THE WEIGHT OF EXPECTATION
Kumar Sangakkara was spot on. As Sri Lanka took on South Africa in that now infamous group game at Durban, he greeted the arrival at the crease of a nervous-looking Shaun Pollock with taunts about "the weight of expectation". Two weeks later, the weight of expectation - the expectation of others - has cost Pollock the captaincy.
People don't like it when the hosts make a hash of things. Four years ago, Alec Stewart lost the captaincy after England messed up their net run-rate and failed to qualify for the Super Six at their own World Cup. Now Pollock has paid the price for an even more agonising mathematical blunder: one more run in the rain against Sri Lanka, and South Africa would have been left needing to beat just Zimbabwe to make it through to the semi-finals. They might then have had the chance to avenge their tragi-comic defeat to Australia in 1999. Pollock might have been a hero. Instead, he has been cast as the villain.
The parallels don't end there. Only a year before Stewart's dismissal, he led England to their first major Test series win for 12 years - a 2-1 victory at home to South Africa. But failure in the one-day game somehow cost him the Test job too. Pollock's moment of glory was even more recent: it was only two months ago that he was lifting the ICC mace to celebrate South Africa's ascension to the top of the Test Championship. Now, without playing a single Test in the meantime, he's been fired.
Yes, Pollock should have had a better grasp of Duckworth/Lewis, but the South African officials could have helped him by insisting that the D/L latest was a fixture on every scoreboard. Yes, he had a captain-by-numbers approach, but then so did his two predecessors, Kepler Wessels and Hansie Cronje. Pollock has been sacked because a fiercely partisan sporting nation demanded a scapegoat.
It seems ironic now that so many South Africans, including several players, wanted to dedicate the competition to the memory of Cronje. Pollock complained on Sunday that the South African board were keen not to repeat the mistake they made with Cronje of giving the captain too much power. Cronje's legacy, Pollock implied, had impacted on him. The memory of Cronje lives on - but not in the way South Africa had hoped.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"I am not a malicious person and I don't want to see people get hurt." Some bloke claiming to be Brett Lee (he was convincing, the Spin will grant you) gives everyone a good laugh after the real Brett Lee reduces the Kenyan opener Kennedy Otieno to a writhing heap by hitting him on the point of the elbow.
SILLY POINT: NO SEX, PLEASE, WE'RE CRICKETERS
Some blamed the toss at Cape Town. Others blamed the weather at Bulawayo. A couple of experts even blamed Inzamam's diet. But the real reason for Pakistan's jaw-achingly bad World Cup has been revealed. Apparently four players were caught entertaining ladies in the build-up to Pakistan's defeat to Australia at the start of the competition. And in an even more serious breach of touring protocol, the ladies in question are thought to have been the players' wives and girlfriends. The Spin is still reeling.
"We are ashamed, disappointed, sad and broken-hearted after letting the nation down," read a team statement that may actually have had more to do with the cricket than the inter-marital nookie. Very much in their correct context, however, were the words of Sami-ul-Hasan, Pakistan's media-liaison officer. "The board's policy was very clear," he announced solemnly. "Wives and girlfriends were not allowed." As the Spin wondered how exactly Pakistan expected to produce baby Wasims and Waqars with an attitude like that, Hasan continued: "But still a couple of them came, though they did not stay in the same hotels. We are not happy. A clear instruction has been violated."
The Spin was briefly lost in a reverie of coitus interruptuses and flagrante delictos, but Hasan disturbed it before any other lewd Latinisms sprang to mind. "We will not tolerate any nonsense," he barked, as Shoaib Akhtar walked past wearing a jester's outfit, and Rashid Latif dished out electrifying handshakes to strangers with a specially wired buzzer. Referring to two players who had already disgraced the nation by bringing their wives on Pakistan's recent tour of South Africa, Hasan noted, "We have already taken issue with them. We did not want to disturb the boys during the tournament but now we are conducting a probe." Quite what they hope to find is anyone's guess.
COW CORNER: THE DEMISE OF MODERN SOCIETY
The Spin trusts the day is still a few years away, but when it finally does shuffle off this mortal coil, it sincerely hopes the world doesn't take seven years to notice. In this month's Cricketer magazine, an obituary appears for Tom Spencer OBE, the former Kent batsman who became an umpire and stood in the first ever World Cup final in 1975. As you well know, the Spin is all for taking your time to do a job properly (and the previous two sentences took two days to write). But Spencer actually died in November 1995, which makes his death one of the least-heralded in history.
