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Cricket

March Madness v/s Cricket World Cup

By: Santosh :+: Under: Cricket, Culture, March Madness, Media Watch, NCAA Basketball, Opinion, Sports, World Cup 2007
On: ⋅ March 26, 2007 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment
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Tim Dahlberg, an AP Sports Columnist expresses how in his own myopic world, the NCAA March Madness is superior to the Cricket World. To prove his point he chooses to focus on the two of the current black eyes for World Cricket – the murder of Bob Woolmer and crazy Indian fans burning effigies of their players and coaches. Mr. Dahlberg may want to look in his backyard - problems and scandals in college and pro sports in America before laughing at others’ problems.

On the murder of Bob Woolmer.

If that seems far-fetched to those following their favorite basketball teams, you have to understand cricket is taken so seriously in Pakistan that members of the Pakistan Cricket Board report directly to the country’s president. They turned in their resignations following the loss, and the team captain announced his retirement.

Perhaps Mr. Dahlberg needs to look the history of NCAA Basketball and NCAA Football before ripping on Cricket for a mysterious death of a figure related to the sport. The names of Baylor University basketball player, Patrick Dennehy, and University of Alabama booster, Logan Young, come to mind. The death of Dennehy exposed a host of shady dealings at Baylor which ultimately resulted in a series of firings. The death of Logan Young under “mysterious circumstances” was so grisly that the police even refused to release the details.

As for the fan behavior.

Things weren’t much better in neighboring India, where fans were so pained by the country’s loss to Bangladesh that they descended on the home of keeper Mahender Singh Dhoni and began smashing it up. Dhoni was burned in effigy, and people in other parts of the country held rallies to burn posters of their country’s star players.
And you thought Kentucky fans were tough on Tubby Smith.

This is not defending those crazy Cricket fans in any manner but college sports in America has its own share of crazy fans who deal in effigies and burn couches.

All these problems and we’re still talking about college kids. We’ve not even started to deal with their professional counterparts - National Football League players allegedly involved in random shootings, drug use and gun running, the Major League Baseball (sorry cousin of Cricket) steroid scandal which is under investigation by Congress, no less and every major players seems to be a steroid junkie.

Our point is that it is incorrect, to concentrate on happenings outside the field to compare the two sports. Each sports has its share of scandals and crazy fans and it is incorrect to compare these off the field happenings to judge the value of the sport.

Instead lets analyze the two sports with current incidents that took place on the field.

We started with blogging about March Madness but stopped because this year’s version has nothing in particular to write home about. No Cinderella teams, no major upsets – unless you consider a #2 seed beating a #1 seed as an upset, no real buzzer beating game clinchers, no great individual performances to write home about. The Men’s Final Four is set and any of those could’ve been termed as favorites to clinch the tournament at the start. There are no real underdogs to root for.

Compare that with the Cricket World Cup, minnows Bangladesh and Ireland made it to the top 8 by destroying giants India and Pakistan respectively. There have been nail biting finishes and great individual performances.

Yes Sir. The real March Madness is in the Cricket World Cup on the field simply because the quality of games, individual performances and side stories (I mean, cmon, Ireland beating Pakistan on St. Patrick’s Day), are way better as compared to the College Basketball championships. And we’ve not even reached the Final Four yet.

Mr. Dahlberg admits to a profound lack of knowledge in the game of cricket.

Now I don’t pretend to understand cricket, a complicated game where even figuring out the score is difficult. Can anyone explain what it means when New Zealand defeats Kenya 331-7, 183 all out, by 148 runs as the Kiwis did on Tuesday?
A British associate of mine tried to teach me one night in a Scottish farmhouse where we watched a televised match, but the next morning I couldn’t remember a thing. I do know it has something to do with wickets and bats and innings, and that in some matches they break for lunch and tea.

If you are so obtuse that you cannot grasp a simple game perhaps you should refrain from commenting on its intricacies.

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