Champions' Trophy

The Champions' Trophy is gathering steam now. Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, who owe their status as full members of the ICC purely to the value of their votes, having been bid a polite adieu, the real fights have begun.

Most of the matches so far have been keenly fought and not without their share of surprises. Pakistan, after all their recent travails, bested Sri Lanka. The New Zealanders beat the South Africans in a tense, low-scoring match. They deserved to win because they held their nerve better than the Proteas. The Australian juggernaut was halted in its tracks by a doughty West Indian performance. Despite losing four early wickets, Lara and Morton took them to a reasonable total. Their bowlers continued where these two had left off. Though the Windies do not have any bowlers who've been hyped up the media, unlike the Aussies ( if I hear any more about McGrath's 'nagging line and length' I'm going to scream!), they believed that they could win this one. Even when Gilchrist and Clarke were looking ominous, they stuck to their task manfully. And when they broke through that partnership, they broke through the Aussies' arrogant over-confidence. Taylor's hat-trick was the silver bullet that slew the werewolf.
To my mind the best feature of the matches so far has been that cricket has, once more, become an equal contest between the bat and the ball. Far, far too often these days the pitches are doctored to be dead as the dodos. The batsmen make merry and the bowlers resemble, more and more, helpless lambs who're led onto the field only to be slaughtered. It may make for a good carnival. Cricket, it isn't. Yet so used have the players got to these one-sided pitches, that as soon as they have to play on one where the bowlers have a fair chance, they start whingeing and whining, as Graeme Smith did after losing. Get real, Mr.Smith. Even in the gladiatorial arenas of ancient Rome, those thrown to the lions were given a few token weapons to defend themselves. In the ODIs the bowlers have none.