Cricket WC 2007 - Part 1

In this blog, I bring to you the Cricket WC 2007 in 2 parts. First part will deal with introduction and chance for the big 8 as I like to call it. People who follow cricket know who those big 8 are. Fr others, these ar the big 8 in the cricket, viz India, Pakistan,England, Australia, Newzealand, South Africa, WestIndies and Srilanka.

This is the ninth Cricket WC in its history. So far there have been five teams that have tasted Wc success, viz WestIndies,India,Australia,Pakistan and Srilanka. England,SouthAfrica and Newzealand are yet to taste a world cup triumph. There is something in Asian teams that once they are slightly good, they win WC. Same was the case with India, Pakistan and srilanka. So tat leaves us wit only one asian team without cup success tat is bangladesh. Now I expect bangladesh to win cricket WC in the year 2019 twenty years after their ICC trophy triumph (1999) following the lankas tradition of winning the world cup(1996) after sixteen years of ICC triumph (1979). Wateva this WC is played fr first time in the land where cricket is festival time and those who admire cricket like anythin in WestIndies. Carribean brings to cricket which noone has never brought or will bring. So it will be great to see a WC there.

Now coming to the teams analysis. Lets analyze the teams one by one in the ranking which I feel is suited to them to their chance in WC according to their strengths and weakness.

1. Australia
2. South Africa
3. Newzealand
4. India
5. Pakistan
6. Srilanka
7. West Indies
8. England

Australia: Yaa they are still the worlds best whether u accept it or not. It is not because they are most talented or most disciplined. Its because they are the most complete team in the world. Though they like most teams have their weaknesses and strengths.

Strengths: Team skills is what comes first to mind when you talk of australia, if the going gets tough, australia gets tougher। Remember 99 WC, everyone said australia is finished fr this cup when they lost to pak, nzl and struggled against other teams but then inspired by steve waugh they made comeback. If it was Indian team, we wud have given up when everyone said so and never have tat steel to show the fight within and prove the distractors wrong. (Exception was 2003 Indian team). This is where aussies differ and other teams lack. Whether they are strong or not, they show they are strong and whether they are mighty or not they show they are mighty. Ponting is obvious strength in batting and rest of batting looks weak. Bowling isnt might as it used to be and fielding and team skills are their only strong point in this WC unlike previous 2 editions.

Weakness: Batting looks weak with no Martyn, Lehmann, Bevan, Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh. Hayden in not best of form. Clarke, Hussey, Hodge too new to create stability and watson too injury prone to sustain WC tornament. Hayden doesnt seem to be in his best of forms. Bowling is also weak wit abilities to allow team to chase 300 scores. Only bracken looks economical. Glenn Mcgrath looks too old and worn out to have same effect. Rest can be smashed. No warne means no spin and brad hogg isnt the best replacement. Also they had problems with keepers as gilchrist initially wanted to skip few matches and then later on decided against it which means it saved australia some blushes. There is also no experience in this side unlike previous sides like 2003 and 1999. Just no experience in middle and lower order and bowling especially. This means lots of chances fr opponents and this aussie team is most fragile since 1992 when they had first round exit.

Predictions: Very Big upset. Australia are gonna get out soon. Wont qualify fr semis. Lose badly and have lots of brickbats. Super eight exit is my prediction.

South Africa: yes they are no-1 odi side according to cricinfo but stats hide more than wat they reveal. Most of their wins have come in home soil and have struggled in subcontinent but the WC is played in carribean which resembles both their home and subcontinent. So it will depend on pitches fr them to prosper or lose.

Strengths: SA have lotsof strengths compared to australia this time around. Their bowling is quite solid as far as pace dept goes with pollock,ntini spearheading and nel, langeveldteyn, kallis supporting, they look to be a good set. Also there is telemachus to support in case of injury. Their allrounders are again strong with justin kemp, kallis and pollock making SA the best allrounder side in this WC. Batsman arent the strongest with gibbs and kallis being only 2 solid pros. Rest either lack experience or class. Prince, Devilliers are good but how good are they under pressure would be a question mark. Wicket keeper is solid in Boucher and fielding is world class.

Weakness: Their main weakness is going to be spin bowler. They have not had class spinner fr long time. I pesonally felt Nicky Boje was better option than Robin peterson that they have now. Simply there is no class and spin is somethin tat is not found even in part timers in SA. Graheme smith shd roll his arm more but tat is just not going to be enuf. Chokers tag cud come again to haunt SA. They lost in close in all their previous 4 attempts and on some other day cud have got 4 WCs by now but rather they have none. Such is the world.

