally, is also the secretary of the BCCI. In many quarters, Srinivasan and Modi have said to have locked horns over many issues, including the most recent one related to the termination of the contract of IMG – the management company which manages the IPL.

While the things are hazy about which direction the issue would turn to in the coming weeks, one can be sure that it is not the last that one has heard of from the pair from BCCI.

Less than one year back, the Pakistani government had banned their cricketers from participating in the IPL – or any other sporting event in India – due to the delicate situation between the two countries. For now, not only has the Pakistani government given the players permission to feature in the tournament, but also has had the PCB waiting anxiously for the invites. PCB COO Wasim Bari has said that while the players were ready to play in the next edition of the IPL, they have yet to receive any formal invitation from the IPL failing which, the visa process will be a non-starter.

Unsurprisingly, the Pakistani players will be in hot demand for the next season’s IPL as winners of the ICC World T20 side. Even in this year, Pakistan has won nine of the 11 games that they have featured in, making them the most successful side in the format. Add that to the manner in which the likes of Shahid Afridi has matured as an all-round cricketer, and the remaining likes of Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Aamer and Shoaib Malik are suited to the youngest format of the game, it does seem that the franchises will be gunning to get some of them in their sides.

Talking of T20 news from around the world, 12 teams are battling it out in the Asian T20 Cup. China, Afghanistan, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Singapore, Qatar, Hong Kong, Nepal, Saudi Arab, Malaysia and Bahrain will compete in this tournament, which will end on the 30th of November. The top three sides from this tournament will join India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and China in the Asian Games.

To end this piece, here is another trivia. The oldest cricketer ever to debut in a T20I is Sunil Dhaniram from Canada, the only one over the age of 39 to do so. The oldest from a test playing nation to debut in the T20I format is Floyd Reifer while representing West Indies against Bangladesh at 37 years and ten days.