Will there be talk of Match Fixing?

When my friends and I played cricket in our school days, some of us used to play with the 'big boys' because we were ... er... slightly better than the others in our own age group. Though these 'big boys' were only about four or five years older, it did mean quite a bit of difference in levels of performance. This 4/5 year age gap would not make much of a difference later on but when we were eleven and played against those who were sixteen and seventeen, it did. Quite a lot. This was especially true when facing the faster bowlers. Our reactions were just not quick enough to deal with the pace and bounce of the rubber ball. Needless to add this was a great source of entertainment for those idiots. But, I digress. Because some of us could not handle the pace of these 'big boys' we would get out deliberately when we knew a real fast bowler would be bowling next. And the results would be either very comical or wounding to our egos. But at any rate they were very obvious.

While I did not watch too much of the match today between Pakistan and New Zealand, I was tuned in when Shahid Afridi got out. He got out to a straight ball which did absolutely nothing. He played all around the same. It reminded me of the good old days when we were trying our damnedest to get out.

Now Afridi is not afraid of the 'big boys' who are going to bowl next, so what could have been the reason? He did not see the ball? Possible. He was trying out some new stroke. Yeah, why not. He was er... um... approached by some other kinds of 'big boys'? Well, I suspect that might be the suspicion of a few people.

Would be interesting to re-visit opinions about this match in a few days.

And while I am at it, congratulations to Ross Taylor on those brutal last few overs. And yes, Happy Birthday too.