Double standards from Crowe

Martin Crowe has given the latest annual Cowdrey lecture at Lord’s. As well as the usual ill-informed critque of the throwing laws, he has also complained about Zimbabwe and Bangladesh still being included as test playing nations.

Zimbabwe I almost agree with him on, but his case for Bangladesh rests on the fact that they have registered just one win in 44 tests. Guess how many tests New Zealand played before their first win. That’s right, it’s 44. Their first win came against the West Indies in their 45th test match.

Idiot.

ICC announce hosts for World Cups and more

The ICC have announced hosts for a whole range of events going up to the 2019 World Cup, to be held in England (probably in Wales, Scotland and Ireland too).

The 2011 World Cup has gone to Asia, with the 2015 event being jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The 2009 ICC Trophy will be played in the UAE, and the 2013 event in Scotland. The Netherlands also get a look in, and will host the 2010 World Cricket League Division One tournament.

Surprisingly, the ICC have decided to move the Under 19 World Cup to the associate countries. Malaysia will host the 2008 event, followed by Kenya in 2010, Canada in 2012, and the UAE in 2014.

I was quite surprised by this, as I thought the Twenty20 tournaments would have more of a chance of going to associate countries. Whatever your opinion of Twenty20, one can’t deny that it is probably the most marketable form of the game, and holding it in a country where cricket is not popular could do wonders for the sports popularity in that country. Instead, the first two tournaments will go to South Africa in 2007, and England in 2009, which I suppose is fair enough with those countries being early adopters of the format.