Of all the ICC Champions Trophies, this year’s at England was the worst in terms of timing. The weather was cold and with rains interrupting the flow of the game, it didn’t make for the excitement that a One-Day game has. The toss became crucial because for some strange reason the authorities decided to start the game half an hour earlier than the usual starting time in England.
There were also only three venues used, which meant that the pitches were never going to be attended to with the kind of care that an international demands, and the rains meant that there was not much chance of giving the pitch the chance to breathe as they were covered almost all the time.
If Lords is the home of cricket, then how come the finals of no less than an ICC Championship was not played there? There were no crowds either, excepting at the India games and then only for the semis and the finals. The ambush-marketing prevention measures also did not go down well with the crowds and understandable though it is for the ICC to protect its major sponsors, a way must be found to ensure that the die-hard supporter does not feel unwanted by all the restrictions on what he should and should not bring to the ground.
The cricket was more bowler-dominated with the weather that was on hand, and so one of the thrills of One-Day cricket, batsmen hitting the ball into the crowds, was pretty much rarely seen. The spinners had little role to play, for the cold did not allow them to grip the ball as they would have liked. Even the pacers had to play second fiddle to the bits-and-pieces seam bowlers, and the captains often used the non-regular bowlers who bowled seam up and came up with flattering figures.
The biggest surprise of the event was the defeat of Australia, for they truly are a team capable of making the adjustments in any conditions in any country, but then One-Day cricket does have its surprises, and they were beaten quite comfortably by the English team.
Though England went on to lose the finals to a surprisingly determined West Indies team, the supporters are happy that they put one over the old enemy. It’s pretty much like Indo-Pak games, where for the winning team it does not matter if they don’t win the championship so long as they beat the big rivals.
Not many gave West Indians a chance in the finals, especially as they had struggled against seam right throughout the English summer, losing all the Test matches. They had of course done better in the limited-overs games, reaching the finals of the Tri-Series. The destruction caused by the hurricane in their islands seemed to have given them a new sense of purpose, and they played some top cricket to win the finals.
In Bradshaw, they have an all-rounder of great potential and to have someone like him batting at No. 10 would be welcomed by any captain. Tactically, the West Indians read the conditions very well and dropped their quicker bowlers in favor of those who would have better control over the ball and not give too many wides. Though that didn’t quite work out, it gave them a lot more depth in the batting and that’s what won them the Trophy. Some of their players then stormed out on to the ground to embrace the winning duo and give the yank signal to the media box where the pundits who had written them off were sitting with mouths agape.
After one of the finest cricketing summers they have had in recent memory, England desperately wanted to win the championship to round it off in style, but Vaughan, who has been a fine captain, got it a bit wrong in bowling out his main bowlers Harmison and Flintoff with more than seven overs left.
The West Indians then only had to keep their cool to score off the others to win the game, and that’s exactly what the Bradshaw-Browne duo did.
There was disappointment for Australia and India, who after their performances last season were expected to be in the finals, but while the World Champs reached the semis, the Indians exited before that to a disciplined Pakistan side. The Pakistanis too got it wrong in the semis against the eventual champions West Indies, by opting to bat first in cold, blistery conditions and while there are those who are heaping praise on Woolmer for the way Pakistan have won their last three consecutive games against India, not many are putting the blame for the decision to bat first in the semis at his door. So, while Inzamam gets little or no praise for leading his team to three wins over India, he gets all the blame for the decision to bat first in the semifinals.
The minnows were disappointing for the simple reason that they seemed to have made no progress at all from the last time they were on such a stage. There’s of course the valid excuse about the weather, for if established teams struggled in these conditions, then it was too much to expect the minnows to handle them.
The next edition of the Champions Trophy is in India and there too the timing seems to be wrong, for in September there’s always rains lurking around the country, but the tight international calendar does not allow too much of a window to fit the tournament in any time else. It’s something the ICC will do well to revisit for future editions of the tournament.
