when money takes precedence over National pride - T20 International Vs Champions League

Have you ever heard of - Garey Earl Mathurin ?   It does gives one an impish pleasure when something which one could not accomplish is done by somebody else !!

Garey Mathurin (Photo : cricinfo.com)

Curious are the ways of administrators – ICC, is the International governing body of cricket with foundations tracing back to more than a century ago.  It has 105 members – 10 full members who play official Test matches and is responsible for governance and organization of the game’s major international tournaments.  

0n 25^th Sept 2011 – there was the 208^th official International  T20 match played between England and West Indies.  England after such a thumping win over Indians in their recent tour was on top after restricting the West Indians to 113 in 20 overs for the loss of 5 wickets.  A very ordinary performance looking at the recent tall scores in T20s.  

Cricket is a funny game – England found that to be so in their chasing a paltry target against a very ordinary WI bowling line up.  They lost wickets steadily and were all out for 88 with a debutant slow left arm spinner returning figures of 4-0-9-3.  Yes the magic was that of the debutant  Garey Mathurin.  Remember that England are the reigning  champions in T20 and this was indeed a shock defeat – when you understand the other background well.  

There was another debutant Krishmar Santokie, a left arm seamer - gave the breakthrough by bowling  Alex Hales, then Mathurin took over.  There were 4 debutants in all in this match.   It was not a match that would have generated interest as most of the cricket spectators were keenly following the Champions League occurring elsewhere in India.  The spineless Boards could not control the timing of the game – two teams from England – Somerset and Leicestershire are playing the league – Trinidad and Tobago is battling it out.  Daren Ganga is leading the Trinidad & Tobago Team which has Samuel Badree, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Sherwin Ganga, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Lendl Simmons – some of whom will easily walk into the present WI line up for T20 or for a One dayer..   Besides the players of T&T,  T 20 greats – Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo are all out there – away from their National Team playing for other clubs …………… and a seconds sting team is representing the Country. Shambolic would be an understatement on the state of affairs !

The Nokia Champions League T20 has already provided some gripping matches.  In the first match RCB scored 172 and yet lost to Warriors in a last ball finish.   Cape Cobras made short work of NSW.   Malinga took MI home from nowhere chasing CSK’s 158.  The ball that bowled Murali Vijay was a beauty and then he took the bat away from Raina with a sharp one. The bat’s  handle broke as the bat flew off the handle when Raina tried to dig out another Malinga crusher.   Warriors won by a whopping 50 run margin against Southern Redbacks.  KKR set up a challenging 161 with a one over 30 by Yusuf Pathan but the hysterics of Roelof Van der Merwe 73 off 40 balls saw Somerset through with 2 balls to spare.  So it all happening at Champions League taking the attention away from the International events.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.