Cricket World Cup

The Cricket World Cup is going on right now in the West Indies, and unlike baseball’s World Series, which at its best may represent two countries, the CWC actually has teams from around the globe, mainly the former British Empire (and a few others, like the Netherlands). Thanks to a supplement in the local newspaper, the rudiments of the game are no longer a dark mystery to me, and I’ve started watching some of the matches. ZA has been putting on a strong showing, winning tests against the Netherlands and Scotland, who are kind of sucky teams anyway. But the Proteas (the ZA squad) are doing pretty well in spite of a heartbreaking loss to Oz, who’ve won more CWCs than anybody, and could take it all.

In the match against the Netherlands, ZA’s Herschelle Gibbs hit a world record six sixes in an over, which is something like hitting a grand slam on every at-bat in a baseball game (okay, not exactly, but it’s quite a mean feat). Also, India scored a world record number of runs (403) against Bermuda, alleviating their shocking loss to Bangladesh.

A ZA cricket legend, Bob Woolmer, who had been coaching the Pakistani side, died suddenly and unexpectedly after Pakistan lost their test against Ireland on St. Pat’s. It would appear that he was murdered, and the speculation is that he was about to spill the beans on some match fixing.

Now the first round of matches is over, and ZA is in the Super Eights. They’ve beaten Sri Lanka, and they've beaten Ireland. Next up is Bangladesh on 7 April. Stay tuned for the wrap up...