England yet again, for the umpteenth time, suffered a humiliating defeat against a minnow Sri Lanka in a recently concluded test series which according to cricket great pundits has been the most boring 2 match cricket series ever. Not only the cricket played was boring but also the teams involved.
It was a pathetic demonstration of how to play cricket (test match) as none of the 5 days in either of tests saw a team completing their full quota of mandatory 90 overs. The overrate was abysmal 75 overs a day. And if you think that was not enough, the empty stands at lords and Headingly cricket grounds at London, frequent drinks break, boring commentary, made it worse. In fact there were many occasions when the game of Cricket - so called Gentlemen's game was bought to disrepute by both Sri Lanka and England. The words spoken by the players, in frequent dog fights, were not something a family men would like to hear when sitting with children and elders in his drawing room.
The result showed Sri Lanka won 1-0, but do you know it was not cricket that decided the result, it was a machine o may I say a human made system run by machine called Decision Review System (DRS) that decided the winner. In first test the controversial and inaccurate system benefited Sri Lanka by giving not out to a batsmen and in second test it hurt England when the DRS favored Sri Lanka more than once. True cricket lovers still can't understand what benefits ECB (English Cricket Board) reaps by using such a flawed system. Thankfully, by the grace of GOD, it was a mere 2 match series since many cricket lovers would have fallen sick if it was a 3 or 5 test match series.
England was brutally exposed again, against a short ball, which was not quite delivered at 150 kph this time as in Australia (aka Mitchell Johnson) but by 125 kph slow slow medium Dhammika Prasad. Quite clearly the England batsmen were shivering, as was evident from shaking legs of Alastair Cook (captain of England), Ian Bell, and Moeen Ali (the new comer). Moeen gave so many chances (which Sri Lanka failed to grab) that it is very difficult to rate that innings as an International Level cricket innings. It was full of faulty strokes, third class footwork, and no temperament.
Among the two boring sides it is always difficult to conclude who played the most boring cricket but after little analysis, it is quite clear that England cricket team lead by cook takes the cake. Even Shane Warne would agree on this, no doubt.
It was funny how hard Nasser Hussain was trying to cover up the boring show of England. He said, in his cracked voice on sky cricket commentary - "England plays modern cricket, while Sri Lanka plays old fashioned cricket".
Among all the cricket captains in the world right now Alastair Cook is not only tactically the weakest but also the most boring captain to see in playing field leading his side.
It was a pathetic demonstration of how to play cricket (test match) as none of the 5 days in either of tests saw a team completing their full quota of mandatory 90 overs. The overrate was abysmal 75 overs a day. And if you think that was not enough, the empty stands at lords and Headingly cricket grounds at London, frequent drinks break, boring commentary, made it worse. In fact there were many occasions when the game of Cricket - so called Gentlemen's game was bought to disrepute by both Sri Lanka and England. The words spoken by the players, in frequent dog fights, were not something a family men would like to hear when sitting with children and elders in his drawing room.
The result showed Sri Lanka won 1-0, but do you know it was not cricket that decided the result, it was a machine o may I say a human made system run by machine called Decision Review System (DRS) that decided the winner. In first test the controversial and inaccurate system benefited Sri Lanka by giving not out to a batsmen and in second test it hurt England when the DRS favored Sri Lanka more than once. True cricket lovers still can't understand what benefits ECB (English Cricket Board) reaps by using such a flawed system. Thankfully, by the grace of GOD, it was a mere 2 match series since many cricket lovers would have fallen sick if it was a 3 or 5 test match series.
England was brutally exposed again, against a short ball, which was not quite delivered at 150 kph this time as in Australia (aka Mitchell Johnson) but by 125 kph slow slow medium Dhammika Prasad. Quite clearly the England batsmen were shivering, as was evident from shaking legs of Alastair Cook (captain of England), Ian Bell, and Moeen Ali (the new comer). Moeen gave so many chances (which Sri Lanka failed to grab) that it is very difficult to rate that innings as an International Level cricket innings. It was full of faulty strokes, third class footwork, and no temperament.
Among the two boring sides it is always difficult to conclude who played the most boring cricket but after little analysis, it is quite clear that England cricket team lead by cook takes the cake. Even Shane Warne would agree on this, no doubt.
It was funny how hard Nasser Hussain was trying to cover up the boring show of England. He said, in his cracked voice on sky cricket commentary - "England plays modern cricket, while Sri Lanka plays old fashioned cricket".
Among all the cricket captains in the world right now Alastair Cook is not only tactically the weakest but also the most boring captain to see in playing field leading his side.
