Stop The World Cup
As many of you will know, I am a huge cricket fan. If I had more time on my hands, I would gladly play the sport all day every day, with only small breaks to watch it instead. The world cup is meant to be a great, six week showcase of some of the world's best cricketers and a rare opportunity for up-and-coming nations to experience the formidable drubbings from the likes of Australia and South Africa. It provides some great moments, with surprise wins, such as Ireland against Pakistan and Bangladesh against India. It provides rivetting finishes to games, as was seen between Zimbabwe and Ireland. We see great personal feats, such as Brendon McCullum's half-century off of just twenty balls - a world cup record. We've also seen Herschelle Gibbs score six sixes in one over, for the first time in a one day international. Finally, we've also seen India score a record 413-5 against Bermuda, the only score over 400 in any world cup match, but they, like Pakistan, face a long trip home, having lost to embarrassingly to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. By this quick look, it's a world cup to remember.
However, everything that has been great about the world cup so far has been completely overshadowed this week with the death and assumed murder of the British coach of Pakistan, Bob Woolmer. This week, there has been virtually no talk of the games of cricket that have been played. Sri Lanka and India played today, but you wouldn't know it. It was a very important game, but it's faded into the background. Suddenly, the suspicious death of Bob Woolmer has deflected all attention away from cricket - and quite rightly so.
The trouble is, no-one is ever going to remember the cricket from this world cup, which, given some of the great cricket, is a crying shame. This world cup will be synonymous with Bob Woolmer's death. The eventual winners will take their trophy, speak sombrely about how insignificant it is in the context of this week and remain stuck in a limbo, not knowing whether to celebrate winning or to just escape as soon as they possibly can. The cricket has become virtually irrelevant.
It's true - Bob Woolmer may have wished for the world cup to have continued, but is it really worth it? I don't think so. The sooner it has gone and the investigations are complete, the better. It's bad enough just thinking about it.
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