Ricky Ponting may not want to play the West Indian Board’s XI* in test matches, but they are a perfect fit for this Champion’s Trophy.
And not just because their wicketkeeper has an awesome first name (Chadwick).
Every major tournament needs an underdog that probably won’t win a game.
In recent times Bangladesh or some random minnow has filled the gap, sometimes winning the odd game, but mostly being bantha fodder with the odd plucky personal performance.
A few years ago even the USA was in the champion’s trophy.
But this new format (has any tournament changed its name or format as much?) has kicked out all the shit sides and just set it self up with the best 8 sides.
That was before the West Indian players stood up to the worst cricket board of a test-playing nation (quite an honour in itself) and this current side of club cricketers, international strugglers and random prize winners were picked to represent the West Indian cricket board.
Bangladesh has just beaten this team, but that was not enough to get them into this tournament.
The ICC could have stepped in, surely there is a rule that states that teams must pick their best team for each ICC tournament, but they ignored this whole mess.
So the Champion’s Trophy now has a legitimate minnow, one not good enough to beat Bangaldesh, and we have our underdog stories.
Today little Nikita Miller made a ODI fifty at better than a run a ball and hit Afridi over mid off for 6.
Tino Best swung the bat like Andrew Flintoff was pulling his strings.
Chadwick Antonio Kirkpatrick Walton (sigh) has now made golden ducks on debut in One Dayers and Tests. If he doesn’t get to play a 2020 match I will be pissed off.
Gavin Tonge, who sounds like he should be an all black, plays second division cricket in Hampshire. Today he took 4 for 25 in 10 overs with 3 maidens against Pakistan.
These guys might not be burger king workers or egg farmers, but it is nice that we can still admire nobodies in what is a trophy for champions.
With a little luck today this team could have beaten Pakistan, and yes they fell 5 wickets short, but that didn’t stop people saying, “not even Pakistan could lose against this team, could they”.
Imagine a tournament where Pakistan couldn’t almost lose to a bunch of scrappy nobodies.
It doesn’t bear thinking about, does it
*I used to call them a scabs XI, and they are. But I figured if you are going to scab to play for your country that is not the worst thing ever and I will stop using the phrase. Except in twitter where there is a character limit. It should be known that the phrase scab is 100 times better than what I think of the average West Indian cricket board member.
Chadwick’s an interesting name all right.
But surely an international cricketer named after an Elton John song about a Russian princess deserves a special award.
When you have a captain named Reifer who averages less with the bat than Glenn McGrath the you know you are seriously in trouble.
Although Reifer is a cool name, although not as cool as Chadwick. However, if selelctors are going to pick teams on cool names only, where is Napolean Einstein?
Edit:
Just read the lyrics and it’s about a Russian mail-order bride.
Even better.
Le femme Nikita was around before the strike though. He isn’t the worst bowler.
Nikita is right up there with my favourite names for a cat, when I finally get one. Other favourites are roelof and tanvir.
If I had a cat I’d call him Clive.
I might name next cat Jrod….
@Whit
Lol… a puss named JRod… hehehehe
I guess the scabs weren’t so bad after all…
And how about the 19 year old who pulled Pakistan’s nuts from the fire? Very entertaining start to the Champion’s Trophy. Would love to see the Windies win one!
The only thing I don’t understand about the Windies contract dispute is why any West Indiand thinks anybody who has played for that shithouse side in the last fifteen years should be paid at all.
Its an easy solution. Amateurs only. If you love the game and want to play, you’re up, son. More or less what they’ve done really. Go Windies.
Hey looks like your mission of mixing cricket, sex etc has worked – Gary Kirsten has brought into mainstream cricket. Wait, does it mean you must retire now?
Wi just make everything better, even when they are shitehouse, they are still interesting. Unlike Bangladesh who are just plain shithouse.
I’ve got a dog called Brian.
Looks a bit like Brian Close I suppose, but the inspiration was ‘Family Guy’.
What if they beat Australia? Or at least methodically, yet without having a clue what they are doing, destroy Mitchell Johnson’s one day confidence and turn him into the bloke with the spray gun arm?
Let’s face it. It can happen.