[Rich the Great]

Kicking off round about now, with Windies against SA.

Expectations anyone? Australia to rape all other teams, or a more close competition between the Test nations?

Best fielder, run scorer, wicket/economy, lets hear your predictions people. My money is on guys like Symonds, de Villiers, not only strong and athletic in the field, but top class flayers of bowling.

[Falco]

Meh. Really not a fan of the Twenty20 format.

[Grumble]

Don't laugh but maybe England could do something if they play specalist 20/20 players

[caladanbrood]

the key with this type of format is that anyone could win it. England and south africa have both gone for specialist 2020 players, with a lot of domestic experience, and this could be key, especially in the latter stages.

[dktorode]

Meh....We did ok lastnight...got lucky with a few drop catches (West Indies lack of discipline continues)

[Tsundoku]

Hmmm, I think making a World Cup out of what is essentially a hit and giggle way to start a tour is a bit much.

I might watch a bit if I'm up when the Australia matches are on (they don't bother televising the other ones here on free-to-air), but I'm not going to go out of my way to watch it.

Cheers,

La Sombra, diffident

[dktorode]

Sombra;208318 said:

Hmmm, I think making a World Cup out of what is essentially a hit and giggle way to start a tour is a bit much.

Funny...people were saying that 30yrs ago about 1 day games.

[Tsundoku]

Point.

However, the first ODI World Cup and World Series Cricket pretty much saved the game, having been introduced at a time when ratings and crowd numbers were plummetting. The purists and the nature of Test cricket tended to turn people off.

The modern game is pretty safe and 20/20 was introduced to start tours with a bit of harmless, meaningless fun, as well as creating a form of the game that the goldfish generation could comprehend. I think the 20/20 WC is more a sign of the ICBs greed for TV revenue than anything else. I think as it is we have far too many ODIs, but that's probably due largely to Indian bookmakers and the greed of the various national cricket boards.

I think the 50 over ODI eventually came to be regarded as a genuine addition to the game, and it produced results that flowed on to Test cricket (fielding, tight bowling, faster run rates etc). Form also counts (aside from the odd statistally anomalous innings) for a lot in ODIs. 20/20 is nothing but a batsman-favouring slogfest party - far more so than the average ODI. I honestly can't see 20/20 providing a flow-on contribution to the rest of the game.

20/20 is best used as an exhibition for non-cricket nations. Highlights from 20/20 are even better. If the bloody ICB learns its' lesson and leaves youtube alone this time.

EDIT:
As I see it, you dumb down Test cricket to get ODI. You dumb down ODI to get 20/20. You dumb down 20/20 and change things a bit, you get rounders. Dumb rounders down even further and draw it out to 9 mind-numbingly dull innings without genuine athletes (WITH added steroids) and you get baseball.

Cheers,

La Sombra, thinks the current mix is just about right as it is. Ok, maybe a few less meaningless ODIs (this includes the ODI WC) ...

[Anomander Rake]

Anyone could actually end up winning this tournament as its just a hit and miss chance. Even the minnows can win a few games against the test playing nations.

Too bad the games I wish to watch, I'm in meetings or away from home.

[Grumble]

Kylie Minogue, Rolf Harris, Harold Bishop, Skippy ..... your boys took one hell of a beating

Still you could be french :eek:

[Mort]

As a Zimbabwean-born Aussie, I'd just like to ask:

WTF???

How do the Zimbo 3rds (or maybe even 4ths) beat ANY Aussie team?

This is potentially a day of mourning - or further evidence that 20-20 is an anomalous slogfest without any true meaning.

(I mean - c'mon, at least when Bangladesh beat us in 05 we could blame it on the fact our team was still pished!!)

[Tsundoku]

That game just proves the point about 20/20 cricket. Anyone can win - which is both good and bad. Considering the Aussies hadn't played since winning the ODI WC ...

Cheers,

La Sombra, strangely unsurprised

[caladanbrood]

i notice you only pipe up about how meaningless it all is AFTER you lose to zimbabwe

Still, england-aus tomorrow, and that's big regardless of the format

[Mort]

.... Well, it would be big if there wasn't this thing called the Rugby World Cup, where we just happen to be playing Wales tomorrow.

I'll take the rugby - 20/20 is really too short to bother with; how are you meant to get all liquored up if the game only lasts two hours?

[Flawed]

caladanbrood;208566 said:

i notice you only pipe up about how meaningless it all is AFTER you lose to zimbabwe

Still, england-aus tomorrow, and that's big regardless of the format

Agreed, a good win and run out from England and the Aussie's are out!

[Mort]

*cough*

Were some poms forgetting that they're about as good at this game as my 103 year old great aunt? Without her wheel chair?

Superb display of power hitting from Matty Hayden. And in all honesty I think the only reason Australia took so long to win the game is that they wanted to make sure the Zimbos go out before the Super 8.

[Flawed]

Ahh! yes well it did look like we didnt even turn up. At least our ladies Football team had a result even if that was a draw.

Well played Aus

[Tsundoku]

Interesting article on team selection for the Twenty20.

http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/twenty20wc...ory/311380.html

Taking this into account, and having paid attention over the last 20 years, I wondered what was going on.
Is it indicative of a wider crisis in English team selection? Is it about how much more important they seem to regard domestic cricket? Or is it some sort of triumph of the mediocre? WTF is going on in England cricket these days, and not just in Twenty20?

Cheers,

La Sombra, loves walloping the Poms, but is concerned nonetheless

[dktorode]

Yea poor poms got there asses handed to them quite a few times in numerous sporting events over this weekend...gonna mark it down on my calender just so i can look at it every now and again and giggle.

-got nothing against the English...promise

[Rich the Great]

dktorode;209288 said:

Yea poor poms got there asses handed to them quite a few times in numerous sporting events over this weekend...gonna mark it down on my calender just so i can look at it every now and again and giggle.

Well, you'll need it to cheer you up when you are being crushed by the All Blacks

I think the English selectors are trying to show everyone a different face that they have from the conservative years of yore. Selecting guys like Snape, Maddy and Schofield is bloody radical regardless of their domestic records. Still pretty sure that they really don't take limited overs that seriously still, despite the fact that they need a healthy core of players in both Test and ODI (and now Twenty20) playing and winning. Either that or we are trying to lull the rest of the cricketing world into a sense of false security, ready to strike at the next Ashes/World Cup.