Offmessage

The final really didn’t let us down.  To the wire, between two old rivals (and two nations who really can change the shape of international cricket too).

Some say that Twenty20 is a flash in the pan, not real cricket.  Others say that it is the future of the game.  I, for one, have enjoyed the tournament way beyond my expectations.  I am a 5 day cricket lover above all other forms of the sport, but after the dreary fiasco of the World Cup this ICC World Twenty20 has been a real shot in the arm.

Friends who have repeatedly told me that cricket is boring have watched matches without my encouragement.  Friends who are cricket fans who were bored by the world cup have talked incessantly about the performance of teams they previously could not have cared about.

It has been an eye opener.  And it made my experiences of One Day Internationals over the last few years seem rather dull in comparison.  Fifty over cricket has a problem.

Simply put, between overs 20 and 40, with the fifth bowler at one end and the slow guy at the other the match is dead.  We go to the bar, we converse, we wait for the tempo to pick up again.  As Lawrence Booth says, unless teams start thinking that 180 off 20 should equate to 350 off 50 the fifty over game is in trouble.  And if Twenty20 is to replace it, I’m not sure I’m that worried.

Just please please please don’t bugger up 5 day cricket along the way.

A sporting competition ended up with the right result, it would be the word Twenty20 final being India Pakistan.  Here’s hoping it lives up to the billing.

Andre Nel calls his on pitch personality “Gunther”? Christ on a bike. Apparently he and Sreesanth don’t get on:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGJYwz5Ovlc]

(linky for those without embedding)

Today is the day of the minnow. Ireland knock Pakistan (one of my, and many other people’s, tips for the competition) out of the World Cup and Bangladesh score an emphatic victory over India. Like the Rugby World Cup in a few months it looks like being New Zealand vs Australia for the final. The Kiwis are sure to win the rugby – here’s hoping they take the cricket as well.

A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men.

It’s a potential humour goldmine, but for fear of offending I’ll let you come up with your own…

Times have to be hard if companies are choosing to even move their call centres abroad. Renowned as the worst/lowest paid/most degrading jobs in Britain there’s still an 80% saving to be made by moving your call centre to India. We’ve got 3 major call centres here in York. They replaced proper jobs like building trains and making chocolate. Are they to close as well? What’ll be left?