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This week on The Cricket Pod, sports editor Graham Caygill explains why 'net run rate' is not the right parameter to judge which teams should qualify for the semi-finals of the Cricket World Cup. Is it fair on teams such as Pakistan, for instance, whose run to the last four was severely affected by inclement weather? Also, does it not complicate matters for fans who have to reach out for their calculators to figure out what their teams need to do reach the knockout stage?
Also in this episode:
- We look at the upcoming semi-finals and final to see if New Zealand are strong enough to beat India at Old Trafford on Tuesday, and whether England will be better prepared to face Australia at Edgbaston on Thursday.
We compare notes on who were the tournament's breakout stars, which of the retiring players will be missed the most, and what the most memorable moments were at CWC19.
Kadalayil provides his take on who came out looking better in the spat between Ravindra Jadeja Sanjay Manjrekar.
ICC men's cricketer of the year
2004 - Rahul Dravid (IND) ; 2005 - Jacques Kallis (SA) and Andrew Flintoff (ENG); 2006 - Ricky Ponting (AUS); 2007 - Ricky Ponting; 2008 - Shivnarine Chanderpaul (WI); 2009 - Mitchell Johnson (AUS); 2010 - Sachin Tendulkar (IND); 2011 - Jonathan Trott (ENG); 2012 - Kumar Sangakkara (SL); 2013 - Michael Clarke (AUS); 2014 - Mitchell Johnson; 2015 - Steve Smith (AUS); 2016 - Ravichandran Ashwin (IND); 2017 - Virat Kohli (IND); 2018 - Virat Kohli; 2019 - Ben Stokes (ENG); 2021 - Shaheen Afridi
Low turnout
Two months before the first round on April 10, the appetite of voters for the election is low.
Mathieu Gallard, account manager with Ipsos, which conducted the most recent poll, said current forecasts suggested only two-thirds were "very likely" to vote in the first round, compared with a 78 per cent turnout in the 2017 presidential elections.
"It depends on how interesting the campaign is on their main concerns," he told The National. "Just now, it's hard to say who, between Macron and the candidates of the right, would be most affected by a low turnout."