Predictions: If they keep chokers tag away and hide their spin weakness they cud go all the way but its SA and its SA so my prediction is yet another sorry defeat in the semifinals where u will see smith breaking chairs.

Newzealand: This cud be the best kiwi side tat has played WC ever. I am sure kiwi can create lots of upsets here and cud go all the way this time. Their main stumbling block in past was skill. They had one or two great players but never had a set of 5 or 6 tats required fr lifting WC.

Strengths: Their main strength in bowling is Bond, Shane Bond. He is a police officer by profession but on cricket field he is a rogue killing every batsman in vicinity. He is going to be tat trump card tat cud mean a big difference fr this kiwi team. Daniel Vettori is a veteran and in vettori they have wat SA shd envy, a world class spinner. Daniel Vettori along with bond cud form wat mcgrath and warne formed fr australia in 99 WC and create upsets. In jacob oram they have a very good allrounder replacement fr chris cairns. There are also good bits and pieces players like styris, mcmillan. Their batting is their big weakness except fleming, there is no just no class in others especially with astles retirement. Keeper is damn class in Brendon mccullum. Their team skills and fielding is also world class.

Weakness: As I said before, its batting. In peter fulton, mason and vincent they have wat I term inexperience and highly fragile batting order. This cud backfire as a team which has good pace bowling team like idnia, australia or pakistan can ran through their battin in no time. Their lower middle order and lower order is good but it cud jus not enuf to compensate highly fragile batting.
Pace bowling is good with james franklin as good support fr bond and tuffey.

Predictions: I expect this kiwi team to repeat wat they are so famous fr, Semifinalists. They were semifinalists in the year 1975,1979,1992,1999. Super sixer in 2003.

India: Arguably the best talented side in this world cup. Does tat mean India is goin to win this W, ofcourse not. Infact I analyzed this idnian team in detail in my previous post so let me keep it short and crisp here. We are goin to have super eight exit.

Strengths: As I have said in my previous article, experience is our strength in batting. In sachin,sourav and dravid we have 3 world class batsman which none of the other teams in teh world have. In yuvraj,dhoni,sehwag we have 3 most talented young upcoming brigade in teh world. In robin uthapppa we have one of the most excitin prospect. In kumble and harbhajan we have the best spin bowling option in this WC. In zaheer, pathan,munaf, agarkar and sreesanth we have the best pace bowling set in this WC. in dhoni we have the best keepr batsman in the world at the moment arguably fightin with gilchrist who has gone past his prime.

Weakness: Well as I have said before fielding and team skills. In both India and pakistan its well known that there are things tat run deep down in them like jealousy, favouritism, power houses, cheating etc. With two former skippers in ganguly and sachin, dravid has to make sure tat there is no seperate groups formin in mid of WC. In favourin Dinesh karthick and sehwag over others like laxman,kaif,gambhir or dinesh mongia etc. He has sent a strong message tat he likes these players over others and believes they can deliver better. In not selectin powar he has again shown tat he will take wat he wants even if u perform super consistent. Also droppin kaif when he is in form, givin him chance when everyone is failing and then not givin him chance in sucontinent where pitches are flat. Playin him against aussies and if he perform well against them then drop him. He has shown he can be a chameleon and make media feel kaif deserved to be dropped. Dravid is very cunny and gets done things by using brain rather than words like dada who did things more openly and always used words and not brains. Also his usage of pathan is the worst ever seen, first pathan does well wit ball and then wit bat. Then dravid makes him regular 3. Its only natural his bowling will go down and now dravid uses this and says 'pathan go back play ranjis'. I suppose pathan and kaif shd get best support frm captain coz they are rare species in indian team. A allrounder and fielder. When was last time we had a good fielder let alone great. It was azharuddin,jadeja,robin singh but they were good but kaif is great, unsee ever before in asian circuit let alone indian. If SA wit all their best fielders can still have jonty as a specialist fielder, not a specialist bowler or batsman. Why cant India with all their mediocre fielders and mediocre runners have one specialist fielder in kaif. Pathetic!!! I have all the respect fr dravid fr his batting and commitment but as a skipper he has done things which is downtrodden politics.

Predicitions: If the game was played in paper India will win this WC 3 times again and again. But unfortunately its played in cricket field and we will have a shocking super eight exit after excellent start.

