da 888casino： Against the background that the last two encounters of the Cable &Wireless One-Day series are purely for academic interest, SouthAfrican captain Shaun Pollock feels the international calendar ispacked with too many matches in the shorter form of
Hadyn Gill12-May-2001Against the background that the last two encounters of the Cable &Wireless One-Day series are purely for academic interest, SouthAfrican captain Shaun Pollock feels the international calendar ispacked with too many matches in the shorter form of the game.But his highly-professional outfit, holders of the Cable & WirelessOne-Day Trophy following a fourth successive victory against WestIndies at Kensington Oval on Wednesday, still plan to maintain animpressive winning streak in the sixth and penultimate match of theseries at the Queen’s Park Oval today.There is a lot of one-day cricket. I won’t deny that, Pollock saidyesterday with the knowledge that his side goes into today’s matchwith an unassailable 4-1 series lead.There probably is too much in world cricket, but that’s what bringsthe money in and that’s what brings the people to come and watch.It is a hard balance to find, but you would think that maybe theyshould cut back a little bit on one-day cricket.In recent years, the international schedule has become increasinglydemanding and it has not been helped by the scheduling of a number oflimited-overs competitions.In the space of two months in 1999, the West Indies went through aperiod in which went on a globe-trotting merry-go-round in which theyplayed about 20 matches in Singapore, Sharjah, Canada and Bangladesh.West Indies captain, Carl Hooper, who was in the internationalwilderness at the time following his retirement, is however not tooconcerned about the packed schedule.Bangladesh’s recent admission as a full International Council Cricket(ICC) member and Kenya’s desire to join them will make things eventougher, Hooper said.It’s only going to get worse and we’ve got to prepare ourselves forit, the West Indies captain said.As a result of your full-time profession, you probably might havehardly a break, so you’ve got to be able to pace yourself well andbecome a bit more professional in whatever you do.It something I suppose the ICC will look at, but there is nothing thatwe can do about it now.There has never been an influx of limited-overs matches in theCaribbean, but in recent seasons, authorities have scheduled a fewmore matches.In the past, a series of five matches was the norm, but seven werescheduled in 1999 when Australia were here and there were nine in athree-nation tournament last year that involved Pakistan and Zimbabwe.The current series, which also involves seven, moves into thehomestretch today with the West Indies seeking to regain lost prideafter they were thoroughly outplayed in Antigua, Grenada and Barbados.We’ve still got a lot of pride to play for. We’d like to win the lasttwo matches, but we are going to take one game at a time, Hooper said.We’re disappointed, but we realise that we’ve still got to pickourselves up and go and try to win games.Hooper, however, tried to be matter-of-fact in trying to makepredictions.There was a lot of talk when we lost in Antigua that we would bounceback in Grenada and we would bounce back and bounce back and bounceback, he said.I’m being realistic. If we win tomorrow (today), it’s great, but whatwe want to do is to try to put up a good show.I don’t think we’ve been playing to our full potential. We are abetter side than the results have shown.The recent South Africa victories by the commanding margins of eightwickets, 132 runs, eight wickets and seven wickets have givenPollock’s team a record of 14 wins in their last 16 matches.And the captain does not want it spoilt.As a side we pride ourselves on our performance and in the way that weplay, so we’re going out to try and make sure that we win, he said.There is no doubt about that. We want to end the tour on a winningnote.Even though the series has been wrapped up, an almost capacity crowdis expected at the Caribbean’s biggest cricket venue which canaccommodate about 25 000 spectators.Late yesterday evening, it was reported that 95 per cent of the groundwas sold and only tickets for the grounds remained available.