^^^ OK.. here is how the eligibility criteria in cricket compares to that of other sports.



Among the major sports, only baseball has a relaxed system similar to cricket (which is understandable given the fact that baseball is mostly limited to the United States). Foorball, Basketball and Ice Hockey doesn't allow foreigners to be included in the playing XI.

This is a very stupid suggestion. If politics has nothing to do with cricket, then why the ICC banned apartheid era South Africa from international cricket for almost three decades? Zimbabwe was suspended recently for something far less serious. And in Afghanistan the Taliban is butchering thousands of innocent people every day. And you suggest that the ICC should continue to fund the Afghan board with $5 million in funds every year, so that it can be stolen by the Taliban and used for terrorist activities?

The first 6 overs are going to be very important. Because, from what we have seen so far, batting gets very difficult after the initial power play. David Warner made just 14 today, while the captain Aaron Finch got out for a duck. With such difficult conditions, experienced players like Steve Smith holds the key. The playing conditions are not suitable for big hitters like Warner, Maxwell and Stoinis. If they get going, then good for them. But the pitch conditions are not suitable for their style of playing.

It is not resistance or hesitation. What I can see is pure hatred from the media. Either they are doing it on their own, or they are propagating this hatred in return for favors from fiat sources. Ideally the media needs to be biased, because they can influence the decisions of hundreds of millions of people. But here they are painting a very biased picture about cryptocurrency, whatever their motives maybe. And in turn, this is detrimental to ordinary people, who miss out on the big profits that can come from crypto.

In case of Ben Stokes, it needs to be seen whether he can perform up to his pre-injury level. And Jofra always perform poorly against India. But who knows? If they prepare some bouncy, seaming pitches, then the England bowlers may be able to trouble the Indians. But more than Jofra, I would say that James Anderson represents a bigger threat for the Indians. And as far as batting is concerned, they are dependent on Joe Root. The addition of Stokes may strengthen their middle order, if he manages to score runs.

You maybe right in the case of South Africa, but not about the other teams. In Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya they don't have any quota system. Whites are only around 10% of the population in Namibia, and they comprise a majority of the players. And anyway most of the whites in Namibia are German or Dutch, and cricket is not the no.1 sport for them. David Wiese is representing Namibia, because his father was born in Namibia (German speaking). Being an ex-German colony, it is odd that Namibia is progressing in a sport that is mostly confined to ex-British colonies.

I am not sure about this residence requirement of 4 years. From what I heard, the ICC reduced it to 6 months some time ago. If it had remained at 4 years, then none of the Omani players would qualify to represent that country. There was only one instance of a GCC nation fielding a team that was entirely comprised of citizens. When the Kuwaiti team participated in Asian Games, all the 11 members of the playing XI were Arabs (as per the rules of Asian Games, non-citizens can't represent a country). And here is the result:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/asian-games-men-s-cricket-competition-2014-15-777895/bangladesh-vs-kuwait-4th-quarter-final-778035/full-scorecard

Previously teams like Oman and Kuwait used to recruit players from the Pakistanis and Indians residing in these countries. But now they are directly recruiting first-class players from the sub-continent. They just give an employment offer to these players so that they qualify for the residence requirement and then pack the national team with foreigners. The problem here is that teams that are dependent on native players (Kenya, Nepal, Thailand, Japan, Papua New Guinea.etc) suffer because of these mercenary teams. There should be a limit of 4-5 foreigners in the playing XI.

LOL.. Netherlands probably had their worst match ever in T20 World Cup. From what I heard, they had some selection issues, especially related to the pace bowlers. Some of the players were released by their respective counties, so that they could represent their motherland in the world cup. But that represented a dilemma for the Dutch captain, as he can't drop top performers to accommodate the county players. Netherlands, along with Papua New Guinea were the disappointments so far in the tournament.

As long as the prices move up, no one is going to complain. The mainstream media channels who were constantly targeting Nayib Bukele in September have suddenly gone mute now. And for the ordinary El Salvadorans, their $30 Bitcoin airdrop have by now grown to $45. Even when the government started the mining farm using volcanic energy, some of the critics targeted Bukele very harshly. They have also gone silent now. Salvadorans are lucky to be the first ones to make Bitcoin as the legal tender. In the coming years, they will reap the rewards from this move.

