Tossing Out the Toss

Here are a couple of suggestions for reducing the effect of the toss.
1. Team one completes its 25 overs then team two bats for 25 overs. At the end of it team losing the toss decides whether team 2 finishes its fifty overs and then team 1 follows with its final 25 or team 1 bats again and then team two for their remaining 25.
Better if match is reduced to 40 overs (so the decision would be after 20 overs). In case of rain interruptions the first twenty five overs of each side are completed.
2. Make it two innings of twenty overs each. Team winning toss decides who bats first in the first innings. Team losing the toss decides who bats first in the second innings. In case of interruptions only first innings is played.

Inane End to an Inane Tournament

Sri Lanka dug themselves a bit of a whole in the field but fought back well early on. Australia did what it had to do. The lull (from Hair, Aktar, Woolmer cases) was too much to bear so courtesy of ICC we were provided with something new to talk about. How D/L is used in major tournaments and no results due to rain will get a thorough going over apart from what the tournament structure should be.
Sri Lanka held well until the 16th over (compared to where Australia was). Australia had scored massively in the 17th-22nd overs. Those were the overs where Sri Lanka needed to keep abreast so as not to fall far behind or to be in striking distance if D/L came into play.

After the Storm

If we are to persist with Duckworth/Lewis here are some suggestions that I think make it more "fair".
1. The reduction in overs should be in units of five overs. So the number of overs can be divided over five bowlers equally. The reduction should be in units of ten if power plays are to scale down properly. It also will likely give you some built in extra time if there are other stoppages.
2. Adjustments should be done only at the beginning of an inning. I will explain by giving some examples.
a) The match starts late and reduced to 40 overs each. Then the first team plays its 40 overs complete no matter if there are other breaks due to rain. If any adjustments have to be made they are made at the end of the first innings. The second team may now only play 30 overs. Once the innings has started 30 overs must be finished. If they cannot the match moves to next day. This has the advantage that both sides know at the beginning of each inning how many overs they have and in case of the second inning what score to get in how many overs. Both sides can pace the innings without having to try to keep up over to over and looking at the sky. They will know exactly how long there power plays will be and at least 5 bowlers have to be used equally.
b) If a match starts and then there is a stoppage the first team plays its full 50 overs. The adjustment is made at the start of second inning which may now be reduced to 30 overs.
Doing this has the added feature that team batting second will never have to score more than team batting first in a lesser number of overs. This is something that many people still have a problem with.

A Confederacy of Dunces

The government capitulates again (http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/04/26/pakistan.burqa.reut/index.html). This is getting out of hand and dangerous.

Ponting on Countering Sri Lanka

Ponting has said that in retaliation for Sri Lanka resting its three bowlers and not letting his batsmen practice he will rest himself, Hayden, and McGrath in the final so that Sri Lanka does not get a look at them for future series. When reminded that it was McGrath's last game he said, "Even better, they will never get a look at him".

Ian has asked ICC to force Australia to play Ponting, Hayden and McGrath.

Sheilds Solves Case!

"God did it or is somehow involved", declared Sheilds in a press conference. Stay tuned for more.