Under-19 World Cup: Thrilling India-Pakistan quarter-final on the cards

It was a great match.
An ICC media release previews the India-Pakistan encounter to be held on Monday. Tony Ireland Stadium in Townsville is the venue for the exciting quarter-final.

Though India enjoys an overall 9-7 record against Pakistan in U19 cricket, the green shirts have performed better in big and pressure matches, having won five of the six contests in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cups.

Pakistan got the better of India in the semi-final of the 2004 event in Bangladesh, then in the 2006 final in Sri Lanka and overpowered India again in the quarter-final in New Zealand in 2010. In the inaugural event in 1988, Pakistan defeated India by 68 runs while India's only victory in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup came in the 1998 event in Durban where it beat Pakistan by five wickets.

This is contrary to the senior team India, who are still to lose a match to Pakistan in World Cups. They have thus far played 5 matches in the flagship event and India has won all of them.

In the ongoing event, Pakistan remained unbeaten in Group B while in Group C India suffered a shock defeat against the West Indies before it bounced back to win convincingly against Zimbabwe and Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Looking ahead to the match, Pakistan captain Babar Azam, who is the second leading run-getter with 182 runs, said: "We played India in the Asia Cup in Malaysia before this tournament and we won one (by one run) while the other game (the final) ended in a tie. There is always a tight contest between us and we are expecting nothing different this time.

"Our players are aware of how exciting this is for the supporters of both the teams. They know that there will be millions of fans glued to their screens seeing the action when we meet. The last time we met the games were exciting so we hope that continues."

India captain Unmukt Chand, who has scored 104 runs so far, said: "Pakistan will be a challenge but we have worked hard on our skills coming into the tournament and also on the mental side of our game.

"We played Pakistan twice in Malaysia in June and learnt a lot from those matches. So, we are confident that we can perform very well not only in the quarter-final but also in the rest of the matches."

When cricket loses to the Olympics

It is great news you must read it.

Cricket, otherwise England’s biggest summer sport, has been forced to play second fiddle to the London Olympics. Even the grim struggle of Andrew Strauss’ team to retain its No. 1 Test status against hardy South Africa has been relegated to the innards of the sports sections of newspapers.

Over the past fortnight, I can’t remember a single day when cricket has featured on the front pages, or made it to prime time television. Newspapers have had 24-, 36-, 40-page sports supplements, but dedicated meagre space to cricket. Kevin Pietersen’s extraordinary counter-attacking century against Dale Steyn, Mornie Morkel and Vernon Philander at Headingley—which would normally have been the toast of the country—raised the tempo a bit, but not enough to become the country’s talking point.

Rueful: England’s Kevin Pietersen’s century was overshadowed by the Games. Photo: Philip Brown/Reuters

Even more, Pietersen’s hints a few days later that he might quit Test cricket because of internecine problems in the England dressing room were the subject of discussion more on Twitter than in the mainstream media.

In a sense, this is understandable. There is a lot at stake and a great deal to prove for England in the “home” Olympics and the media has backed the effort unstintingly. For instance, official broadcasters BBC—the bastion for English cricket till its position was usurped by Sky Sports—had 24 ordinary and 24 HD channels dedicated to the Games. For the viewer, such carpet-bombing has ensured non-stop and total coverage of the Olympics—from the preliminaries to the finals of almost every event.

The rousing success of the home country—popularly known as Team GB—has obviously upped the hysteria for the Olympics further, reducing the impact of cricket even more in the bargain. Cricket played outside England, for instance, has barely found mention even as brief items, which would not please Indian captain M.S. Dhoni or West Indies’ Darren Sammy.

The moot question in this scenario is whether cricket can ever become an Olympic sport. On the face of it, this seems improbable, though it is of interest to know that it featured in the 1900 Games in Paris. A solitary match was played between England and host France, which the latter lost.

Since then, there have been a few futile attempts to incorporate the sport in the Olympics, the most notable in the late 1990s, when a strong push by England, Australia and India saw it re-enter as a multidiscipline event in the Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur as a demonstration sport.

Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh were among the stellar players in that One Day International tournament which was won by South Africa. Cricket also made its entry into the Asian Games, but was thereafter abandoned as the International Olympic Committee did not quite warm up to the sport. The biggest stumbling block was not just the time taken by each match, but also the fact that so few countries play cricket.

Over the past decade and some, there have been attempts by a few leading players—the most vocal being Waugh and Adam Gilchrist—to get cricket into the Olympic fold to make the sport truly international. Waugh has been part of the Australian Olympics contingent in both Beijing and London.