Or does it? The Cricketer's obituarist, Robert Brookes, rages that "it seems almost beyond belief that he disappeared from the game so completely that his death went unnoticed in the general cricket world until seven years later." In a leap of logic, Brookes ends by noting: "It is also a sad reflection on modern sport and perhaps on society in general." As the Spin shook its head in a my-word-we've-gone-to-the-dogs kind of way, it noted in the pages of the Times that Spencer's death had in fact been recorded at the first time of asking after all. A journalist for the Northern Echo protested that Spencer's demise had been big news in the North East (Spencer was born in Northumberland), but that no one else picked up on it.
In his Northern Echo column Mike Amos, the journalist in question, wondered whether the failure to register Spencer's final innings said less about modern sport and society and more about "The Cricketer's informants". The Spin agrees that journalistic fact-checking is a dying art and promises to let you know how England fare in Thursday's semi-final.
THE WEEK IN CRICKET
Australia collapse to 84 for 7 against New Zealand at Port Elizabeth, but are rescued once more by Michael Bevan and Andy Bichel and end up winners by 96 runs ... It's the second-successive low-scoring game at St George's Park, and Ali Bacher orders an examination of the pitch before today's semi-final ... Kenya qualify for the last four after skittling Zimbabwe for 133 on their way to a seven-wicket win at Bloemfontein ... The Pakistan opener Saeed Anwar goes back on his decision to retire after consulting "my family, friends and religious scholars" ... Pakistan ban Shahid Afridi from next month's Sharjah Cup and fine him 50% of his match fee after he is found guilty of sledging during the game against India ... The Indian cricket board promises to pay its team 75million rupees (nearly GBP 1million) if they win the World Cup ... Dominic Cork is said to be keen to lure his "guide and mentor" Kim Barnett back to Derbyshire ... Shane Warne is set to return to South Africa after the World Cup for a series of speaking engagements ... New Zealand are bundled out for 146 as India cruise to a seven-wicket win at Centurion ... Kenya say they will ask to be given Test status in 2005 ... The Kenyan coach Sandeep Patil announces he will stepping down at the end of the World Cup, probably to take a post at the Board of Control for Cricket in India ... Sri Lanka pip New Zealand to the last semi-final spot after a Marvan Atapattu century sets up a 74-run win over Zimbabwe at East London ... Andy Flower's final international innings ends when he is given out lbw for 38, despite clearly hitting the ball ... South Africa sack Shaun Pollock as their captain ... Graeme Smith, the 22-year-old opening batsman who wasn't even in the original World Cup XV, is named as Pollock's successor ... The Zimbabwe fast bowler Henry Olonga, who upset the authorities with his protest against "the death of democracy", announces his retirement from international cricket ... Olonga, who has gone into hiding to dodge Zimbabwe's secret police, claims it would be unsafe for him to stay in Zimbabwe ... Brett Lee takes the fourth hat-trick in World Cup history as Australia see off Kenya by five wickets at Durban ... The result gives Australia a world-record 15 one-day internationals without defeat ... A Sunday Telegraph investigation reveals that Hansie Cronje had at least 70 illegal overseas bank accounts at the time of his death ... The Zimbabwe allrounder Guy Whittall follows Flower and Olonga into international retirement ... The South African opener Gary Kirsten says he no longer wants to play one-day internationals ... The ECB's plan to hand out 20 central contracts this year is under threat after the expected financial losses from England's early exit from the World Cup and their refusal to play in Harare ... Yorkshire say they will give Darren Gough a full contract if he comes through the first half of the summer unscathed after knee trouble ... Steve Waugh is selected as captain for Australia's four-Test tour of West Indies
THE WEEK AHEAD
Not long to go now. Today it's Australia v Sri Lanka in the first semi-final at Port Elizabeth (8am GMT) ... On Thursday Kenya have the chance to reach the final when they take on India under the lights at Durban (12.30pm) ... And on Sunday it's Australia v India in the final at Johannesburg (8am) ... Probably
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