Cricket is fun to think about but less fun to watch if one values one's time, much like baseball, where the statistical and strategic aspects seem often more appealing than actual play or even winning (
Moneyball). In the case of cricket it may be more interesting as a history of British
colonialism or
neocolonialism and the revenge of
postcolonial countries as a kind of antithetical
boredom where the colonizer gets pasted more often than not by the colonized.
England were knocked out of the World Cup in dismal fashion as Bangladesh claimed a stunning 15-run win.
England go out in the group stages for the third time in five World Cups, while Bangladesh advance past the first round for only the second occasion.
"I'm gutted at the moment," said England skipper Eoin Morgan. "There'll be an inquest over the next few weeks as to what happened and what went wrong. Then we'll go from there."
Coach Peter Moores said he felt "hollow inside" and "hugely disappointed" following England's demise.
Bangladesh's victory also secured Sri Lanka's place in the last eight, alongside Pool A winners New Zealand and Australia.
England, meanwhile, face a dead rubber against Afghanistan in Sydney on Friday.
A fourth defeat in five games is the latest episode in 23 years of World Cup failure, since they reached the final in 1992.
In losing to every Test-playing side in Pool A - their only win has come against Scotland - England have put in their worst showing since a first-round exit on home soil in 1999. Even then, they managed to beat defending champions Sri Lanka.
We are accustomed in cricket to speak of beauty. The critics of art are contemptuous of the word. Let us leave it aside and speak of the style that is common in the manifold motions of the great players, or most of them. There are few picture galleries in the world which effectively reproduce a fraction of them—I am sticking to form and eschewing literature and illustration. These motions are not caught and permanently fixed for us to make repeated visits to them. They are repeated often enough to become a permanent possession of the spectator which he can renew at will. - C.L.R. James