Matches, Mismatches

As they get longer and longer I find that cricket World Cups are becoming more and more like long innings (not that I have much experience of those, but I have watched a few and know, in theory, how to play them). In the first few days (or the first few overs if you're batting) you've just got to get yourself in, not take too many chances, and pick up runs when you can. As time passes you can open out more and it becomes a lot more satisfying. You can then get a beer from the fridge, sit back and enjoy what you're watching, or contemplate what you've achieved.

For this reason, and because I've been far too busy watching the climax of the Six Nations rugby and earning a living, I haven't seen a huge amount of the World Cup so far. Just enough to know that England are doing their best, after a brief reversal of fortune in Australia, to regain the type of form which we all expect from them in one-day tournaments, namely an insipid blend of clumsy mistakes and lazy ill-judgement, sometimes extending to what the players do after the games have ended.

I also noticed that Herschelle Gibbs had managed to hit all six balls of an over from the aptly named Daan van Bunge for six, creating an ODI and World Cup record, although I'm not really sure what that proved as Gibbs probably played more testing innings facing his mates' bowling in the park back in Cape Town while he was growing up. I was thinking of posting something about the pointlessness of matches such as South Africa v The Netherlands, which I wouldn't bother watching in a month of Sundays, Gibbs or no Gibbs, but then, as the last few days have shown, for every Netherlands or Bermuda, there is a Kenya (2003 vintage) or an Ireland, and, however badly they suffer, players from the real lesser lights seem to love the opportunity to be humiliated, so why should that pleasure be denied to them?

After Ireland had completed their victory over Pakistan last night, Charles Colvile, in a rare outburst of perspicacity, said on Sky that Ireland's progress was a tribute to the time and money invested in the development of the game outside the Test countries by the ICC.

For once in his life, he's right.