Cricket controversy continues

When will the controversies surrounding cricket, and in particular the England team, end? It appears the cricketing world is making a herculean effort to keep football off the back pages by entering into one situation after another.

Last week saw the first one day match between the West Indies and England end in farce when John Dyson, the Windies coach, miscalculated the Duckworth Lewis system and saw his team lose a game they should surely have won. This whole scenario raised various questions.

Firstly, why did the teams think it was ok to leave a match with only 22 balls remaining in what was an exciting finish. Many supporters have paid vast amounts of money to watch the game and still they were denied a tense conclusion once the umpires offered the batsmen the light.

This is particularly galling given the fiasco that was the second Test when the game was abandoned due to a dangerous outfield. Cricket must learn that as long as the situation is not endangering the players, which was not in this instance, then they should play to the end.

Secondly, why when the West Indies Board have spent so much on the stadium in Guyana which included expensive floodlights, did they not use them? Is was obvious once the rain delay occurred that they would be pushed for time with bad light looming but still they could not get together and agree to put them on even though they were not scheduled to be used. I appreciate playing conditions should be fair to both sides but the wider image of the game must also be considered in these situations.

Lastly, what was Dyson thinking of when he miscalculated the score not taking into account the last wicket that had fallen that meant instead of being one run ahead of the rate they were behind. All teams receive the system at the start of the final innings by each over but towards the end the authorities provide a sheet which gives ball by ball analysis.

However, on this occasion the wickets column was not completed so it was left to the teams to do this. However, it is thought that Dyson started his column with one wicket when he should have started with zero thus ending up with the wrong predictions.

This lack of professionalism sums up the West Indies team and over the next few days the unrest over match fees both domestically and internationally will come to a head in the Caribbean as captain Chris Gayle had refused to rule out the team coming out in support of the league players. If they do then sponsors will run for cover and the green shoots that have appeared on the field recently will start to fade if these matters cannot be settled promptly.

All of this, of course, meant England could grasp their first win of the tour following the loss of the Test Series and the humbling in the Twenty20 game.

Normal service, however, was resumed on Sunday when they lost reasonably comfortably to the West Indies in the second one-dayer. They now go into Friday's game in Barbados trying to regain some initiative. If they lose the final games and only have one lucky win for all their troubles on this tour then it will go down as one of the poorest overseas tour in history. This is not a great West Indies side and England have found the cricket tough in all its forms - it really is a bit depressing.

Strauss may well have taken over a divided camp and his personal run scoring has been good, albeit too slowly for the shorter versions, but they will go into the summer with no confidence whatever words come out of 'Team England'.

Meanwhile, in a wider context cricket in the form of the IPL could be coming to England following the decision not to stage it in India due to security questions as the Indian government could not guarantee it at a time of the national elections. If not in England then South Africa could be an option but fitting it into already crowded schedules is the main dilemma.

Whilst I am sure England would do a great job and the crowds will be good one of the main attractions of the League was the fervent nature of the Indian fans. Without this it will not be the same but with the amount of money involved all parties will be doing as much as possible to ensure this goes ahead.

Cricket at times can be very dull and at times more enthralling than any other sport but at the moment there is nothing dull regarding what is happening off the field and it appears that there is no sign of it abating.

As long as it does no long-term damage to the sport then it makes a welcome change from the continuous football rumours and stories.