Work and play

Mid-day has come up with an interesting compilation, which Ruchir linked to earlier....the one on the ODIs and tests played by each country (apparently in one year, although not sure about the actual start and end points, lets assume last summer to beginning on this summer, as in English season). Some interesting observations, that I can immediately see, are:

1) England have a test to ODI ration of 1.6 only! And they're the leaders, along with Aussies, in crying over workload. Fletcher even hinted at pulling off key players from CT (although unlikely to happen, IMO). They might as well voluntarily retire from ODI cricket :-)

2) India, surprisingly, did not top the ODI list. And for all the 'subcontinent is crazy about money-making ODIs' talk, the Aussies are second in the list after SL. That, ofcourse, does lend credence to their fatigue talk, since they've also played the maximum number of tests.

3) India, for its third rank in ODI table with 34 matches, has also played a good many 11 tests. Good to see the Indians improving in the test listings, and hope we dont let it come down (maybe we can drop a few ODIs....didn't BCCI promise that we won't play more than 30 matches in a year...or was it 35?). We would have been joint toppers in ODIs, had two of our games not been abandoned. Not really happy noting this one, though :-)

4) Pakistan has the least number of ODIs...surely a scheduling mistake....PCB would duely take note ;-)


Note: For those of you who're worried (or happy)...just heard from Prem....alive and kicking...and enjoying some time off during the lull period (cricket-vise)