Hopefully they get it sorted out, why do they take so long to comply with basic regulations in Asia and more notably in India? It happened with the Commonwealth Games and now the Cricket World Cup. I'm gutted Scotland didn't qualify but what can you expect, most of our decent players have more important matters such as county cricket on the agenda. If England do put out their best side then I can see them going quite far, if Pietersen is opening the batting then he has to tone down his aggressive nature. At least their Canada blip was only that and are making better progress against a Pakistan that are obviously not at full strength but is still a good side none the less.
I'm not sure what to make of Ireland's chances, except that they'd probably be a lot better if our two best players hadn't declared for England!
Best of luck peader, Fill the corners in, I shan't be online tonight, as I'm around a friends at a house party. I'm vamp-no-more!
True mate, Morgan is a cracking player, he'll be missed by England, but Bopara isn't a bad replacement plus he adds a bit of bowling. You've got Ed Joyce back so your batting lineup looks OK with the likes of Joyce, Porterfield and the O'Brien brothers.
I didn't realise Joyce was back, that's good news. I've actually played against Eoin Morgan in school, I seem to remember him hitting me for about 25 off one over! I've played against the shorter O'Brien at hockey as well.
You might have been the first, I don't know but you certainly weren't the last to get battered by Morgan. Cannot wait for it to start tomorrow. India v Bangladesh, two aggressive, entertaining teams. Sachin, Tamim, Raina, Sehwag, Pathan, Dhoni. Should be a cracking game, with plenty of entertainment on show. How did the job interview go peadar?
You should be okay Peadar hopefully you can scare quite a few teams, although Porterfield left Gloucestershire in the off season, i'm still hoping he has a very successful tournament.
Bloody hell he's left as well?! **** me, have Gloucester got anyone? You seem to have sold half your team in your off season Ireland are a good workmanlike team that are getting better all the time. I really like Niall O'Brien, cracking keeper batsman and his brother is pretty decent as well, good striker of a bowl and a handy bowler. You add Ed Joyce and William Porterfield to that mix and you've got a pretty decent outfit. Ireland will feel with the likes of Bangladesh, West Indies, ourselves and the great World Cup bottlers that are South Africa they can spring 1 or 2 surprises. Netherlands will think that as well, but I think Ireland have a better all round team. Anyways my predictions for the World Cup. There's generally a player or 2 that lights up the World Cup, Akram in 92, Jayasuriya in 96 and Klusener in 99 and to an extent Dwayne "The Fridge" Leverock in 2007. My tip for this World Cup is Suresh Raina, a really exciting young talent from the middle order of India's delicious looking batting lineup. Raina is one to watch for sure but Hashim Amla will have a good tournament I feel, he's been in unbelievable form in Tests and ODI's the past 12 months or so and I expect that to continue. For England I think Stuart Broad will be our star man, he is developing very nicely and seems to have got over his injury with 2 fine bowling performances against Canada and Pakistan in our warm up games. My prediction for the winners has to be India, they just look a really wonderful team this time round. Sri Lanka should do well as well, any team with Jayawardene, Sangakkara, Dilshan, Mathews and Kulasekara should do well. I hope they don't meet in the quarter-final. I would of course love England to get to the final but realistically that won't happen, semis at best for England, but an India v Sri Lanka final would be just lovely.
I know Tom, which is one of the reasons I don't want the county season to start up, we do not have a side that are capable of winning anything. this makes signing Muttiah muralitharan an even more STUPID idea, we could have had a few squad players for his wages that he will be earning, I just don't see how this will benefit the side in the long run at all and without a SERIOUS AMOUNT of investment we could very well be looking at a bleak future, gone are the days when we would lift the Benson and Hedges Cup year in year out.
True mate, I was talking to my brother Rich earlier and I was talking about Gloucester, Leicester, my beloved Yorkshire who are all in pretty bad financial strife, we lost ã2m ourselves last year which is a worry. Luckily for Yorkshire we have a superb academy of players to fall back on, which other sides sadly don't. Check this story out mate, never knew L****shire were in such money trouble as well. As much as I hate them, L****shire potentially going bust would be a massive loss. The loss of any county would be a loss but they are a club with so much tradition and are involved in one of the best rivalries in club sport, despite having a shabby ground, the wickets curated by the Old Trafford groundsman for Test Matches are always of good quality to be fair to the groundsman http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/counties/9400678.stm
It's a sad time when criicket clubs are in a very bad financial state, they are the lifeblood of this country along with both codes of rugby and football IMO. Lots of things come in to the problem though, high wages, ticket prices, poor attendances and many councils around the country just stopping the development of cricket as that is exactly what is happening around Northamptonshire mucka, the council need to make cut-backs so in essence sport will take a large brunt of it in this area which is a damn shame.
That's ****, and Northampton cricket is in a bad enough state as it is. Gloucester are taking a gamble on Murali, it seems to be more a marketing signing than a cricket signing. They're relying on Murali to bring crowds in and get money into the club.
You can remember it? Can't have been that good then can it? Got up early for the start of Cricket World Cup, explosive start. Done some hoovering, will be helping clean the bathroom soon, so my day has been ultra Rock and or Roll as usual.
No, it was an amazing night, got slightly tipsy, most blokes there were HAMMERED. Glad to hear your having a 'rock and roll' day
I don't think it was wise for me to make my comeback from football this morning,. it was attrocious conditions with the pitch being waterlogged. Now watching the Chelsea match against Everton and will have to do a fair bit of college work soonish.
Inverness, Heard that you had twitter in another thread. If you want, I'll add you and you can add back What's your username?
Not started well in my Cricket World Cup Fantasy League Team. Suresh Raina didn't play yesterday, which seemed to surprise everyone not just me, so had to transfer him out for Virat Kohli and now Lasith Malinga ain't playing today either So I had to transfer him out for Dale Steyn.