Pakistan: With shoaib akhthar and mohd asif missing this WC due to things tat look much bigger than juz minor injury, pakis have the work cut out. (u know they dropped him coz they don want asif and akhthar coming back afer failed dope test). Actually it cud be blessin in disguise as it wud mean they are weaker which fr normal teams its a bad sign but fr a team like india or pakistan its a good sign. It means they will be more united and cud juz spring in a surprise this WC.

Strength: Their strength is their batting. With inzy, yousuf and younis they have solid middle order. They have attackers in afridi,kamran akmal. Also they have good allrounders in odi format in afridi, akmal and shoaib malik. They do miss razzaq badly and he cud have made this team even stronger. Their lower order is quite okk thouh none of the specialist have any great talents with bat. Their pace bowling is juz decent wit umar gul,anjum,naved and yasir. There spin is led by danish and supported by shoaib and afridi which is also no great especially considerin danish lack of odi experience. Also surprisingly pakis are more united than ever under leadership of inzy and cud have good team skills.

Weakness: Their main weakness is in fielding dept with no specialist fielders they have big gap wit other teams. Their pace and spin bowlin isnt all great as well.

Predictions: I think they mite win this WC if they peak at right time coz they juz have correct ingredients but havin said tat u never know it cud juz backfire if inzy gets injured as he is bonding player and pakis cud be all splits again without him. More correct prediction cud be finalists or winners.But I think tey will reach semifinals fr sure.

SriLanka: This lankan team is good team under able leadership of jayawardene but they also have good set of weakness which cud expose them. Sanath jayasuriya cud just hope to add another cup to his tally before biddin a final goodbye.

Strengths: Sanath provides a good openin option in battin along wit sangakkara, atapattu and jayawardene. The comeback man arnold cud do somethin special in this WC. Basically they have some problems tat needs to be sorted out in battin as they lack experience and class except the top 4. Basically their lower middle order is weak and needs arnold to do well like he used to do in past. They have good allrounder in farvez maharoof and vaas is also good lower order batsman but no great class in them. In malinga they have fiepower in pace bowling and mutthiah gives the world class spinner to lanka. Their fieldin is decent and best in Asian teams as it has always been.

Weakness: Basically as I said before lower middle order, bowling isnt tat good except vass and murali.

Predictions: I think a super eight exit or may be bangladesh can send them packing first round.

West Indies: This west indies team is special and is much better than 2003 or 1999 team whcih cudnt qualify super sixes. They are good not coz they suddenly have all class players but they are playin well as a team and gelling together well as it cud be seen in the recent ICC champions trophy.

Strengths: Their strength is their batting in gayle, sarwan,chanderpaul, lara, samuels and bravo, they have amazing talent in batting. Their keeper batsman ramdin is also okk. In lower order in bradshaw, he provides good support. Taylor is a good fast bowler along wit powell. Economical bradshaw and good set of fielders.

Weakness: One day they cud be tigers, other day they cud turn croppers in batting and there bowling can be taken to places many a time.

predictions: I predict a westindies triumph in this cricket WC 2007. Windies are gonna lift this WC and windies are the team I will be routin fr in this WC. Fr everyone else hostin is a burden, fr windies it comes naturally. Lara will play his skin out. Other will just follow him. At the end of it all I see brian lara liftin this cricket WC 2007. My prediction is

England: The team tat u wud have said has no chance, has some chance because it did well against aussie in australia but was it england performing well or was it australia depletin will be known in this WC based on the both team performances. I personally feel it is aussie depletin and its end of an era fr this australian team like windies team of past.

Strengths: Their strength is the allrounder in flintoff who doesnt need to share the burden of captaincy after vaughans return and pieterson who provides tat charisma and flair which is very much unengland like except botham and flintoff. In paul collingwood they have a fighter. But except flintoff, collingwood, pieterson and andrew strauss to an extent rest of batting literally su***. With no trescothick or nick knight their openers are too weak and inexperienced and also ian bell doesnt seem tat much an odi batsman and everyone knows odi battin isnt vaughan's repertoire.

Weakness: Their bowling isnt world class wit james anderson supposedly leadin a pack of newbies. Paul nixon hasnt proved much as a keeper as well. Monty panesar is a good spin option but how good will he be in high pressure odis is again a big question mark. In simple words they just arent a complete team except 3 or 4 world class players and cud struggle.

Predictions: A simple super eight exit or may be a even harsher first round exit if kenya can spring in a surprise.