Nice to see there's still plenty of chat in here, though I've always been a whole lot less enthusiastic about ODIs than I am about proper cricket. The Ashes were the main event of the winter, this is just the after-party. I'm still gonna keep an eye on it, but I doubt I'll be sleeping at silly hours just to watch it all though.

Don't really see there's much point making a separate thread, this is basically the only cricket going on over the next few weeks anyway, so unlikely we're gonna get confused.

As for predictions, I can't see England not getting 3rd in our group tbh. SA/India clearly top two, but 4th is between Windies and Bangladesh. I know we were a bit poor against the Aussies, but we had most of bowling attack not there for the ODI series. The one worry I have is that we've basically only picked 13 men, considering we have Wright and Tredwell in our squad. Glad to see KP make the move up to opener, it's something he should have done years ago imo. I think he should also bowl his spinners a lot more, he could have bowled the same amount of overs per game as someone like Jayasuriya did imo, saves us trying to fit 12 into 11. Disagree totally with andy099, we've got to play Jimmy Anderson instead of Ravi Bopara. Should have Tremlett instead of Yardy too imo. Really don't know how that guy has blagged his way into our ODI setup.

Other teams, I think the Aussies and SL will crucify their group between them, cos Pakistan are always slow starters, though I would expect Pakistan to come strong in the later games. NZ also to qualify obv, no way Zimbabwe get through.

Past that it's knockouts and anything can happen. Aussies winning all of the last three tourneys was actually pretty damn unlikely when you think about the format.

btw, I think the whole WC format blows. It's far too long and awkward, with so many meaningless games. They could chop it down to half the size and it would be twice as good. Watching someone smack an endless string of sixes off the Canadian bowling lineup will get boring pretty quickly.

Yeah the format is a joke, especially after the last WC which everyone agreed went on way too long.

Exec, do we expect decent crowds for all the games in India (games not involving India that is)? One thing that annoyed me about the last WC was how the ticket prices were set too high so the atmosphere really suffered (iirc the ICC blamed the WC Committee, which they appointed of course, in typical "we couldn't arganise a piss-up in a brewery" style).

I must be the only person in the world who has any time for Luke Wright. I know he's not very consistent, gets loads of low scores, isn't the best bowler, and looks like a barmaid on Corrie - but at least he can hit the damn ball hard every now and again. If we are going to beat better teams we need to get lucky, and players like that pose a threat on a good day. I mean, if England were a notch higher at 50 over cricket he wouldn't have a sniff, but we are not and I'd have picked him in the squad for sure.

Not sure about Tremlett on Indian pitches tbh. I mean, Shaun Tait is downright scary on fast Aussie pitches but sometimes gets lined up in India. He's unlucky not to be picked though, he was very impressive in Oz.

I think we'll see decent crowds for matches involving 2 decent teams (SA England for example), can't really expect anyone to show up for WI/Ireland type **** though..

I think all matches QF onwards should be close to sellouts..

Exactly you can only pick what you have and there are no glaring omissions who are ripping up the county game. it's not his fault he isn't that good. the one thing you can gurantee is he'll try his heart out, he'll field well and he'll play unselfishly- maybe some of the reasons why england have discarded bopara in the past

Yeah I agree. I'm probably biased as the first time I saw him on TV in a domestic game he hit about 120 out of 200, or something like that. Even then, his average for the season wasn't that great - he's just hit and miss.

Bopara annoys me if I'm honest. He has talent, but he doesn't seem to appreciate the game situation and often nudges the ball around when he should be trying to hit it out of the park. His strike rate in ODIs is 74 and in 20-20 it's 100 but the way people talk about him he's a really dangerous player. It's like he tries to be an English Kallis. At least Wright will swing when needed and give his wicket away for a hit ot two.

awesome reading and will do my aussie analysis some time soon...

Well I thought you know it being a WORLD CUP and all it would deserve it's own thread. We could all start by posting our brackets and predictions for the tournament..

I do think it will probably get trolled by the Americans for the first 50 posts so it probably isn't worth it..

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/46...thread-981837/

seems its already been created.

i went ahead and created a league on cricinfofantasy cricket, so if anyones created a team feel free to join the league. the pin is 16343

Cricket/any other English sport > Any American sport by a long way.

I dunno, I sorta see cricket = baseball, but that's from my american point of view. I love both of them, though.

I understand that the youth of today would consider that the anchorman has been "merked".

Seriously thought that link was to gayism.com for a moment

legit lol'd tho, that was super bitchy

Indeed, ice cold delivery too.

If one of my girl mates ever owned me like that I'd give her a high 5 (and a spank). Obv would never happen tho.

I couldn't imagine a world without banter, people need to lighten up.

ice cold delivery plus a "did you get that" nod and pause before seamlessly moving into the srs bsns of reporting teh news

Don't worry guys, this guy is going to terrorise teams all around the world for years to come

I think Finny needs to swap that ice cream for a big plate of pies

I've dragged chopchop's quote across to here from the WC thread, as this will probably be the thread we revert back to now.

Sadly, I think you're right. The BCCI are gonna be so full of themselves, the ICC will be brown nosing like crazy, and everyone will trample over each other to whore themselves to the huge and increasingly lucrative market of Indian fans, which will probably be to the detriment of the actual standard of cricket.

Look at the balance of the Indian team that won that world cup and try to tell me that the role of the bowler in the game will not become more and more marginalised if the Indian juggernaut gets its way. The Indian audience has an absurd obsession with seeing teams run up the proverbial cricket score, and half a billion people all jizz in their undercrackers every time one of their superstar batsmen notches up yet another facile ton, and all the while, one of the opening bowlers of their popgun attack is a whiny little strop-box called Sreesanth, who gets slapped around the park at more than 6 per over, and has all the innate likeability of a verrucca.

I just find it humorous that Badminton started this thread.

Tell us how you really feel TT, don't hold back...

As far as ICC brown nosing the BCCI or whatever it goes both ways. Sharad Pawar just got a RS 600cr ($120 ml) tax exemption for the ICC passed in the Indian assembly, under a clause that's there for non profit organizations and charities. ICC is no charity, and people here are pretty worked up about it.

Both the organizations are incompetent, probably corrrupt and in bed with each other. They are in it for no one but themselves..

We're back in this thread now?

World Cup was good but looking forward to getting back to my beloved Test cricket. Who is touring England this summer anyway? Feels like it's been a while since India were here.

Pretty sure its Sri Lanka and then India. So Tendulkar's 100th century should be in England which will be sweet.

lol IPL starts in 4 days, does anyone really give a ****?