England v South Africa, 1st Test, Lord’s, 2nd day

I am really enjoying this! I am so pleased that little Bell made his ton.

I thought the Kiwis left England!!!

Ermmmm……

Technically speaking, aren’t the other lot called South Africa???

Jus askin…

I apologise for this the length of this post, but I feel its justified.
“Countries such …………………..are we just being used?”
Aamer Sohail, never short of radical comments that provoke a thought or two, on major teams’ security concerns over playing in Pakistan

Major teams??Aus ,yes.But the others??I’m curious,
if Ind,Srl,SA & Pak themselves don’t have problems playing,& they should know the security conditions better than anyone else,what are these ‘major’ countries concerns.For me The safest place right now to play cricket is the karachi stadium which has more security personell than spectators.Anyways cricketers aren’t targeted by terrorists.Even Musharraf could move around freely there in the Asia Cup final,& he’s on the hitlist of most terrorist organistaions.
I know some fans point out the fact that no1 would want to go to pak for a 1st hand view of the Champ trophy.Well,would you have gone to pakistan if there were no terrorist activities ??I don’t think so,considering lack of party places & it being a notoriously ‘dry’ destination.Give our poor West Punjabi neighbours a break.
Why does the ECB act like it rules the game??Now they want the very hassled Naseem Ashraf to go to england & explain the situation.They want poor Zim out to help their votebank & ireland,scotland in.Well,why not kenya then??UAE is not bad,unlike Ireland they don’t get cricketers from established countries to play for them.Even if you want Zim out let them play the qualifiers that the associate nations play to qualify for the champions trophy.But they can’t allow that,you see Zim would qualify.Talks of corruption are even more whacky.Why didn’t they take a stand against the BCCi when Dalmiya was in power & eating up all that money.
Are they afraind of the shark in the ocean??Are they only capable of going after the small fishes??.They also want to come down to india & check medical backup of the IPL.After all the drama about the IPL,they go ahead with this $20m farce.Now they want to do away with their county system & build a rival league to the IPL.I’m sorry but their ODI & T-20 teams aren’t great either.1 of the best things that could happen to world cricket (even though I’m indian) is for england to win a world cup.Who knows, the impossible could turn possible if they had their priorities right.
And no,the BCCI aren’t angels & I’m not a BCCI supporter.But the England & Wales cricket board is by far the most meddlesome,irritating & rigid cricket board in the world.

Agian apologies for making it too long,but this is the last time.
Marcus, bro I don’t know why you ‘may not agree with some of my post’.The drama about IPL,then the go-ahead for the stanford deal.Encouragement to their counties to sign up ICL players.Now if these guys already had contracts,then thats fine.But even with the info that these were banned players,they go ahead & sign them up.Excuse,they wouldn’t have a case in the court of law.
Wrong.All counties like free enterprises are at liberty to not sign up any1.Unless ,of course,these guys had a contract.
Now if these banned players are legitimised,it would create chaos.A solution must be found ,else international crciket will go to the dogs.Most simple soln, is kapil dev stops this farce & ends the ‘ICL’.But I’m no einstein.I’m sure there are better answers teh BCCI & ICC can think of.
Again,regarding the ECB–Marcus my friend, do you really think the dates that were drawn up for the now arranged Lanka tour of england ‘accidentally’ clash with the IPL??The lankan players saw through this game & approached their president.The lanka board agrees to their demand.
Now ,the ECB has been working furiously behind the scenes to disengage this.The ICC promptly raises concern & speaks a few tough words to the Lankans.Yesterday,unnamed lankan sources say issue is yet to be finalised.
Not forgetting the 50million pound “net T20″.
Do you think it was by accident that the aussie board pulled out its seniour players after 4 IPL games for a preparation camp for the windies tour.
No. 8 team, isn’t it?
Finally,its clear the stakes have risen & england is desperately tryn to regain its control over world cricket.All kinds of moves & counter moves will be unleashed to usurp power & control

Jatt

I really didn’t mean to draw us into this kind of debate. Since you brought it up, though, there are two main points of contention.

1. The treatment of England’s ICL players regarding the Champions’ Trophy- saying that any counties with ICL players won’t be allowed effectively cripples England’s chances of competing in the tournament. The organisers knew of the counties’ ICL connections right from the get-go, so they either shouldn’t have invited them in the first place, or allowed counties to play on the proviso that no ICL players would be included for those teams.

2. England wanting Zimbabwe out to improve their vote-bank- perhaps that’s part of it, but India only wanted them in because of their vote. The president of the ICC said that only cricketing issues would be considered in Zimabawe’s Test status, so why else would the BCCI campaign to keep them in when their cricketing standards are declining rapidly? I doubt that they’re actually going to invite Zimbabwe to play them- there’s no money in it. Hell, they haven’t even hosted Bangladesh yet!

Again, I didn’t mean to have this debate now, and it probably was a bit tactless of me to say that in the first place, so I apologise. The point of my original post was only that I hope Australians (and everyone else) tour Pakistan and not pull out because of what may possibly concievably happen.

Well I’m not a big fan of the IPL but I do agree that a window needs to be created in order to eliminate clashes. Some people are saying that Test cricket’s demise is inevitable, because players will want to play the high-paying IPL and Stanford matches instead of regular international cricket, but in reality I’m sure that everyone will ideally want to play both. Having a window is a pragmatic solution that allows this, and therefore preserves Test cricket. I wonder why so many people are against the idea.

And I also predict a South African series win- at least, if the next three pitches have anything in them for the pacemen.