CWC pains and memories

It looked at one point as if the International Rugby Board (IRB) was going down the same murky road as the ICC in how not to run a World Cup, after rugby's governing body wrangle with the media over use of match images on websites.

Nevertheless the Rugby World Cup was a sensational tournament and only serves as a reminder to the painstaking weeks it took to complete cricket's version.

Another reminder is still firmly simmering after the Nutley's continuing saga over claiming back its media deposit from CWC finance department. I'm sure the big organisations have received their $250 deposits back (could be a story in itself), but for a freelancer this is one of the scenarios of the job and another cog in reminding myself of the worst sporting event of all time.

Headline catch

Researching a piece on Malcolm Speed and the ICC, I came across the following headline from September of last year:
Malcolm Speed On 3rd Blind Cricket World Cup
Of course, the 'Blind' in this case follows on from the '99 and '03 editions, to the 2007 edition from an ICC perspective. Doesn't it, Malcolm. Malcolm?

End of the road

The only shining light facing Malcolm Speed at his press conference today was the glitter still remaining on the outfield from the closing ceremony last night.

It was always going to be a testing examination for Speed and the three-over debate from the World Cup Final farce only added to the questions fielded to the ICC's chief executive and Dave Richardson, the governing body's general manager.

And with the media set to dig into the ICC's handling of the tournament, Speed nearly faced the ultimate irony from his own logo. The ICC background banner lost its balance and only thanks to its media manager was Speed saved from being completely engulfed.

As to the Final, there really was no explanation as to why five experienced officials let the game descend into darkness when the required overs for a result had already been completed. Richardson looked understandably miffed.

To be fair to Speed he did answer all the questions on the Final and the tournament as a whole in a detailed manner. What is in doubt, however, is whether the ICC will fully understand the missing link between fan and money-obsessed governing body.

When questioned on the longevity, Speed cleverly pointed to the 2011 tournament in Asia (spread across four countries) and how there is a need to keep logistics in hand. He went on to say that the tournament could be cut to 38 days at a minimum which is still too long for a tournament in my view. And with Speed also knocking back suggestions of cutting the number of teams, the next World Cup already looks a sure-fire sponsored bore.

Black tape and bottle tops

I finished some work at an empty Beausejour Cricket Ground yesterday and discovered an initiative which must have riled a few people.

The previous day I was in the broadcast loos when I noticed a strip of black tape hiding the manufacturer of the urinal. It was black tape here, black tape there from then on. Strips of the stuff were hiding the name of the soap dispenser, the taps and then the hand-dryer. This wasn't the island's way of remembering the tragic loss of Bob Woolmer either. These were exceptional depths to keep the ICC's major sponsors as the only company names you should install in your brain on match days. (note: photos to come on this one). And yesterday I discovered that Rushmans, the accreditation events company, had to put hundreds of strips over fax machines, phones, pcs and flatscreens in the media centre, while the local organising committee had to do the same within the ground.

On another note, the Nutley and friends were highly bemused by the following tannoy announcement during the England-Kenya game. The crowd had obviously not learnt from previous games as he announced (with barely two hours to go in the last group game) that plastic bottles should not "in any way" have their caps on. "You are in breach of ticket conditions if you continue to do so," he continued. "Patrons are advised against this and will be removed from the ground..."

So perhaps it is ironic that the range of ICC World Cup sunhats include a camouflage one (as modelled by fan in the picture). What's the phrase again? Ambush marketing?

*Read Patrick Kidd's comment piece on the subject

Mind over matter

When Leicestershire skipper Jeremy Snape wrote a piece for Wisden on why Steve Harmison bowled that delivery in Brisbane, I thought he was pretty much on the money (a comparison not to be made with GBH's wide).

What I didn't know was that Snape, a former Gloucestershire player of some repute, has a sports Masters in psychology and has just been asked by the ICC to help out some of the minnow countries currently playing in Kenya.

Good luck to him. As part of a winning Gloucestershire side when they seemed to win everything before them, he should know what he's talking about.

I lived close to him when I was a student at Bristol and used to see this baldy man come out of his house, get into his nice sponsored car and whizz off to the County Ground. County pros and students were one of a kind I used to think - lots of hanging around during the day.

Trophy tales; prison humour

Australia duly won their first ICC Champions Trophy in five attempts, but there was a small price to pay after they had trounced the West Indies.

Clearly agitated at the longevity of the trophy presentation, Australian players reportedly pushed Indian cricket chief Sharad Pawar off the presentation stage so they could pose with the trophy and get out of the ground. (If it had really got out of hand, Ricky Ponting could have ended up like the photo above.)

Not to be outdone, the Indian media went to town on the incident and it also prompted a quote from chief cricket selector Dilip Vengsarkar, who said: "You expect such behaviour from uneducated people. If they wanted to pose for photographs, they could have politely requested him.

Still on the ICC Trophy, click here for a highly entertaining Graeme Smith diary according to iafrica's Dan Nicholl. The entry for 19 October is the highlight:

"Ahmedabad is not my favourite place on earth, and we're here for a week. There's nothing to do, the food is awful, and Charl reckons that the hotel reminds him of when he was a prison warder. Everyone laughed at breakfast when he said that, except for Herschelle, who went very pale, and got up and left
without saying a word. He's been a bit quiet since he saw the police. Hope he's okay."