Just wanted to start this thread early, Im going to be in my home nation on Guyana for the Cricket World Cup and im really excited about some great cricket as it promises to be an amazing event! and hopefully see West Indies lift the cup at the end as well :)

I'm supporting the Windies all the way off course :)
I hope the guys can do well as they did in the champions trophy tournament.
I think its gonna be a good world cup hopefully.,
I really don't want the Aussies to win ;)

You from the West Indies as well Ace?!

My boys kick off the event today against Pakistan hopefully we will get off to a winning start

After a shakey start with the WIndies losing Crystal Gayle earlier on and the Shiv limping to 16 off 63 balls , they recovered well to post a good total of 241

Pakistan in trouble at 42-3 though! :o

But 'Aloo' Inzy is at the crease and if he gets his eye in then could be trouble for the WIndies.. but advantage to them at the mo..

Whilst I'm looking forward to this world cup, it will be going on for far too long though. I think it lasts for 6 weeks or something? :yikes:

Westi Indies are going to beat Pakistan in the first match of the world cup!! :o

Pakistan need 70 runs from the last 5 overs with 3 wickets left.. all but done and dusted, methinks..

YAY
WINDIES WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :bow:

I am so happy!

Makes up for the sadness of Fed's loss roflmao

Great win for my boys, we bowled and fileded with real discipline I feel if we can be consistent this really could just be our year :)

Crystal Gayle? Isnt she a country and western singer?

Liam, I'm a bit late onto your reply here!

The West Indies player is called Chris Gayle.. but I always call him Crystal Gayle ;)

The West Indies also have a player called D J Bravo.. so of course he's Juliet Bravo..

I'm just easily amused by simple things like that!! :lol:

Wow!!!!!! :o

Ireland beat Pakistan..!!!! :blink:

phenomenal.. well played Ireland!! Followed some of the match online and just watched the highlights. Ireland bowled and fielded superbly, and batted really well in chasing down a modest Pakistan total.

This is a major major shock in the tournament. Pakistan have been knocked out already, and Ireland are as good as in the super 8s!

Well done Ireland.. !! Along with the victory in the Rugby, not a bad way for things to go on St. Patrick's day.. :ok:

I just saw the highlights after the F1 - incredible! Well done Ireland

I must say that some of the umpiring is a bit ropey though. How long is it going to be until they have a video-umpire for those LBW's

The computerised graphics on the beeb were very useful in showing up the expected trajectory of the ball and the close-ups also highlighted some mistakes

India lost the prize wicket of Sachin Tendulkar and slipped to 65-3 after 15 overs chasing 255 to beat Sri Lanka.

I will so laugh if India go out here.

Not nice to laugh if India go out :angry: .. as they did.. :(

Schadenfreude.. taking delight at other peoples' misfortunte.

Well, technically India are not out.. but really Bermuda are not going to beat Bangladesh, by any stretch of the imagination, and that's their only hope.

Not having India or Pakistan in the super 8s devalues it imo..

Oh, and the audience for the world cup will now have halved at least now that India and Pakistan are out.. :(

Great bowling by india towards the end .. at one pt in the 43st over srilanka was 193-4.. and 50 overs they are 254-6..roflmao

Bangadesh deserved their win and they deserve to be in the next phase imo.
If India didn't play well they have themselves to blame only.

Interestingly enough........

^^thats just really disgraceful..

England beat Kenya by 7 wickets.......

So they go on through to the super 8s.....

Through so far are

South Africa
Australia
Sri Lanka
New Zealand
England
West Indies
Ireland

The last spot will probably be filled by Bangladesh, unless Bermuda can pull off a huge shock...........

SG, just swap around the top 2, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's more or less how the super 8s finish up either.

Aus, Saffers, Sri Lanka and New Zealand for the semis, methinks..

I would pretty much agree with your last 4 but I think we will sneak in there instead of either SL or NZ

Well, the teams with the 2 point advantage are Aus, WIndies, NZ and Sri Lanka..

However I anticipate Saffers making up lost ground.

So Aus and Saffers to be top 2 and then the other 3 places between Sri Lanka, New Zealand and WIndies.

I think that it could be tight for places 3 and 4 in the super 8 table.

Could indeed be the Windies that get one of the places, but Sri Lanka and New Zealand are very strong. The WIndies will have to play well to get there, but with home advantage and a few of their star players in good form, well, why not?

What a dreadful tournament it was in the end, all caused by the super eights, a money grabbing system for the ICC.

It also didn't help that Ireland and Bangladesh were in the super eights instead of India and Pakistan, who would no doubt have spiced things up and at least offered some competition for the top four!

In the future they must have four groups of four, top two teams going through, then a straigh knockout! Maybe even make the final best of three matches?

It's like round-robin in tennis. Punters aren't dumb and we can sniff out a TV executive/Sports Administrator trying to arrange a tournament with money in mind ahead of integrity of the sporting spectacle.

Hopefully the ICC will resort to more genuine knock-out games. Look at the UEFA Champions League when they abandoned the 2nd Group Stage because everybody got bored.

An even better example than the Champions league is rugby's heineken cup. It is ferocious throughout!

There are 24 teams in it, in six groups of four. In each group all the teams play each other home and away. The six group winners go through to the quarter finals, with the two best runners-up also qualifying, with the four group winners with the best records getting home quarter finals!

Each group in the heineken comprises of at least two "Big clubs", sometimes three, and it makes for some unbelievably tense matches even in the group! Then the straight knockout element brings the whole thing on further. If more people understood Rugby Union then they would know how good the Heineken cup is - it's certainly more exciting than the six nations!