The Commonwealth Cricket Cup: the diplomatic event that everyone wants to win
ROME - The Commonwealth Cricket Cup, a unique occasion which mixes diplomacy with desperation to defeat others at any cost, culminated in a thrilling final between the Sri Lankan Embassy and The Commonwealth Club of Rome.
The Sri Lankan embassy had the harder route to the final having to beat last year’s winners the Bangladeshi embassy. In a very close-fought match, the Sri Lankan Embassy were victorious much thanks to a superb exhibition of fielding and bowling amidst the restrictions of a 6 a-side cricket match.
The Commonwealth Club had a slightly easier route to the final, beating The UN and NATO. Both their competitors showed bucketloads of talent and zeal for the game of cricket, but the Commonwealth Club were able to come out victorious, thanks first to some help from the British Army who kindly donated a brilliant player for their match against the UN, and then to their later arriving recruit, Dane, the coach of the Vatican Cricket Team.
The final was a hotly contested event. The Commonwealth Club won the toss and chose to field first. Thanks to some big hitting by their opening batsmen, the Sri Lankan Embassy were able to post a competitive total of 65 runs, meaning the Commonwealth Club of Rome needed 66 to clinch the Commonwealth Cricket Cup title for the first time in their club’s history.
The chase got off to a slow start with some fast and accurate bowling by the Sri Lankan Embassy. The task of winning seemed too much until the fourth over, when the Commonwealth Club’s opening batsmen threw caution to the wind and went for it, scoring 23, leaving 8 to get from a tense last over. It all came down to the final last two balls of the event, with the Commonwealth Club of Rome needing just one run to win. The Sri Lankan Embassy bowler bowled a tight line, but the batsman was able to steer the ball down to the boundary, clinching the title for the Commonwealth Club of Rome with only one ball to spare.
That was the final event in a cricket tournament which on the whole maintained the highest diplomatic standards, despite a few quibbles about the rules. These quibbles arose during the final as teams appeared to voice their slightly different opinions about the team selection rules. These rules stated that “each team is allowed guest players but only 1 grade player (italian a or b divisions or equivalent) who must bat and bowl last in his team order.” This caused speculation about whether teams had brought in "grade” players specifically for the tournament who were not affiliated to the organisation they were representing. Perhaps proof of employment contracts signed by the authoritative power should be implemented in order to dispel this controversy next year at the event made to strengthen diplomatic relations.
Speculation of malpractice remained just as speculation, so the Chairman of the event and captain of the winning team Ed Mura, decided not to take punitive action against his team or any other team, and thus awarded the winning trophy to his Commonwealth Club of Rome. Everyone involved thanked Ed for his hard work putting together the event. There was also a trophy awarded to the Umpires for best umpiring, and to the Sri Lankan Embassy for the best food.
The event finished with a family photo with everyone to prove that diplomatic relations in Italy remain as high as ever, despite the testing waters of a six-a-side cricket tournament.
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