The French are in a better position if we look at the younger players. They have Kylian Mbappé (24), Ousmane Dembélé (25), Randal Kolo Muani (24), Marcus Thuram (25), Ibrahima Konaté (23) and Aurélien Tchouaméni (23). None of the other European teams have this many talented younger players. And in case of France, they have an ideal mix of young and experienced players, with Olivier Giroud, Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda and Karim Benzema comprising the second group. They will be one of the favorites to win Euro 2024, but let's see how it works out for them in the end.

This time, the world cup was sort of boring. There were very few upsets, apart from the semi-final match where England got beaten by South Africa. I was expecting a final between the two best teams - Australia and England, but in the end we got a one sided match between Australia and South Africa. Even the outcome of the India vs Pakistan match was as expected. And then there were no associate teams included in the edition this time. Overall, I would say that the excitement level was low. Hopefully the ICC would do a better job for the next edition (2024 in Bangladesh).

I was watching the match live on Amazon PrimeVideo, and I can confidently say that this is one of the greatest evet test match finishes that I managed to watch live. New Zealand won by just 1 run, as James Anderson got out to a spectacular delivery from Neil Wagner. Feels bad for the England lower order batsmen, who worked so hard to inch closer to the target - especially Ben Foakes, Stuart Broad and Jack Leach. James Anderson also tried his best, but today was not his day. Leach did a fantastic job, by surviving for 31 balls. But in the end, he ended up in the losing team.
 
BTW, there was some technical snag with PrimeVideo in between, and it lasted for 2-3 minutes (just before Ben Foakes got out).

This time EU had a very mild winter season, and as a result the gas consumption went down. And also, many of the governments resorted to burning heavily polluting lignite and coal to generate electricity. And despite all these, the gas prices (as per latest data from Dutch TTF, the price stands at $584 per 1,000 cubic meter), which is almost 4 times the price they had in 2020. The damage has been done to both the sides. Russia lost valuable export revenue, while many of the factories in the EU were forced to close down.

We had a few close matches in the beginning, but now the matches are increasingly getting one-sided. And I don't understand the point in asking Lahore Qalandars to play two consecutive matches, on 26th and 27th February. But they won both the matches thanks to stellar performance from David Wiese and Fakhar Zaman. Now they have 8 points (same as Multan). But Multan has played one extra match, so Lahore is at an advantage. And for Lahore, the next match is against the weakest team in the tournament (Quetta Gladiators).

He may have hit the jackpot, but he deserved it. Manchester United was severely underpaying him ($17 million per year). He maybe 39 years old, but Ronaldo still commands support from hundreds of millions of fans around the world. Both Manchester United and the EPL benefitted from his presence in the league, but they refused to adequately compensate him. Al Nassr noticed the opportunity and they made a deal with Ronaldo. The lesson to be learnt here, is not to disrespect your legendary players. Hopefully ManUtd would learn from this lesson.

It was very disappointing from Isle of Man. IoM is one of the few European teams with a 100% native squad. They are a small island located between Ireland and England, having their own distinct culture and language (Manx). On the other hand, half of the Spanish squad were foreigners (still better than teams like Norway and Belgium, which doesn't even have a single citizen in their squads). Naturally I wanted IoM to win, but they lost in a very unfortunate way. Anyway, this was just a friendly series and will have no impact on their prospects to qualify for the 2024 T20 World Cup.

LOL... Nepal has 7 matches remaining, and I don't expect them winning all these matches. If they win 4 out of 7 matches, then they can overtake the United States and get to 4th in the points table. Overtaking Namibia would be very difficult, and for that they need to win 6 matches. But it is not impossible as well. Out of their 7 remaining matches, 4 are against United Arab Emirates and 3 against Papua New Guinea. Winning against PNG is not that hard, but UAE is a tough team with a lot of Indian and Pakistani players.

Asian qualification is one of the toughest. A total of 47 teams usually take part, and out of that only 4 used to qualify to the main tournament until 2022. And two of the most populous nations in the planet (China and India) are part of this confederation, and almost never gets a chance to qualify for the world cup. I am against giving qualification slots based on population size, but if you take out India and China, then that alone accounts for 40% of the world's population. Then there are other countries with a population size of 200 to 300 million, including Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The CAF qualification is also quite tough. 5 countries used to qualify until 2022, from a total of 54. And back in 2022, many of the most populous nations (Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia and DRC) failed to qualify. Hopefully the 2026 World Cup will at least have representation from >50% of the planet's population.

Look at this map, you can see vast areas in Asia and Africa unrepresented:

If New Zealand manages to win this one, then it will be one of the greatest fightbacks in the history of test cricket. For heaven's sake they followed on after conceding a lead of 226 runs in the first innings. All credit to their batsmen, especially Tom Latham, Kane Williamson, Devon Conway and Tom Blundell. England bowlers ran out of steam in the second innings, as James Anderson went wicketless. New Zealand needs 2 more wickets to win, and England needs 43 runs. The problem with England is that they have a bunch of tail-end batsmen to come next - Jack Leach and James Anderson.
 

Doubtful about Nepal. Their cricket has been on a downward slide ever since 2015. And the reason is very clear. Back in 2015, the ICC reduced funding for the associates by as much as 80%. It didn't had an impact on "rich" boards such as the United Arab Emirates and Oman, but the "poorer" boards such as Nepal were severely impacted. On top of that the ICC implemented a performance based funding system. Teams like the United Arab Emirates immediately recruited former first class players from India and Pakistan. Nepal couldn't afford to do that and they started losing matches. So this 80% decrease became 90% for them.

