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Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer
Cape Town - Two rank mismatches as quickly as day two of the tournament ... it has not been the ideal start for the ominously elongated ICC World Cup 2011, has it?
With one of the clobbered minnows, Kenya, especially abject in a blink-and-you’d-have-missed-it reverse to New Zealand in Chennai on Sunday, you can bet bosses at the International Cricket Council will be praying Zimbabwe restore at least a minor semblance of African pride against defending champions Australia at Ahmedabad on Monday.
There is no absolutely no guarantee of that, although at least the once very credible Zimbabweans appear to be back on an upward curve of sorts in cricket after years of turmoil parallel to the political and economic meltdown there.
Kenya capitulating for 69 and then being blitzed by 10 wickets in only eight overs would have been embarrassing enough in a Twenty20 international – the fact that this was a fuller ODI only made it worse.
The match saw fewer than 32 overs of action in total, not even a third of the possible 100: it was the equivalent of a 45-second knockout for disappointed boxing fans hoping to see some measure of pugilistic spirit before someone hit the canvas.
You do not want to be too critical of the Kenyans: maybe it was a case of the team already regarded as clear underdogs simply having a collective nightmare, thus only aggravating the gulf in standards.
Then again, it is not even as if the Black Caps are setting the planet alight these days – earlier this summer they were thumped 4-0 in a one-day series in Bangladesh, also lost 3-2 at home to Pakistan and were easily seen off by India in a warm-up match to this tournament.
Sadly, it would seem as if Kenya have notably regressed rather than progressed since their amazing feat in reaching the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa (admittedly aided by an early “walkover” result against the very same Kiwis, who refused to play in Nairobi citing security fears).
But they did earn a surprisingly convincing 53-run triumph over Sri Lanka at that event en route to the last four; any repeat of that sort of achievement against a “superpower” in 2011 already looks highly unlikely.
Their current squad carries several thirty-somethings, including the fading icon Steve Tikolo, who is 39 and played for Border in South African domestic competition all of 15 years ago – that fact alone indicates that genuine new talent is not exactly exploding to the fore in Nairobi and environs.
There was a cruel but telling Tweet from Cricinfo’s Firdose Moonda straight after the Chennai farce: “The terrible thing is that it’s only 10am in Kenya. People haven’t even got out of bed and it’s game over.”
And there were a few online jokes doing the rounds like: “Kenya should have been allowed to use all 15 players.”
Of course short-lived games like that one are hardly the best ally of television viewership figures, and will do little to help sustain interest in the tournament for weeks on end if there are too many similar outcomes along the gruelling journey to the business end of CWC 2011.
Based on TV evidence, Canada seemed a tad less overawed as they surrendered to Sri Lanka by 210 runs at Hambantota, but that game turned laborious for slightly different reasons.
Once the Lankans had rattled up 332 for seven and the Canadians quickly slumped to 12 for three in reply, it was simply a question of “when” they would lose, and the fact that they pottered around for the sake of pride to eventually amass 122 all out in 36.5 overs (run rate a less than princely 3.31) hardly improved the spectacle.
The World Cup could do with a nail-biter pretty quickly to make up for Sunday’s sorry events – and some might argue that it is not very likely until at least Thursday, when South Africa play West Indies, or Friday, with the all-Antipodean meeting between Australia and New Zealand.
Cape Town - Two rank mismatches as quickly as day two of the tournament ... it has not been the ideal start for the ominously elongated ICC World Cup 2011, has it?
With one of the clobbered minnows, Kenya, especially abject in a blink-and-you’d-have-missed-it reverse to New Zealand in Chennai on Sunday, you can bet bosses at the International Cricket Council will be praying Zimbabwe restore at least a minor semblance of African pride against defending champions Australia at Ahmedabad on Monday.
There is no absolutely no guarantee of that, although at least the once very credible Zimbabweans appear to be back on an upward curve of sorts in cricket after years of turmoil parallel to the political and economic meltdown there.
Kenya capitulating for 69 and then being blitzed by 10 wickets in only eight overs would have been embarrassing enough in a Twenty20 international – the fact that this was a fuller ODI only made it worse.
The match saw fewer than 32 overs of action in total, not even a third of the possible 100: it was the equivalent of a 45-second knockout for disappointed boxing fans hoping to see some measure of pugilistic spirit before someone hit the canvas.
You do not want to be too critical of the Kenyans: maybe it was a case of the team already regarded as clear underdogs simply having a collective nightmare, thus only aggravating the gulf in standards.
Then again, it is not even as if the Black Caps are setting the planet alight these days – earlier this summer they were thumped 4-0 in a one-day series in Bangladesh, also lost 3-2 at home to Pakistan and were easily seen off by India in a warm-up match to this tournament.
Sadly, it would seem as if Kenya have notably regressed rather than progressed since their amazing feat in reaching the semi-finals of the 2003 World Cup in South Africa (admittedly aided by an early “walkover” result against the very same Kiwis, who refused to play in Nairobi citing security fears).
But they did earn a surprisingly convincing 53-run triumph over Sri Lanka at that event en route to the last four; any repeat of that sort of achievement against a “superpower” in 2011 already looks highly unlikely.
Their current squad carries several thirty-somethings, including the fading icon Steve Tikolo, who is 39 and played for Border in South African domestic competition all of 15 years ago – that fact alone indicates that genuine new talent is not exactly exploding to the fore in Nairobi and environs.
There was a cruel but telling Tweet from Cricinfo’s Firdose Moonda straight after the Chennai farce: “The terrible thing is that it’s only 10am in Kenya. People haven’t even got out of bed and it’s game over.”
And there were a few online jokes doing the rounds like: “Kenya should have been allowed to use all 15 players.”
Of course short-lived games like that one are hardly the best ally of television viewership figures, and will do little to help sustain interest in the tournament for weeks on end if there are too many similar outcomes along the gruelling journey to the business end of CWC 2011.
Based on TV evidence, Canada seemed a tad less overawed as they surrendered to Sri Lanka by 210 runs at Hambantota, but that game turned laborious for slightly different reasons.
Once the Lankans had rattled up 332 for seven and the Canadians quickly slumped to 12 for three in reply, it was simply a question of “when” they would lose, and the fact that they pottered around for the sake of pride to eventually amass 122 all out in 36.5 overs (run rate a less than princely 3.31) hardly improved the spectacle.
The World Cup could do with a nail-biter pretty quickly to make up for Sunday’s sorry events – and some might argue that it is not very likely until at least Thursday, when South Africa play West Indies, or Friday, with the all-Antipodean meeting between Australia and New Zealand.
