23.6.10

Feeding a Delusion

Owing to a surfeit of things going on in my life - the main one, unfortunately, being the requirement to earn a living somewhere where I can't watch cricket* - Eoin Morgan's latest tour de force largely passed me by. But, to a certain extent, however good it was, the innings shouldn't have told anyone anything they didn't know about the man and his exceptional ability and potential. The fastest-rising one-day batsman on earth? England, yes, that's England, have him, and the confidence generated by his presence and the World T20 triumph continues to course through the side. You could, unless you were someone with experience of watching England over many years and a sound grip on reality, think a new era had arrived...

Elsewhere in the world things are a bit less exciting. South Africa and the West Indies, with a mere five days at their disposal, could only stagger to a draw on a St.Kitts shirtfront. While games such as this may serve to briefly foster the illusion that the West Indies can still compete with the best the world game has to offer, they're feeding a delusion and doing the wider sport damage at the same time.

It's been said before, but I'll say it again. Pointless Tests such as this will send Test cricket to the grave faster than a decade's worth of Twenty20 matches.

Over to you, ICC.

* I understand that all over England people are being given permission to watch the England football team play Slovenia in the World Cup this afternoon. Personally I'm happy to miss the game, but, with a precedent thus set, I look forward to the mass absenteeism that's certain to greet England's next Test series. Oh, sorry, I forgot. It's cricket and it's not the Ashes, therefore nobody in their right mind would ever be interested...

2 comments:

Dean @ Cricket Betting Blog said...

Hi Brian,

I can relate to that problem of missing the cricket while working, I only get to see weekends or the last two hours of day/night ODI's like today.

Thats why I like TMS so much, at least I can listen to that at work.


I'm not one to get carried away with a couple of good wins or performances, etc.

But it has to be said that if he continues in this manner, Eoin Morgan is well on his way to becoming one of the best limited overs batsmen in the world, not just England.

It's great to discover a player like this who just takes to the task like a duck to water.

I get the feeling the next 12 months will go a long way to confirming whether Morgan can become that number 1 ODI player.

Imagine what he could achieve if he can take this level of cricket into the ODI series down under, followed by a good world cup!

Brian Carpenter said...

Yes, I've got the feeling that this time England aren't going to fall back into their old ways. Flower is too sharp a coach to let it happen, and Morgan increasingly looks like the sort of player we can build around (in ODIs at least) for years to come.

Sometime soon Morgan and KP are going to come good together, and that'll really be worth watching!

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