The T20 World has begun and it all starts with the low placed teams competing for a berth in the so called main phase of the tournament. The first phase mainly includes the associates with few exceptions. This phase has certainly brought out some positives for the World cricket in the form of Nepal and Hong Kong, with Nepal being the most eye catching. Out of nowhere, they have booked a spot in the heart of cricket fans.But, the journey will not be rosy as expectations will grow and repeating this task will demand a lot from them.Netherlands, too have joined the party after creating a sort of upset against a much better Irish side.
There has been a lot of problems both on and off the field for the associates . Looking on the on field ones, we find that the players are not patient enough and are looking for the things to happen too early.The odd shots after few dot deliveries are enough to show that they lack the temparament to play at the highest level. But some are in their own world and playing dot balls doesn’t bother them and they just continue doing it without trying anything different to score.It just adds pressure on the next batsman.
Fielding has now become an important component of a cricket match and can decide outcome of a match.The associates have been found dropping sitters .Adding to it , their ground fielding has also not been very great , especially in the boundary region where they find it difficult to understand the spin which the ball will take after sweeps or cuts.
Overall, the associates have been missing a role model in their own country, whom they can follow.The coaching staff is not very heavily paid and thus cannot be expected to be of International quality.
It will be interesting to see the response of ICC and the players, regarding how they come up with the solutions to improve the standard of their game, or else they will join the likes of Zimbabwe and Kenya . Both these teams had all in it but just could not make it big.
