[tooextracool]

Actually thought this one was a pretty good advertisment for the minnows. There are a number of players that made a name for themselves this tournament (Baidwan, Balaji Rao, Kevin O'brien, William Porterfield, George Dockrell, Pieter Seelaar, RTD to name a few). If anything, this world cup has shown that the gap between the minnows and the top of the pile has narrowed considerably. Granted there were still disappointments and the top 8 did scrape through but I have no problem with a group stage involving several minnows. What I dont want to see is a month long group stage that is absolutely meaningless, which is kind of what happened this time. Basically these teams played for a month only to tell us what we already knew, that the top 8 teams in world cricket are South Africa, Australia, England, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies.