Associate Tournaments (I-Cup and WCL Championship 2015-2016/7)

[Aislabie]

They've done it again! Oman have convincingly downed Afghanistan by a whopping 40 runs. Clearly the Dutch game was no fluke - they must now be looked at as a serious contender to make it to India for the World Twenty20.

Elsewhere, PNG have also downed Ireland. This Irish side is really starting to show some cracks - it's time to invest in youth now, not in a few months. All the same, a big achievement for PNG who have become the first team to post wins in their first ODI, first first-class match and their first T20I.

 

[Aislabie]

Cricinfo is useless in things like this

Went up to the ground to see Canada-UAE; cricinfo on my phone was telling me that it was the change of innings so I thought I'd have a nice couple of hours. Arrive; get sat down to see Shakoor hit the winning runs through the covers. I was there for literally a minute!

Also, much as I hate to say it, the ICC website is probably the best place to follow the live scores for this tournament.

 

[Markkkkk]

I kind of wish that cricket went down a football root so there wasnt a max number of overseas and you could only play for 1 club etc. would be great for some of these players to shine and make their way to the big leagues..

 

[PokerAce]

^ Football still has some player restrictions if I am not mistaken. Like EPL, must have 4 home grown players and 8 players trained in the nation in a squad of 25.

Or in Spain I think there are still not more than 3 Non-EU players rule in the XI.

The larger point is well taken though. If players stuck to one club, then players from the associates would get a chance to play in some of the leagues. So far I think I know of only Ten Doeschate to play in the IPL. I don't know if any of the others play in another league.

I would actually like IPL, to make it mandatory for the sides to play one players from an associate nation. Well it would be nice if it happened, but I guess its not the most practical of suggestions. Imagine if EPL made it mandatory for teams to field a player from the weaker football nations.

Still if more Associate nations found their way into the T20 leagues, especially IPL that would be great for their development, not to mention the money would be a big help.

 

[Markkkkk]

^ Football still has some player restrictions if I am not mistaken. Like EPL, must have 4 home grown players and 8 players trained in the nation in a squad of 25.

Or in Spain I think there are still not more than 3 Non-EU players rule in the XI.

The larger point is well taken though. If players stuck to one club, then players from the associates would get a chance to play in some of the leagues. So far I think I know of only Ten Doeschate to play in the IPL. I don't know if any of the others play in another league.

I would actually like IPL, to make it mandatory for the sides to play one players from an associate nation. Well it would be nice if it happened, but I guess its not the most practical of suggestions. Imagine if EPL made it mandatory for teams to field a player from the weaker football nations.

Still if more Associate nations found their way into the T20 leagues, especially IPL that would be great for their development, not to mention the money would be a big help.

Yea I intended the home grown rules aswell. Not only would give assosciates a chance but it would cricket more enjoyable as especially in South Africa you could see world class players instead of pushed through quotas. The only problem is the majority of cricket money is from India so the Indian League would have the top players all over the world.

Instead of including players to play in the IPL they could just have it so an associate game had to be included in a tour so if you tour to India you have to play UAE and if you go to England then it would be Scotland, Ireland etc.

 

[PokerAce]

Instead of including players to play in the IPL they could just have it so an associate game had to be included in a tour so if you tour to India you have to play UAE and if you go to England then it would be Scotland, Ireland etc.

I have always been in favor of scrapping the bi-lateral series that follow or precede a test tour. Instead the ODI thing should always be a tri-series or a quad-series, featuring the associates from around the region along with the test sides.

For example the NZ-Eng series earlier in the year could have featured Ireland or Scotland or both and instead have been a multi-nation series.

Last year Pak Aus played a bilateral series in UAE, why not have UAE or Oman as the third side? Or Ind Zim series right now could have also had Kenya. (I know Kenya are away playing the T20 Qualifiers, but scheduling conflicts apart, this should be the norm). Last year India SL played a bilateral series, why not include Aghanistan as the third side?

I think if the associates get regular games vs the top ODIs sides, they would improve in leaps and bounds.

 

[Markkkkk]

I have always been in favor of scrapping the bi-lateral series that follow or precede a test tour. Instead the ODI thing should always be a tri-series or a quad-series, featuring the associates from around the region along with the test sides.

For example the NZ-Eng series earlier in the year could have featured Ireland or Scotland or both and instead have been a multi-nation series.

Last year Pak Aus played a bilateral series in UAE, why not have UAE or Oman as the third side? Or Ind Zim series right now could have also had Kenya. (I know Kenya are away playing the T20 Qualifiers, but scheduling conflicts apart, this should be the norm). Last year India SL played a bilateral series, why not include Aghanistan as the third side?

I think if the associates get regular games vs the top ODIs sides, they would improve in leaps and bounds.

Yea thats probably a better solution, and you could even have the odd test for an associate team every now and then to see how they would play (counted as FC game though)

 

[Aislabie]

Long gone are the days when Associate cricket was just about gentle medium-pacers. Each of the four Group B sides televised so far has at least one bowler that has either hit or got very close to 90 mph:

Hamid Hassan, Dawlat Zadran, Shapoor Zadran
Timm van der Gugten
Alasdair Evans
Mohammad Naveed

And any criticisms of drawing in "passport players" is unfounded, too - Timm van der Gugten is the only one of those not born in the country they are representing. In the other group, there is definitely less raw pace on offer - Ireland don't really have anyone like that since England poached Rankin, and nor I think do PNG or Hong Kong. Mukhiya and Kami have some pace for Nepal, as does Karan Khatra Chhetri, but not quite 90 mph stuff.

All the same, these first few days of games have been a great advert for non-Test cricket.

Following on from this post, now that the Group A games are being televised, we're getting a better idea of the pace in this group - both Young and Kami have hit mid-eighties today; Stuart Thompson just hit 87 mph apparently, but it was a bit of an outlier.

 

[Aislabie]

Aaaaand Ireland have croaked again. I say croaked and not choked because at no point in their chase did they even threaten to win.

Fantastic result for Hong Kong, pretty much consigning both Nepal and UAE of the major teams to an early flight home. Whilst I would love to see Oman, PNG and Namibia qualify for the next WT20, I'm now genuinely worried that Ireland will not progress through this qualifier. A quick look at the Group B table shows that there are five teams who are all playing excellent cricket, and on current form I wouldn't back Ireland to beat any of them.

---

Revised Prediction

| Group A | Group B
1st:||
2nd:||
3rd:||
4th:||
5th:||
6th:||
7th:||

Quarter-finals
lose to
beat

Qualifying playoffs
lose to
lose to

Semi-finals
beat
beat

Final
beat

---

As you can see, at the minute I would still back Ireland to qualify, but one more loss than I'm predicting could spell doom for them.

 

[IceAgeComing]

Honestly the way that Oman started this tournament I wouldn't bet against them even against Ireland

 

[abhi_jacko]

Very disappointed for Nepal. And jeez Canada, wth !

 

[Aravind.]

Hong Kong bowling was incredible against Irish.

 

[Aislabie]

Honestly the way that Oman started this tournament I wouldn't bet against them even against Ireland

True - anyone could beat anyone this time, and Ireland are hardly a compelling force

 

[PokerAce]

About to watch USA vs PNG, would be the first ever USA game that I would have seen. Not expecting miracles, but would at least like a side with US players and not a team made up of largely expats or passport players.

 

[PokerAce]

Okay the US side did put up a great fight. However sadly that was nowhere near a 'proper' US side. US needs more indigenous players and less Expats and passport players. Right now it seemed like there were 8 expats in the side. Though the one proper US player they did have Nicholas Stanford was outstanding in scoring 40 off 17.