And I don't have much hope for the next (2024-31) funding cycle as well. The BCCI is demanding a higher share from the ICC, and this may result in further reductions to the associates. On top of that, the BCCI has formed a cabal with middle-east boards such as the United Arab Emirates and Oman, and they are trying to weaken the other associate nations.

Anyone watching the ACC Men’s Challenger Cup? All the matches are being broadcasted live on ACC official YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@AsianCricketCouncilTV

A total of 8 teams are participating, and the top 2 teams from this tournament will qualify for the 2023 ACC Men's Premier Cup. The winner from the second competition will quality for the 2023 Asia Cup to play along with the 5 test nations from Asia.

So far, Maldives and Bahrain have won one match each in Group A, while Saudi Arabia and Thailand are in a similar position with Group B. Right now, the Bhutan vs Iran and Bahrain vs Maldives matches are going on.

I am wondering how he is maintaining his fitness levels at this age. Actually he looks much better in shape when compared to his younger colleagues such as Mark Wood and Ollie Robinson. A fast bowler bowling with a heavy workload at the age of 41 is just insane. This is an age when even the spinners struggle with their rhythm and fitness. And we have the examples of fast bowlers such as Dale Steyn and Jasprit Bumrah, who were forced to take extended breaks as a result of injury issues.

BTW, you can't compare James Anderson and Muttiah Muralitharan using the number of wickets per match metric. In the case of Muttiah Muralitharan, it was like he was the only quality bowler they had in their squad, and therefore most of the workload was taken by him. That is not the case with Anderson. There are other quality bowlers in the current England squad and he doesn't need to bowl 40% or 45% of the overs.

Nowadays football has become more globalized. A lot of players from Asia and Africa are participating in European leagues such as the English Premier League, Ligue 1, Serie A and La Liga. Here they are competing against the best in the sport and gaining valuable experience. Even back home in these Asian and African countries, the level of infrastructure and training has gone up. Quality of local football is also improving in these two continents. In the end, Africa and Asia are where the population still remains young. So the future belongs to them.

There is a study published by Tania Babina of the Columbia University and a few others, titled: "Assessing the Impact of International Sanctions on Russian Oil Exports". The document can be accessed here:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4366337

The study claims that Russia sold it's crude oil well above the levels it announced in public after the price cap was introduced. Also, for the year 2022, Russia had a record surplus of $282 billion, with exports totaling $532 billion. During this period, they exported $142 billion worth of crude oil, $83 billion worth of oil products and $108 billion worth of natural gas.

According to their calculation, the price for Urals crude in December 2022 (when the price cap was implemented) averaged $74 per barrel (much higher than the figure of $52 per barrel that was reported). On top of that, the report also claims that India imported 1.6 million barrels of crude daily from Russia during December 2022, while for China, the figure is 2.8 million barrels.

I don't know what happened to the England women yesterday. During the chase, they seemed to be in complete control for the first 10 overs or so. But then Nadine de Klerk bowled some very tight overs, and the required run rate shot up to more than 9. And that created a lot of pressure and from there onwards it was a downhill journey for the England women. Shabnim Ismail and Ayabonga Khaka finished what de Klerk had started. England lower order and tail fell like a pack of cards. Apart from the top 5, none of the players could get to double digits.

Harry Brook was unlucky to miss that double century, as he got out for 186 runs. Matt Henry bowled well in the second day, to restrict England to a total of less than 500. And now the Kiwis are deep trouble with Devon Conway back in the pavilion (Sultan of swing, James Anderson getting his 683rd test wicket. He is now just 17 wickets away, from becoming the first pacer to get to 700 test wickets. Life is not going to get easier for the Kiwis, as Stuart Broad is bowling from the other end. And then they have Ollie Robinson as the first change.

The match is getting tighter. Nadine de Klerk bowled some very tight overs and as a result of it the required run rate shot up to 9. But as long as Nat Sciver-Brunt and Heather Knight are there, England doesn't have much to worry. Brunt was dropped by Tyron a few minutes ago, and that may prove costly for the South African women. De Klerk is causing some real problems although. Her third over was tidy as well, and went for just 5 runs. And England batters need to face one more over from her. At this point, Nadine de Klerk is the one who is standing between a final between England and Australia.

Shabnim Ismail is the only bowler who has shown some fighting spirit from the South African team. All the other bowlers have gone for around 10 runs per over. Since the required run rate is only around 7.6, there is no way South Africa can win this match by playing defensively. They need to bowl with an aggressive plan and get at least two wickets quickly. If Danni Wyatt and Nat Sciver-Brunt remain at crease for two more overs, then it is all over for South Africa. Captaincy from the hosts are baffling. They need to give more overs to Ismail.

If you remember, some of the most exciting matches during Qatar 2022 involved teams from Africa and Asia. One of the African teams (Morocco) even managed to reach the semi-final stage. There is no point in giving half of all the slots to Europe, when the difference in quality between European teams and the rest of the world is now negligible. BTW, UEFA fans have nothing to worry. In absolute numbers they are getting the largest increase as the quota for that confederation increases by 3 for the 2026 edition (for CONMEBOL it is only +2).