Why are England hell-bent on making the tournament entertaining? There have only been four good matches so far in this World Cup, and all of them have involved us. Given that English cricket has little affection for the fifty over format, why is our team going out of its way to make every game a thriller? Are we witnessing some bizarre form of altruistic match-fixing? Why else would they nearly lose to Holland, get duffed up by an Irish pub slogger and then beat South Africa? We should be told.
How many minnows? There have already been far too many grotesque mis-matches. South Africa beat the Dutch by a margin – 231 runs – which would make you cringe in a test match, let alone an ODI. If you accept that Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are themselves quasi-minnows, then taken together with the four Associate sides, there are a total of six out of fourteen teams who will – unless they’re playing England – struggle to compete. But no one seems to like the decision to lop off all four junior nations from the next tournament, in 2016. This is the World Cup, after all. Two Associates seems the sensible compromise.
Who on earth will win the damn thing? India couldn’t beat us with 338 on the board. The Saffers choked yesterday in spectacular style. Sri Lanka lost to Pakistan. Australia look steady but hardly awe-inspiring. West Indies look tasty when they switch on. This could be the most open and unpredictable WC since 1999. You never know; we might just have a quarter-chance ourselves.
Should we give the ICC some credit? If the 2007 tournament was the biggest shambles since Alan Mullally’s forward defensive, then in terms of atmosphere and spirit, this one’s been as joyous and ebullient as a Brian Lara swivel-pull. Big, enthusiastic crowds, loads of noise and colour, and neutral spectators showing appreciation for good play. Albeit that on-the-spot reporters have observed brusque scenes outside the grounds, things are going well inside them. Someone, somewhere, has either organised this tournament well, or at least not messed it up. Yet.
Who the dickens is Alan Wilkins? Sky Sports don’t produce any of the commentary you hear on TV; instead, the host broadcaster, alongside ICC, assemble a rotating international pool of commentators, and Sky simply take the feed. In a geography-defying feat of ubiquitousness, Alan Wilkins seems to pop up at every single match, even though no one knows who he is. An in-depth investigation by The Full Toss – with a little help from Google – reveals that he may have once been a county pro for Glamorgan, who then became a sports broadcaster. But if you can shed any more light on the ‘Wilko’ enigma, we’d be pleased to hear from you.
I know Ireland is also a minnow… but they have competed well against everyone they have played against so far – Bangladesh, England and India!
Yes, the presence of reasonable crowd for even the neutral games has been good to see. In fact, there must have been about 1500-2000 people even for the Kenya v. Canada game at New Delhi today! Can’t ask for more, can we?
About Alan Wilkins… I do know that he has been with ESPN for quite some time now and has hosted a few cricket shows in the past. For the Indian telecast of the Wimbledon and the Australian Open, he anchors the show there as well. So he is a bit of cricket and tennis fellow, I guess!
I think the ICC should be looking to get more not less associates into the world cup. The top six world ranked teams qualify for the ‘Super 8s’ with a remaining 8 teams playing off for two places in 2 groups of 4. Games could be played every other day at 2 venues and completed in less than a week.