Surprised to see so many people defending Mesut Özil here. A lot of people posted here that players should represent the country which they feel the most loyal towards. But then what happened to Özil? What was the need to meet Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, when he was killing thousands in Syria? I will not say that players should stay away from politics. But at least they could stay away from murderous dictators. Would you guys say the same if Steven Gerrard meets the head of the British National Front?

Netherlands is in very poor form, and therefore I don't think that they have a chance against Sri Lanka. However, the Namibia vs Ireland match is very important. The winner from this match will progress to the next phase and the loser need to play in the qualifier again for the 2022 world cup. Scotland is the only associate side that has managed to impress others in this tournament. All the other sides have performed much below what was expected from them. Anyway.. just two days to go for the India vs Pakistan match. Eagerly looking forward for that.

Is 100% foreign ownership allowed in the IPL? If that is not the case, then the Glazer family may need to tie up with some of the local billionaires, like Adani or Birla.

BTW, anyone watching the Oman vs Scotland match? Oman has made 51/3 so far, after 9.3 overs. Aqib Ilyas got a great chance, but he wasted it now. Michael Leask got the wicket and now Scotland is on top. If they win this match, Scotland will finish ahead of Bangladesh in this group. And that further means that Scotland will be placed along with India and Pakistan in Group 2 for the next phase.

The "world" is never going to recognize Taliban, because they are a bunch of murderous terrorists. And they haven't done anything to convince others that they are behaving in a civilized way. I am looking forward to see what the other sports bodies do regarding Afghanistan. FIFA hasn't suspended their membership yet, and on the other hand they have managed to evacuate around 100 football players to Qatar. The ICC has remained mute, despite Afghanistan being one of the test playing nations.

Honestly, did you expected the low crude oil prices to last for ever? The crude price was $100-120 per barrel in 2014. Then there was the crash, which took it all the way down to ~$40 per barrel. In usual circumstances, the prices should be back to the normal levels in a year or so. But Saudi Arabia wanted to destroy the shale oil industry in the United States and therefore kept the prices low for an extended duration. And then Trump became the president and the shale oil sector boomed again.

Oman has been importing players ever since the cricket board was formed in 1979. During the last 42 years, they have failed to field even a single Omani citizen in the national squad. So how can you say that in the future they will have "local talent"? I have seen Oman playing against Bangladesh and Scotland. There was not even a single Omani supporter at the stadium (don't forget that the matches took place in Oman). I don't have a problem with the players getting good salary. But they have no connection to Oman.

You should not pay too much attention to these warmup matches. The management usually give chances to fringe players and the matches are not 100% competitive. In just 3 days, we have the most important match within this world cup, which is India vs Pakistan. Given the fact that Pakistan has lost all of the recent matches against India, they need this win more than their opponents do. And that doesn't mean that winning the match is any less important for India. If they lose, then Kohli will be in a very bad state.

Another $5-$6 trillion to the US federal debt will destroy the economy in the long term. Republicans are worried about the default, but they should have been more aggressive. Anyway, the American people opted for this, when they gave the Democrats (+Murkowski) a majority in the senate. The uber rich will be insulated from any tax increase, as they have infinite number of loopholes available at their disposal. On the other hand, the middle class will witness the erosion in their wealth and a higher tax cut from their salaries.

Foreign tours for India B and C are already going on. But what I am suggesting is different. For example, why can't we replace Oman team in the current T20 World Cup with a India B team? Oman team anyway doesn't have any Omani citizens. All the players are "imported" from countries like India. So instead of them, why can't we include another team from India? For the ICC, the revenues will skyrocket. I am 100% sure that no one in Oman supports the cricket team, as it doesn't contain native players. But if there is another team from India, then there can be huge growth in revenues for the TV broadcasters. India is like the goose that lays golden eggs for the ICC. They need to utilize them to the maximum.

They can't win against teams like Scotland. Bangladesh is proving that their wins at Mirpur was just due to favorable ground conditions. I thought that the defeat against Scotland was a one-off incident. But their performance against Oman yesterday just confirms that their overall form is not good. Now they have just one group match remaining against Papua New Guinea. It should be an easy match, but if they lose it by any chance then they will get kicked out of the world cup. Fortunately for Bangladesh, this time two teams from each group will qualify for the next phase.