Oh my god

Chuck all clever titles, this is exactly how I feel : Oh my god.

So I've been having a craptastic first week of the year, so there's not been much time to spare on cricket, but the Moores-Pietersen spat did serve as an amusing aside in the five minutes after dinner for the last few nights.

Until?

Until Moores and Pietersen decided to resign from their respective roles of coach and captain of the English team.

I was immediately motivated into cricinfo-ing the matter.

Moores leaving was seen by many as a foregone conclusion, especially considering how Unshakable Pietersen was just this much away from stamping his feet and throwing a temper tantrum if Peter didn't leave. Plus, Moores doesn't have a great track record as the English coach to back him up, either - some of which could be his fault, too. But for Pietersen, Harbinger of Fresh Hope for the English Team, to resign as well? That's... that's just a sucker punch for the ECB.

Apparently Pietersen resigned because the ECB didn't respond quickly enough to his demands. Uh... sure, KP. Rebel against the strongly-ECB backed coach and expect the board to immediately bend over. That's not whacked out at all. It's funny now to look upon all the flood of articles, opinion and conjecture that came out when Pietersen was appointed captain, following Vaughan's teary resignation. Funny that all of that seems to amount to nothing barely five months later.

What will the ECB do now? No captain, no coach, major leadership crisis, the Ashes barely six months away, and oh, look! Is that a kitchen sink I see flying toward Mr. Clarke and co.'s collective heads?

Whatever the outcome, the matter promises more delicious drama to come. :D

Plus, SA lost to Aussies in Sydney! By 103 runs! I don't know what to make of the result, since I didn't follow the match, but some obvious things stand out: Australia get to hold onto their official ICC no. 1 ranking for a little while longer, South Africa seem lost without Smith, the Saffers suck at playing dead-rubbers, and why the hell was McKenzie leading the team instead of Mark Boucher?

And also, coming to Ranji cricket? It's Mumbai v UP for the final.

Mumbai, going through? Okay. Fine.

Tamil Nadu, losing to UP after scoring 445 in the first innings (after being freakin 296/2 at the end of day 1), having UP 63/3 at one stage, Kaif and Raina in the hut, and allowing two players with first-class averages in the mid-20s to build a 300+ run partnership, dropping several chances along the way?

Unforgivable!

Of course, with Dinesh Kaarthick leading, I was surprised they even made it to the semis. What, DK, huh? Expecting Balaji to pull out another 5 for 7 spell like he did against Bengal from the Alternate Dimensions of Magical Matchwinning Spells? It ain't that easy, ya know. Sheesh, the awesomeness of MukundnVijay, Badrinath, Balaji... all of it is wasted on you. Utterly wasted. Don't even ask why I dislike DK, I just do. Urupudaadhunga. Cha!

What a first week. I hope things get better, personally and on the cricketing front.