You're going to have to work hard to convince me that there isn't at least an element of dodginess in the CPL. There's no other reason to bat players like Pollard and Russell so far down the order that they're unable to influence the match with anything other than a one-in-150 kind of innings
If there's no dodginess, then I'd love to know the reasoning for batting Pollard below Akeal Hosein today
You must remember that we once had a coach who shall remain unnamed, who called our team inside without knowing what the DLS actually means with respect to par scores and being ahead of the par instead of being at par. *coughcoughjohndysoncoughcough*...apologies for the coughing fit, I really should quit smoking.
I don't think that it's a match-arranging thing, as
@Aislabie is not-so-subtly referring to. It's not that easy. For example, the Jamaica team needed 38 to win from the final over today. Impossible without no balls. Pollard bowled the final over. Did he bowl a couple balls so that Russel could get to 50? Probably. But I don't think that was determined before the match.
There was a huge issue when Pollard was either with Barbados or St. Lucia, can't recall which. There was an opposition batsman one hit away from a century. Problem was, there was only one run to win. Pollard was bowling and delivered a no ball. Deliberately. There was no doubt that it was deliberate, and he got a huge amount of s**t for it, and rightly so, because that is just not right. The guy was batting out of his skin at the time, and it sucked as an ending to a match.
You have to remember that a guy like Pollard wants his ego stroked more often than not. I'm not saying that I can do what he does. I'm not saying that it's right. I'm just saying that it happens.
Also...WTF with Tridents today? I would have said deja vu with the 92 they scored today which they could not even get over the weekend...same score.
This young guy Sinclair, he's raw. Good, but raw. Needs the more experienced people talking to him, but from looking at him you can see that he's willing to learn. He's one for the future.
God, look at Keemo Paul already with his elbow wrapped in the support tape. Bravo I understand, but Paul is so young. Already? No, something has to be wrong with his bowling action that he's not naturally doing it. He's pushing his own body too much. Get a more relaxed and more comfortable action. Even if it means losing a couple of inches of pace.
Fidel Edwards still has it at 38 to go 90mph. Wow. And accurate. Remember, this was a guy who got his Test debut only because he bowled to Lara in the nets. Only like 3 or 4 First Class matches to that point, but to impress Lara when the latter was arguably at his best, yeah, he got selected just on Lara's word.
I still can't say I've seen good cricket from the CPL yet. The 140ish matches have given the best contests. The pitches are good. The teams are...well, they are what they are. Someone above said it was boring. I don't think it's boring. I just don't think it's quality cricket yet. But it is improving.
