Cricket World Cup 2011 And Mediocre Cricket Experts

The cricket enthusiast these days savor many programs on cricket apart from full days of cricket. A day of cricket is often accompanied by post-match and pre-match shows wherein cricket experts throws light on various aspect of the match and the game. It was no different during cricket World Cup 2011. The official broadcasters of the Cricket World Cup organized the program with Harsha Bhogle and various cricket experts before and after the match, and between the innings. Media channels too had their expert analysis programs. These experts were often found wrong in their predictions and they often changed at various stages during a single day. Let us have a look at some of those instances.

Let us start with the most enthusiastic expert Navjot Singh Sidhu. Many times Sidhu went wrong with his prediction and pre-match analysis. Before India Vs England game, Sidhu predicted India to be winner. He said it is 80% India and 20% England. Most of the other cricket experts too predicted India to win easily. England almost chased down a mammoth target before they ended up with a draw. During innings break between India Vs Pakistan Semi-Final, Sidhu opinionated the match to be in favor of Pakistan so did Ian.

Let us now have a look what the other most opinionated cricket expert Ian Chappell has to offer. When asked about the possible topper of Group 'A,' Chappel said he would like to wait till Sri Lanka Vs Australia game to predict the possible topper for the Group 'A' implying that Sri Lanka or Australia will top the group. Instead it was Pakistan, which came on top of group and on their way defeated both Australia and Sri Lanka.

On slightly different note, let us talk about Imran Khan. There were reports that Imran Khan called Shahid Afridi and lended him with valuable expert advice. He has supposedly emphasized on the need for Yunis and Misbah to bat high in the order. Imran Khan, despite all his cricketing brilliance was wrong here. It was because of Yunis Khan and Misbah in the middle order together that Pakistan lost the match against India. Yunis Khan and Misbah are excellent batsmen, but they cannot rotate strike and score rapidly. In short format of the game, they cannot be together at the crease, especially when they are chasing big score. Misbah is an asset late in the order in short format of the game. He can play a waiting game as well as hit the ball to cleaners at will. Imran Khan did not seem to pick that simple fact. He could have instead advised Shahid Afridi to follow Yunis Khan and bat at #5 with Misbah at #7 following Umar at #6, it could have made a huge difference.

Boria Majumadar is a journalist cricket expert who seems to have his opinion. Boria counted on Indian batsmen and said that Dhoni had Sachin, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Gambhir and so on fall back upon and Pakistan has only Yunis Khan to fall back. I think he forgot or chose to forget Umar Akmal who is the most talented batsman in the World today and Misbah who played some match winning and match saving innings in the recent past. None of these Indian batsmen actually performed except Sehwag. Sachin scored as long as Pakistan allowed him to. It was India's bowling that won the match. Otherwise Sachin would have been the most embarrassed person on earth after playing that chancy innings had bowlers not won the day for India.

Sourav Ganguly is another highly-rated, mediocre cricket expert. Many times he went wrong in his predictions. On the eve of India Vs Pakistan cricket match he kept on emphasizing that Pakistan will need at least 280 runs on the board to beat India. What all India could manage is a chancy 260. In other words, India scored as much as Pakistan allowed them to. 

Sachin Tendulkar Could Not Score A Hundred After Four Drops And Getting Reprieve Off Two Close Calls

An innings of substance, not style reads the heading of an article on cricinfo referring to Sachin's innings against Pakistan in Semi-Final at Mohali. How long and how far someone would go to defend Sachin Tendulkar. Indian media always try to hide shortcomings of Sachin Tendulkar and hype the talent and achievements of Sachin Tendulkar. His inability to stand pressure is well known. There is no other cricketer in the history of the game that was as well supported and protected as Sachin Tendulkar, but still he fails when the occasion demands the best out of him. For what reasons is he called the 'God Of Cricket' when he cannot be at his best at the biggest of the occasions. After this nervous innings of Sachin Tendulkar against Pakistan in Semi-Final, I do not think anyone right in his head would call him 'God Of Cricket.'

If there is something that got India going against Pakistan, it was Sehwag's innings. Had Sehwag not scored at that pace, Sachin would not have survived. In fact, he was dropped four times and got two close reprieves. Had Sachin got out, someone would have taken charge of the innings, but with Sachin's presence at the crease and the way he was playing under pressure, it put a lot of pressure on the other youngsters around him.

If there is anything that won India the game, it was their bowling. Bowlers bowled perfect line and length. Indian bowlers showed great discipline and conceded negligible extras. That is where India won the game. But the jury decided to give the Man Of The Match to Sachin Tendulkar for crawling to 86 after getting record number of reprieves in one innings.

Luck Is In India's Favor

Congratulations to Team India for making it to the Cricket World Cup 2011, but luck has played a huge part in team India's progress to the Final of Cricket World Cup 2011. The Indian team was under immense pressure, but they were let off the hook by the opposition. Sachin never looked comfortable batting against Pakistan. Had Umar Gul not bowled on the pads of Sehwag and Sachin, Indian innings would not have taken off. Sachin again proved that he is the most susceptible batsman under pressure. India won the quarter-final on the back of yet another bad performance from Shaun Tait. Shaun Tait did not deserve to be in team. I still do not understand why he was selected in the Australian team. You could say Australia lost the quarter final against India because of Shaun Tait and greater blame lies with the selectors who picked him for the Australian team and the team management who included him in the Playing XI.

India was under more pressure than Pakistan going into the Semi-Finals. If Umar Gul had not bowled on legs and Sehwag had not got going, I wondered what Sachin could have done. Pakistan could not capitalize on the situation. The media hype took a toll on Umar Gul. He was afraid of committing mistakes as expectations were lurking around him, and eventually he did what he was apprehensive about during his innings. Wahab Riaz brought them back into the game with wickets of Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Dhoni, and Zaheer Khan. The match was in Pakistan's pocket and it was their own choice to lose or win the game from there onwards.

Yunis Khan was the main culprit. I guess, Mohammad Yusuf, instead of Yunis Khan would have done the trick. Pakistan board has done injustice to a player of the caliber of Mohammad Yusuf. When you do injustice to your own people, you cannot expect justice from the Almighty. Yunis Khan thinks himself to be a greater batsman than what he is and tries to go overboard. Yunis Khan's irresponsible shot together with a few loopholes in strategy cost Pakistan the game and eventually India won.