It is the start of CWC 2007 and despite all that has been said and things that have gone wrong there is a sense of pride that Barbados of all the venues to date has delivered big time! We have visited the stadium and it is a world class facility, the volunteers and security have been wonderful. BU hopes that it will be a great final.
From BU to the many thousands to our shores we say WELCOME!
UPDATE
Australia wins in what ends in a farce! BU is currently too embarrass to report on the final hour of the final : – ( but I found a fellow blogger who encapsulated BU’s feelings 100%!
Cricket World Cup 2007 Final
The final of World Cup cricket played was the worst example of the farcical duckworth lewis method. This stupid rule has ruined quite a few number of important world cup matches and now including the Final.
Cricket Management including the ICC council president and chief executive should resign over this amusing state of affairs. For so many years, cricket enthusiasts and followers have been complaining about DL method. … Can someone tell me when was the last time when the team batting second had won under DL method… perhaps never..
And why could the world cup final be not played over two days to give both teams a fair chance to win. I am not saying that Australia did not deserve to win .. kuddos to them for showing how quality side they are but I am sorry to say Sri Lanka were not given a fair chance to compete and hence this game was biased in favour of Australia from the time DL method was activated.
With clouds looming over and the required run rate jumping from 8 to 10 with a short rain drizzle made the picture clear of SriLankans… either slog everyting and lose… or not slog and lose… sorry but its true… there was no way on earth they could pull them out of this farcical statistical chase.
It is such a shame that the World Cup Final had to end in a way when the batsmen were playing in total darkness with no lights because… the stupid ICC would not allow the game to run over two days…
World cricket need new thinking and new managers. It is time the old thinking go and retire….. The way the whole world cup was played with half the matches involving cricket minnows made a mockery of the whole challenge which is supposed to bring the top cricketing nations against each other…. ( I am sorry but whatever brave show those nations like Ireland and Bermuda etc. put did not add to the quality of the game).
Shame on ICC and its management…
Source: hankypanky
Here is another blog I found which seems to be Australian in flavour : – )
Gilchrist blazes in Barbados gloom to win World Cup
The only thing worse than sacrificing a night’s sleep to watch Australia thrash a depleted Sri Lanka is to lose a night’s sleep watching rain interruptions. To add insult to injury, I was forced to listen to country music on ABC radio while waiting for play to commence. Apologies to any country music fans but it truly was excruciating. When the game finally began (at 2.15am Brisbane time!), the match had been reduced to 38 overs per innings.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
AFTERMATH – A shot in the dark? Clearly Wasted Cricket: CWC 2007, OITC!
Labels: cricket, crime, CWC 2007, ICC, law, money, murder, sports, travel, UK
Source: Bajan Reporter
I second those statements. I also went to the super 8 games and the service/attitudes of those persons I came into contact with were excellent, hats off to all the volunteers, you have done barbados proud. As for the stadium, again I have say well done ! to everyone
Looks like Barney Lynch got some of it right too. It would be great to get a head count of tourists on the island. Lots of tourists all over the place last night.
David do you really feel that one or two nights of bars doing well will ever makeup for the loss revenue that we sustained during the peak of our tourist season? Remember hotels have been hurting from early in the year as a result of the Cricket Logistics booking but not paying for hotels rooms basicially they blocked off a number of rooms hoping for a massive onslaught of arrivals which never happened for them and which left many hotels holding empty rooms.
With the execption of the big ups in society such as some of the top dogs of ICC that are renting houses from the top end market to the tune of $ 35,000.00 per month little has filtered down to the lower levels of society, sad really the reality of this grave mistake.
Wishing~you are right that they got that wrong but the substantial point is whether the legacy benefit of CWC can overcome the dip in our winter season. I expect that in the same way the BTA gave support to the BHTA post 911 that they may have to do the same here. Elections are acoming so look for some nifty moves from the doctor of spin himself and I dont mean Doc Duguid 🙂
The Legacy aspect is that the only real legacy we will have is the legacy of paying mega bills for the next 10 or 15 years to support this ego booster for Owing, what Legacy one of excessive spending and gross mismanagement ?? we have been conned about the legacy aspect of CWC there is as much chance of this stadium paying for itsself as sno cone has in hell.
The legacy is one of major debt and gross mismanagement of the peoples money.
If you are waiting on Lynch to make a sensible move after CWC you can wish again he would not know what to do to arrange a drink up in brewery that gives you some idea of his capabilities useless.
Unfortunately the grand final has been delayed and will most likely be a shortened game. From where I live on the island it will improve later.
What a bummer! : – (
Having attended the match yesterday it summarised the season of CWC this was a complete waste of time when after the amount of time and rain we had the authorities still would choose to go ahead with a abbrivated version of the game of this level was beyond me but that was merely the start of things to come this was going against the backdrop of many open seats in the southern side of the north stand and we were told it was a sellout crowd!!!!
