ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 - I

Due to popular demand, well at least from one person :) I am going to blog about the soon to start World Cup.

First, let me get this off my chest. Enough with this, "Lets win for Sachin" already ! Yes, winning the World Cup will add a missing feather to his hat, but then so would have winning the test series in South Africa or Australia. To consider the World Cup as his crowning glory is doing disservice to his outstanding achievements. On a different note, I think action speak louder than words, so it would have been better for Dhoni, et al to have declared that we won it for Sachin, *after* winning the World Cup rather than before. Also, the way everyone is going on about it, it almost looks like a fait accompli, ie. the Indian team just has to turn up on the ground and the opponents will meekly roll over and hand over the cup to India.

Second, I hope the coverage does not sink to the abysmal lows of the coverage of the South Africa series, with L shaped ads and pop-ups on screen when the ball is in play. There was an interesting (though inconclusive) discussion on the topic of TV coverage of live cricket, hosted by Harsha Bhogle on cricinfo. My take is that intrusive advertising is there to stay for cricket coverage in India and regardless of whether the Indian consumer is unhappy or not, given that there is no viable alternative, we have to grin and bear it. I only hope that the quality of commentary improves, I am getting tired of the same old people trotting out the same tired cliches. Most times, I watch with the volume turned down.

I will not spend too much time on the selection of Team India, however will say only one thing, I am glad that Sreesanth found his way into the team. I think he is one of India's most talented bowlers and despite his attitude issues, he should play for India for a long time to come.

There is a lot of talk about new tactics, however lets wait for live action to begin before speculating on these. Many teams look well prepared and any of Australia, England, India, South Africa or Sri Lanka (no favourites, all in alphabetical order!) could win it. I don't think West Indies, New Zealand or Banladesh stand a chance, though Pakistan is a perennial dark horse, if they can string together two or three consecutive victories, they could become dangerous, but I suspect they will tend to self-destruct rather than click as a unit. Other teams are no-hopers and just make up the numbers.

Yesterday's warm up game between Australia and India was a little surprising. I didn't watch it, except at the very end, however I am surprised at the low scores. I think the two heartening features were Sehwag's fifty and Harbhajan seems to have found some rhythm, will reserve judgement on Chawla for the moment.