Logic dictates that you’re right. However the recent events re Zimbabwe have brought the squad very much together into an “them” (managers officials etc) and “us” (players, English public etc) mentality. This could pay dividends on the pitch, where were really not that bad. Really we’re not.
In all seriousness I can’t see past Australia for the pot though.
We will win the Rugby WC, and give Australia a pasting in the football in a fortnight.
Still as a bet Australia to win Cricket WC; Rugby WC and beat England at football* has it’s appeal. I’m going to have a punt on that.
*It’s a friendly that England never take seriously. Sven will play his usuall silly buggers with the team and a well motivated Aussie side could pull it off.
England win the RWC?? You’re dreaming, remember they’re not playing at Twickenham…
grimpixie loved the link, especially the parts about the “cricket missionaries” taking it to the townships and Ali Bacher’s plan for global domination.
Duke As for picking the super six here’s my guess:
Group A: Australia, Pakistan, India
Group B: South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand
I’m not sure about the West Indies, we beat them in a test series in the Caribbean last year for the first time ever but I think they won the one dayers.
As for England, the gambler’s fallacy suggests that they can’t lose to Aussie for the tenth time in a row…
When I do the figuring Australia plays SA in the final or semi-final. I can’t see SA winning that one.
So it’s either Aust to win over SA or an ANZAC final where I’d put a speccie bet on the Kiwis.
However I’m of the mind that a couple of injuries are going to see the team of crocks that we’ve sent over there crumble to the point of not being able to pick a balanced side and going out in the Super Sixes at the hands of Sri Lanka.
An ANZAC final would be awesome to watch, but chances are the’ll meet in the semis (I’m expecting Aussie to be top qualifier and NZ to scrape in at number 4).
I can hardly wait for the start, have considered staying up all night to watch the cricinfo ball by ball coverage of the South Africa-Windies game just for the hell of it…
Australia’s players asked last night for the game in Zimbabwe to be relocated. A number of the players have also recently stated that they won’t be available for the public introduction to Mugabe that was planned for the lunch break.
Am I alone in thinking that the situation is eventually going to be “resolved” by Australia and England forfeiting their games against Zim, and NZ theirs against Kenya?
I also think, after the end of the Cup, the ICC is going to rethink their policy of sending World Cup games to more than one country, especially when security concerns exist in those countries.
Certainly looks that way at the moment, particularly with the Aussie Senate passing a resolution against the Aussies playing there.
Even Nelson Mandela’s getting in on the act, saying the teams should play where they’re told and thus avert internaiotnal cricket falling into ‘chaos’.
As for actual cricket, in last night’s warm-up games India, Pakistan and Canada all lost to provincial sides! (Makes my pool A picks look a little sick!!)
And England beat Borders by eight wickets (don’t tell me they’re rubbish, I’m clutching at straws here).
A further update from this end is that the ICC have rejected England’s request to move the Zim match to RSA. They have leave to appeal against the decision, but the judge slated to hear that appeal is a good pal of Ali Bacher, and Bacher seems determined to support the ZCU’s desire to host part of the World Cup.
Worse still is this quote from the linked article:
I’m a bit dubious about the INdian and Pakistan results after reading this article on corruption. It seems that the Indian bookies are still active in this regard…
As for the Zimbabwe matches, maybe we should add Zimbabwe to our super six list, as they’ll probably get four free points from the cancelled games. They could go all the way!!
You can never worry too much about what happens in lead-up games against provincial sides. It’s often a case of the international teams fine-tuning their line-ups or experimenting with new tactics.
One writer in the Sydney Morning Herald reckons the kiwis are the dark horses of the tournament. Australian SportsTAB has them at 9-1. Australia is 2.75-1 favourites.
Well, probably not. Last time out in England, they were at the top the table at the start of the Super Six. They lost all three of their Super Six matches and didn’t make the last four.
I would think Zimbabwe’s players are going to be very dispirited. I’ve heard rumors of dissent within their ranks over the boycott calls. I also don’t believe for one minute that the ZCU’s claim that the players don’t want their game moved to SA represents the unanimous opinion of the team. An old teammate of mine back in England was a Zim and knew some of the current national side; he thought they were decent blokes, and I have a feeling that they are caught in the crossfire of politics they don’t have much of a hand in. It’s not a pretty picture all round.
The Kiwis are being posted at a $9 return, including the original stake. That’s actually odds of 8-1. Likewise, the Aussies are at a $2.75 return, which are odds of 7-4.
I’d consider that unless there’s a flare-up in violence in ZImbabwe between then and now, Australia will play in Zimbabwe. There’s too much inertia to do anything else. The poms, who have been more visible in their opposition, might boycott, but I doubt it.
And I wouldn’t get too interested in the fact that the Senate voted for an Australian pull-out. The power in the Senate doesn’t control the House - viz. the recent vote of No Confidence in the Prime Minister, which has been completely ignored by the House.
Wisden has reported that the ICC has formally rejected England’s request to move the Eng v Zim match to South Africa. The ECB is now preparing to boycott the game and forfeit the points.
The right move by the ECB, I think. Glad to see they have teeth.
I second that opinion. I don’t think they should be playing in Zimababwe given the nastiness that’s going on there. My local paper had a big article about the Morgan Tchangerei trial today, nasty stuff.
As an aside, apparently (according to NZ radio Sport) Robert Mugabe became something of a cricket fan when he was in prison back in the Rhodesian days. The warders used to listen to all the games and he was drawn into it. So no doubt he’ll be pretty pissed off about it all.
Hopefully the upshot of all this is that in future they’ll play the tournament in one country from the get-go rather than this silly co-hosting thing.
I think that the co-hosting idea was a good one - countries like Zim and Kenya do not (and may never) have the facilities to host a World Cup by themselves, and co-hosting gives them the chance to at least taste “the glory”. Hopefully this will inspire youngsters and encourage the players to develop and improve their cricket and the administrators to spend money to develop the facilities so that, in the future, more such events can be held…
In this circumstance, especially in Zimbabwe just at the moment, it may have been a better idea to prevent them from hosting, but we have to remember that events like World Cups get organised *years and years *in advance (London is currently deciding whether to bid for the 2012 Olympics) and although Mugabe has always been a thug, it is only fairly recently that he has become a manic, psycotic, desperate thug…
Take it with a pinch-of-salt if you want, but an anonymous interviewee ‘bookie’ on a reputed Indian news channel said that
$150 mil was bet on the India-Sri Lanka semifinal at Eden Gardens during the 1996 WC. Given that barring Tendulkar and maybe 3-4 other players in the world who make money comparable to stars in other richer sports, all the rest could do with a million for dropping a match
(don’t tell me they’re rubbish, I’m clutching at straws here).