Shortening the game would have had a real benefit to Australia who has more powerful batting thru to the tail and it would have allowed them to come out and go hard at the bowling with them knowing it would be very unlikely for them to bowled out in 38 overs the game ended before it began inreality.
Then the fiasco of the final overs there was no way that they could have completed the last 8 overs in good light anyway so they ought to have returned today to conclude the game as the light was way below the standard that was required to play at this level, then we was and heard the booing that Chris Dering and the ICC and the Aussies received at the award presentation it was a clear statement of disgust by the people of the Caribbean towards this CWC it has been a total disaster zone.
I notice also that the three culprits that set us up for the fall were visibily absent from proceedings this I found highly amusing for had it been successful they would have been upfront and in front of the camera smiling and telling how wonderful they performed this the second major function that they fooled the public with the other one being the World Cup of Golf I suppose the gang of Mottley, Lynch and Owing will avoid like the plague anything referred to as the World Cup of anything in future, yes they screwed up both in one year we have a lot to smile about don’t we Mottley, Lynch and Owing???
Then we had a closing ceremony performed in the dark, the Miami company that got paid the US $ 27,000.00 for this lighting should have their money withheld from payment, the impact was lost or did not do anything to create impact to proceedings, the firworks were ok but anticlimatic as was everything about CWC so it was fitting that there was no loud thundering and big bang to climax the fireworks presentation.
The cost of this finals ceremony is looking to be somewhere arounf the US $ 1.5 mill figure just more and more money going up in smoke.
The ICC has succeeded in dragging the level even lower. They have brought the World Cup to the most joyous and spontaneous part of the cricket world and squeezed every ounce of enjoyment out of it. Since they measure success in terms of cash, it has been bragged that the tournament has broken records in cash receipts, but in all other ways, it has been an abysmal failure.
Such has been the level of alienation among the passionate fans here that many locals have come to view the ICC’s organisation of the tournament as occupation of their land. Cricket lover after cricket lover has lamented the pricing and the fact that “they have taken the party, the culture out of our stands”.
It can be argued the tournament has been conducted in an efficient manner. The grounds have been spruced up, the players have been looked after well, and from a media point of view the facilities have been excellent. But they have failed to grasp the priorities. Perfection has been achieved in the most trivial things. Not a can of Coke has entered the stadiums, fans have been asked to turn their garments carrying offending logos inside out or face eviction, but they failed to feel the pulse of the cricket fan, a far more significant “stakeholder” in cricket than the sponsors.
Herschelle Gibbs’ six sixes in an over were a highlight for South Africa, but they couldn’t make it to the final © AFP
Percy Sonn and Malcolm Speed, the top-level ICC officials, were booed at the presentation ceremony. The contrast couldn’t have been sharper because the same crowd gave a thumping ovation to Garry Sobers and Everton Weekes moments later. When hosts are booed at their own party, you know how much it has soured. Administrators who feel no kinship for sport will never find affection from its supporters. Entirely fittingly, it was Sonn who presented the trophy to the winner, for it was his prerogative as the president of the ICC. Sobers is merely the greatest cricketer that ever lived.
n the end, it will be a tournament that will be remembered for the bad, ugly and terrible. A horrible death, under-performances, resignations, sacks, and retirements kept us busy. The legacy of this vast and meaningless World Cup will be despair and emptiness. It couldn’t have ended sooner.
To be honest I became embarrass yesterday as I watched the fiasco. We must be careful to point fingers in the right direction though. It seems to me whether we believe or not the old rules around cricket conspired to bring the final to its knees. After all Dar was only interpreting the rules. Perhaps the match referee got it wrong with the number of overs and the fact that Kensington had no lights.
The public got short changed yesterday the match should have been resheduled for today if at 12.00 o’clock we were having rain that should have been the cut off time I would have returned today to see a full match and not what took place.
Interesting and well written report by the bajan reporter : – ):
Sunday, April 29, 2007
AFTERMATH – A shot in the dark? Clearly Wasted Cricket: CWC 2007, OITC!
Labels: cricket, crime, CWC 2007, ICC, law, money, murder, sports, travel, UK
Even on the last day of this ICC fiasco, they had to mess it up! From the time rain delayed the final match yesterday, it should have been shunted to the next venue in Grenada, was that not why they had the last match on Saturday? To use Sunday as a just-in-case? The senior personnel who should have known better from the get-go acknowledged that a minimum requirement of 20 overs per side not only could have qualified the game, but was part of the rules for weird weather! What, too Allen Stanford-like?
These are the facts about visiting yachts, yesterday they were 19 in Carlisle bay and today they are 16 yachts a far cry from the ministers vision of 700.
WIV~Upcoming elections will be interesting in the context of the anticipated spin the BLP will have to spin. Interesting time ahead indeed!