Asia Cup Cricket: Preliminary Trends.

Why Sri Lanka could be the Favorites?

-DR. ABDUL RUFF

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The Asia Cup cricket tournament is being held in Bangladesh from March 11 to 22. In the opening match, on 11 March, Bangladesh faced Pakistan in the opening match of the competition at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Sunday, but  electing to field first, BD boys eventauly offered to many runs in the last 4 oc vewrs to make Pakistan escpate  with 260 plus rus, making their task rather difficult later. However, Pakistan won after big toil when the BD spectors thought their boys would get through easily, thanks to expereince in their BPL gimmcks  where the BD boys were made to shine as per rule of  premier league drams and the recent Pakistani losses against Egnland in Dubai. 

Once a tema decides to field first after wining the toss, it is expected that they would restrct the opponents to meage total, but BD boys are so weak that eventaully they faile.d If however, Pakistan bated second, posibly they  would have lost. 

It is rather a thankless job predicting the wining team in cricket chiefly because of the joint cricketism trends when economically stronger teams try to get the upper hand by using all possible tools of control from foreign and sports ministries. 

Right at the outset, however, it should be openly mentioned that Sri Lankan team is the best in Asia as of today judging the trends from the just concluded Commonwealth bank Tri-series. Of course, then, one can easily bet on Sri Lankan capabilities to win the Asia Cup 2012. 

The obvious reason being the SL team is the best one of today in Asia which can Indian pressure tactics and defeat it. 

Of course, India claims to be the best team. Although there are many former British colonies in Asia playing cricket now a days, only India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and  Bangladesh ply too much of cricketism and are alone now eligible to play in Asia cup. 

In Asia, an innocent looking but “resourceful” India has been assisted by England and others in South Asia to have a bigger say in ranking and records by fixed matches, at least thus far.   Bangladesh , Pakistan and even Sri Lanka unwittingly bat and bowl for promoting Indian interests.   India wants to be sole owner of cricketism in South and rest of Asia and expects all other neighbors to deliberately promote Indian cricketism goals. SL plays for India especially because many SL players work for Indian IPL on payment basis while SL Malinga is the main n wicket taker of Mumbai real Indians. 

A whitewash against India in the Tests and now the tri-series win over Sri Lanka in the finals. Meanwhile, this is the first time in the history of tri-series finals in Australia that the team losing the second final has won the third.

Only SL has the potential in Asia to play and win the Asia cup, unless they play for India .   India was knocked out of the tri series even before many thought it would, losing its bogus ranking in ODI.  

With firm resolution, Sri Lanka looked down and out at the beginning of the series and fought against all odds to earn themselves a place in the finals, keeping India out. Sri Lanka 's team work was brilliant throughout the tournament but they were just not up to the quality of Australia . There are a lot of positives for Sri Lanka to take home from this series.

The result of the recent CTSeries would testify SL preparedness against any team in South Asia .  Pakistani players would present themselves as "unpredictables" and help India as they did for the last World cup in New Delhi , if the Zardari regime asks them to do that.  Can they overrule the dictates of cricket mafias? Moreover, once  Pakistan  loses the 5th wicket that would be the end of Pak bating as well.  Last 4 Pak batboys just make a big show at the crease and end the match. Pak bowlers are goalless, too. That is pathetic. Bangladesh is the weakest among all and not every batboy knows how to hold the bat. As such, BD cannot promote Indian interests even if the Hasina boys try. 

In the third final (which is absolutely ridiculous) of Commonwealth bank Tri-series, Sri Lanka bowled and fielded well to restrict Australia to a winnable total but lost too many wickets at the start, in their attempt to score quickly.  Once Australia had made 231, it looked as though Sri Lanka would chase it down quite easily. The visitors got off to a good start but they lost wickets in quick succession and were pushed on the backfoot. Once they lost Mahela, Dilshan and Sangakkara it always looked like an uphill climb for the Rajapaksha boys. Also, the Kangaroos kept the pressure going and despite courageous efforts by the middle order batboys. 

