Ravi Shastri did it (in a first-class game) in 1985.
mm
…yeah, he looks a lot fitter: he’s lost a lot of weight. We’ve got a pretty well balanced unit: and for once the team is free of injury. This years cup looks to be an exciting one: no one team stands out. Anyone want to put their neck out and pick a winner?
I reckon SA are on course, but I wouldn’t rule out the Windies on home turf.
Does anyone else think that Bangladesh could be a real force for the future? India were at times being taken apart by a handful of teenagers. Promising stuff…
OK, so Ireland have to rely on a few Aussies and a South Afrikaaner, but at least 9 of the squad are actually Irish - four from NI and 5 from the Republic. And look at England - Strauss and Pietersen are both South African and Joyce is Irish; plus Dalrymple was born in Nairobi.
Noooooooooooooooooo!!! Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!
How, how could India let themselves get steamrolled by Bangladesh like that? It’s just wrong. Wrong, I tell you. I hope they pick up their act sharpish, or I will be most annoyed.
I don’t feel as bad as some of my Pakistani friends, though. I’m sorry to say I sniggered. Quite a lot. Being beaten by Ireland on St. Paddy’s day is something that’s going to smart for a while.
The great thing about one day cricket is that the game is much more open to a poor team having a good day beating a good team having a bad day. So, I think Australia has a very very good team, but on any given day they can be beaten by most of the teams in the world cup. Over a long period of time the better teams come away with more wins, but over the period of the tournament, anyone can win (some obviously more likely than others.)
Breaking news: Bob Woolmer, coach to the unfortunately-laughing-stock Pakistan team, has been found unconscious in a pool of vomit and rushed to hospital, still unconscious some hours later. 
Bob Woolmer’s dead!! :eek:
Very, very sad. I remember him as a promising young England cricketer way back in 1975 - he helped to draw an Ashes Test that was looking hopelessly lost before the end of Day 2 (and it went to six days!). This is reminiscent of when Barrington died while England were touring West Indies, and it’s the second tragedy to affect this World Cup - one of the Bangladeshi players (though not in the WC squad) died the other day in a road accident, earning him the unwanted record of the youngest Test player to die.
Does anybody else wonder whether palms may have been greased re Ireland beating Pakistan and the Bangers beating India?
The very idea. You could’ve got some serious odds on that, but I’d think there would be serious questions asked in Pakistan over losing to Ireland anyway, let alone if there’s any whiff of a betting fix. There were rumours the Pakistan skipper had to explain himself to a general or two when England pinched the Test series on the last day a few years back.
Bob Woolmer’s death has been declared “suspicious” by the cops, with all kinds of wild stories floating about his being murdered to ensure his silence about match-fixing. Curiouser and curiouser.
New Zealand, fielding an effective team for a change {although Fleming’s past his sell-by date}, make a clinical disposal of Kenya, as the rest of the minnows are eliminated.
Andrew Flintoff is a drunken oik.
Sad about Woolmer. He used to be South Africa’s coach too.
It is hard to imagine that his death had anything to do with gambling. The only way to make money frome Ireland v Pakistan was to have Ireland win anyway.
Is that a whoosh? The idea would be that Pakistan were bribed to throw the match, and Woolmer has been forcibly silenced. Rumours abound at the moment, including one that there were choke-marks on his neck. :eek:
BBC reporting that Jamaican police say Bob Woolmer was strangled :eek:
Bloody hell! :eek:
I honestly thought this would be a stress-related heart-attack or suicide…
If he has been murdered over the lost Ireland match - which isn’t beyond the realms of possibility - I can’t see how they can continue the competition.
This is suddenly getting really nasty.
Firstly, sir, welcome to the wonderful confraternity which is cricket. It’s a a marvellous, fascinating and rich game and I am glad for you and or us that you found your way to it.
I could not let the comment on Muralitharan pass however. I am most definitely in the camp that the man is a charlatan. His action is a travesty and he should have been thrown out of cricket many years ago.
Bob Woolmer’s death is an appalling, appalling event. I hope they quickly catch the sonsofbotches that killed him.
Go Aussies!
mm
Cricket…pshaw!!
I’d rather walk around town with a 6" nail in my shoe than watch cricket.
It must be the most boring game ever invented…apart from Crown Green Bowls that is