The introduction of the Twenty20 format has revived hopes of the sport being reintroduced in the Olympics. It fits into the “time parameter” and is not as technically daunting as the longer formats for other non-cricketing countries.

It is not easy to get a sport into the Olympics. It requires hectic lobbying, apart from showing enough numbers as playing countries with a fair degree of ability. The International Cricket Council has said it wants to see the sport in the biggest event of all, but so far this has remained only a desire.

Support from cricket boards has been lacklustre, especially from The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which has also had a history of feuds with the Indian Olympic Association and the sports ministry. Considering that it is the richest, most powerful board in the world, the BCCI’s support for any move to get cricket into the Olympics is imperative.

Till such time, cricket remains only tangential to the Games: as part of Danny Boyle’s imagery of pastoral England during the opening ceremony, or Lord’s becoming the venue for the archery competition.

World Cricket Committee Gains Four New Members

Four new members are to join MCC’s World Cricket committee, under the chairmanship of Mike Brearley.
Former West Indies Test captain, Jimmy Adams, past Australian wicket-keeper, Rod Marsh, and ex-England captain, Michael Vaughan, will offer the MCC World Cricket committee a wealth of cricket knowledge.
Between them, they have scored 17,775 runs, taken 92 wickets, held on to 648 catches, and executed 16 stumpings, in 537 international appearances.
This on-field experience, in addition to all three continuing to contribute to the game through coaching and broadcasting roles, makes the trio well placed to help the committee debate cricket’s key issues, and provide an insight into the professional game.
England Women’s captain, Charlotte Edwards, meanwhile will become the first woman to sit on the MCC World Cricket committee, offering a viewpoint on the rapidly-developing international women’s game.
The new quartet – who join the committee as part of MCC’s rotation policy – replace outgoing members Tony Lewis (the former Chairman), Tony Dodemaide, Andy Flower, Mike Gatting, Alec Stewart, Michael Tissera and Courtney Walsh, who had served on the committee since its inception in 2006. Sri Lankan batsman, Kumar Sangakkara, is another recent recruit, having attended his first meeting in Cape Town in January 2012.
MCC World Cricket committee chairman, Mike Brearley, believes the addition of Adams, Edwards, Marsh and Vaughan, will be of great benefit to the committee:
“MCC is privileged and very grateful to have these four eminent cricketers, each with such deep knowledge of the game, agree to join the MCC World Cricket committee.  I am sure that all four will have much to contribute, and I look forward to welcoming them in person at the next meeting at Lord’s in August.”
Speaking about becoming a member of the MCC World Cricket committee, Jimmy Adams said:
“I’m looking forward to sitting down with such an eminent group of peers and tackling the topics up for discussion. The World Cricket committee plays an important role and I’m excited about having my chance to take part.”
Charlotte Edwards added:
“It's incredibly exciting thinking about sitting around a table with some of my heroes, guys like Steve Waugh, who I grew up watching and learning from as a kid. I'm passionate about the game of cricket, and feel I've got plenty to add to the discussion. It'll be an amazing experience just to pick these guys' brains and talk cricket with them. On a broader level, it's great for the women's game that I've been given this opportunity.”
Rod Marsh said:
“I'm both delighted and excited to have the opportunity to work with Mike Brearley and his team on the MCC World Cricket committee.
“The game itself is in a pretty healthy state at the moment and this to me is the ideal time to ensure there is no complacency and that we continue to look to the future and plan for the continued well being of global cricket."
Michael Vaughan commented:
“I am delighted to join so many legendary ex-players – many of whom I looked up to as heroes – on a committee whose sole focus is the good of the game. I’m looking forward to discussing issues affecting cricket and generating positive and constructive ideas to ensure it keeps improving.”
MCC’s relationship with the ICC was further enhanced at the end of last week, after it was announced that MCC World Cricket committee member, David Richardson, has been nominated to succeed Haroon Lorgat as ICC Chief Executive Officer.  Richardson, the former South African Test wicket-keeper, has served on the MCC World Cricket committee since 2009.
The MCC World Cricket committee will next meet at Lord’s on Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th August.

Cricket

Early cricket was at some time or another described as "a club striking a ball (like) the ancient games of club-ball, stool-ball, trap-ball, stob-ball". Cricket can definitely be traced back to Tudor times in early 16th-century England. Written evidence exists of a game known as creag being played by Prince Edward, the son of Edward I (Longshanks), at Newenden, Kent in 1301 and there has been speculation, but no evidence, that this was a form of cricket. Cricket News