In fact,  SL won the toss and elected to field, initiating reckless bowling and more professional fielding. When those wanting to shine at SL cost, began falling one by one, it appeared SL would restrict the Australian to below 200 hundred but somehow they leaked many runs towards the end to make their total 231. Probably, SL bowlers faulted deliberately because as per the current bowler tactics, they offered extra runs in consideration for the good runs in 50 plus/100 plus for their own batboys, although they denied many extra in terms of noballs or wides, etc.  Even this total 231 could have been easily chased s down, but Australians also resorted to reckless bowling, though their fielders are still infant and playful missing stumps and misfielding. 

Australia has done it! McKay was the pick of the bowlers for Australia and two of his ODI five wicket hauls are now against Sri Lanka . It has been a remarkable summer for Australia First they dominated India in the Test series and then they went on to clinch the title in the ODI tri-series. They have finished up as the winners of this long drawn out series.

India is no better than SL or BD in tactics but has the maneuvering capacity.  SL skipper Mahela Jayawardena put it it in his own way: "Initially if we would have been given 231, we would have taken it. We didn't keep wickets in hand towards the end and Australia bowled well. It was a day when we didn't execute our plans well.

The hosts in  Australia  were the better team throughout the tournament, but SL battled well to almost unsettle the Australian boys and their cup dreams. In fact, although Australia managed to obtain the trophy, however, SL was slightly better than Australia in all respects, except in luck that went Aussies way- also the trophy. One thing the Australians lacked was brilliance in the bowling department or the determination not to strike because bowlers have not been properly used by the team because India and SL offered 100 plus to their batboys. And they showed exactly how good their bowling is by defending 231 in the final encounter. 

Australia now departs for the Tour of the Caribbean against the West Indies while Sri Lanka will meet India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in Bangladesh for the Asia Cup which it had given away to India last time.  

A Word  

Tdoay, India suffers from  serious disorders of all sorts. Their claims of bieng the best cricketers on the basis of bogus records  and ranking, have been proven false and fictiious like the Sept-11 hoax or Indnian parliament/Mumbai gimmicks. India has been the cheilf beneficiery of give-and-take mutual exchange policy of cricketism.

The only worry, rather than concern, is to somehow get one last 100 plus for the  only Indian batboys Sachuin Tendulkar and this is more important than somehow winning/retaining the Asia cup. That is the petrified India mindset. And a big shame!

Moreover, India also thinks it can, as the so-caleld super power, buy all the South Asian nations and teams by giving them tractors, fishing boats, old terror goods, and other such things plus some black cash.

A crash bowler like Lasith Malinga should recognize his role in his team’s wins and reequip his bowling and fielding potentials for Asia Cup.  There should be a basic difference between the trained international bowlers and street players who just throw the ball to the bat. The batting is the real problem for all teams when the bowlers strike sensibly, especially for India and Sri Lanka . The tri-series has proven that batboys enjoy only when the bowlers and fielders selectively promote their self-interests and when bowlers take their profession seriously, batboys fall one after another like flying waste papers on the streets. 

From the attitude of Australians, it is now clear that if the opposite bowlers offer 100 plus to at least 2 of their batboys, then, that team also would be offered good runs without targeting the stumps or LBW. Otherwise, the bowlers would "step in" to play serious game.  

So, Australian batboys get all their 100 plus extra by mutual understandings but the regime shields such cricket crimes by honoring them with “Orders” of the nation. Do the politicians have any sense of shame at all?

There is hypothetical question. Supposing SL could restrict the Austrians below 200 runs which they could if they sensibly bowled, would the Australians still won the match? Australia  bated first in the finals, like before, and except the last time, they made good runs, in the first final they were offered 320 runs. In the third final, SL batboys seem to have taken the decision to restrict the hosts to bare minimum runs and they executed their plan quite satisfactorily by giving just 5 runs in the first 2 overs.  

Similarly, if Colombo boys had offer3ed 100 plus to at least 2 of Australian batboys, would Aus let SL win?  In the second final exactly that happened and SL won.

Since SL refused to oblige the Australian frauds with 100 plus as they did before, Australians came back more firmly. 

Cricketism shows, directed by mafias and corporate sponsors, would go on and on fooling the spectators, regimes and others. 

Is it then cricket or cricketism?