So the World Cup has reached a weird lull. No games on Thursday or Friday of the UK bank holiday. Wickman is only missing it because he's had some work to do and wanted to force the dustbins from the kitchen so he could concentrate - cricket on the box works without fail.
Frankly it's now becoming so obvious who the final four will be that they'd do well to get on with it rather than put a break in at this point. Wickman's fancying of India has obviously backfired. Who would have thought they'd get turned over by the Banglas - who've subsequently gone on to play like minnows? The Pakistanis going out was just as unpredictable. Frankly, well done to Ireland but short of that chap Rankin who's looked fairly useful with the cherry... erm... snowball, they've looked "plucky" ever since that win. And having those two in the super 8s has devalued this phase of the competition. And if Wickman has to see that chicken dance thing again...
Obviously it wasn't planned. We're supposed to be watching a feast of the test playing nations smashing 7 bells out of each other. But with the Irish and Banglas in the mix there are 1o games that we couldn't give a thruppeny bit about (them versus everyone else apart from England) and then one - Ireland vs Bangladesh - which will be the Super 8 wooden spooooooooooon playoff. Shan't be staying up to watch the highlights of that one.
So to the rest of it. No plaudits for Wickman saying that the QF qualifiers looked certain to be Aus, Jaapies, India and WI. No challenge for the title of Mr Cricket there... England would now need to win six on the trot to pick up the trophy. Assuming that we would beat Bangladesh when we come up against them and that the Windies have given up we'd have to beat Australia twice, South Africa to condemn them to miss out and maybe Sri Lanka again. Wickman last saw a task this hopeless when he turned over his chemistry O level paper.
Wickman hopes that England at least turn out one decent performance before they come home. The bowling and fielding effort against Sri Lanka was spectacular. You couldn't have asked for more or a better effort at restricting an exciting batting line up to a reasonable score. And then the batting was tragic. The openers threw it away again, the "batsmen" couldn't see the task through and were shown up by a man who sledges by apologising for the fact he's playing and a 21 year old whose inclusion in the party had cricket writers hurriedly trying to disentangle their eyebrows from their hairlines - well, apart from Nasser of course - who is a prime candidate for the same mob who fixed up Goochie's barnet. Wasn't he Nasser's mentor at some point? Get on with with it Goochie. Put us viewers out of our televisual misery.
Oh well, at least Wickman is not Brian Charles Lara - arguably the most amazing bat Wickman has had the pleasure to watch but currently soaking up a sackful of abuse, hate mail and opprobrium for failing to whip the rabble of a team into QF qualifying shape... those same critics should be worshipping at his table. Without BCL the Windies would have been dead, cremated and scattered years ago. Unlike our friend Frank Henry Bean...
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