Jun 11 2009
ICC World Twenty20 Cricket: Associate Nation Half Term Report
You can ascertain an awful lot about the state of world cricket by looking a bit further than just the Test playing nations.
Whilst there is no doubt that all of the associate nations would be rolled over by any of the ten top-level members (with the possible exceptions of Ireland vs. Bangladesh) in the five day form of the game, the ICC World Twenty20 serves to level the playing field somewhat, making for some surprising results.
And I wouldn’t rule out further upsets at the tournament, with one associate nation still in the competition and in the form of their lives.
Of the associate nations, Ireland have given the best account of themselves. Netherlands may have beaten hosts England in a spirited performance, but they crumbled like an OXO cube against Pakistan when the pressure was on. Ireland, by contrast, would have a bit more confidence and experience in a similar situation, no doubt aided by their past performances on the big stage.
Trent Johnson and the O’Brien brothers will have a big say in whether or not this competition will have been a success for the Irish. With another upset — an event certainly not out of the question — you could safely say they will come away from the tournament having made decent progress. Is two more upsets too much to ask? Well, you never know with the English weather and good old Duckworth Lewis.
The Netherlands may have the talent, but are quite a way below Ireland in terms of being the complete international package just yet. They have the first-class experience: Bas Zuiderent, Alexei Kervezee, Ryan ten Doeschate and Dirk Nannes are all, on their day, capable of performing on the biggest stage of all. For one game, they did this: Holland’s victory over England will go down in history as their highest-profile win of all time.
They had the chance to progress further, but blew it with an inexperienced batting performance against Pakistan. It seemed the Netherlands’ only form of attack was to come down the wicket to the spinners - a tactic that proved fatal, gifting Pakistan wicket keeper Kamran Akmal a record number of stumpings in an International T20 match.
In some ways, a pity. I would have loved to see Dirk Nannes blowing away the New Zealand batting order, or Darron Reekers smashing Murali for six - what a fillip that would have been for the Dutch side, clearly capable of much more.
Much more than, say, Scotland, who have been nondescript at this tournament.
They managed to give New Zealand more than a scare with a half-decent batting performance in a match heavily truncated by the English weather. However, from that moment on it has all collapsed for the Scots, partly because of dodgy captaincy but mainly due to the fact they have been outplayed.
Ryan Watson offered promise and Kyle Coetzer showed just what he is capable of with the bat, but it was an otherwise forgettable performance by the Scots.
Bangladesh — admittedly not an associate, but the first team to crash out at the group stage — missed their chance to progress in losing to Ireland. Unfortunately, they ran into Trent Johnson, who proved to be a big thorn in the Bangladesh side, and an in-form Irish team with high hopes of moving on to bigger things.
Had the same fixture taken place on the subcontinent, one would think things would have been vastly different. Bangladesh are capable of much more, indicated by some creditable individual performances, most notably by the likes of Junaid Siddique and Mashrafe Mortaza.
Their match against world champions India was always going to be difficult, and they won’t be the last team to suffer at the hands of Yuvraj this tournament. Overall, a learning experience for the Bangladesh side, many of whom will have limited experience of English wickets.
Zimbabwe — also not an associate but currently on hiatus from the Test scene — are not at this tournament, having been banned by the British Government from playing in England this year. Funny how politics mix with cricket an awful lot more than, say, football. It would have been good to see the Zimbabwe team here, the likes of Ray Price and Presper Utseya sure to cause batsmen problems with their crafty spin bowling.
