[smalishah84]

Originally Posted by Daemon

This is the first WC I have watched properly and with keen interest. Been awesome, loved all the minnow games including thrashing, got to see all the quality players in their sides. It's good to know that with effort, we might have a new "Bangladesh" in Ireland. On the other hand Kenya and Zimbabwe have really deproved over the years, not the players faults maybe but I think it's time to move on from them and focus on Netherlands and Ireland.

Love the fact that theres a game to watch everyday, and doing work is made so much less exhausting, albeit distracting, when you can follow a game at the same time. This tournament comes every four years, If we can spend a 20 days on a freaking 7 match ODI bilateral series, a month and a half ain't so bad.

From now on, it's just three wins to a World Cup, so pumped I can hardly wait. Can't pick a clear favourite, SA and India lost/tied against England who lost to two minnows. SL and Aus lost to Pakistan, who lost to New Zealand, who lost to the former two. WI have been impressive but lack batting depth. Got to thank England for all the nail biters too

Can't wait, this is going to be so ****ing awesome.

well said

Originally Posted by thierry henry

I've absolutely loved it. It's beyond me why the CWC constantly gets so much stick.

We include the minnows and everyone complains about the one-sided matches, despite the fact that (a)the minnows have close contests with each other, and (b) Ireland and Bangladesh beat England, Canada almost beat Pakistan, the Netherlands put up a big score against England, etc. The competitiveness of the minnows is actually quite amazing, yet seems to be totally under-appreciated.

On the other hand, if we excluded the minnows we would be completely defeating the purpose of having a World Cup, and people would still complain.

It's beyond me why the CWC gets such a bagging when the Rugby World Cup features far more minnows, far more low quality play, far more ridiculous thrashings, and has nowhere near the same likelihood of a minnow tipping over a top side. It also features clearly fewer teams capable of winning the competition (e.g. there are so-called "competitive sides" in the RWC who have NEVER beaten the All Blacks in 100 years ffs!). And yet everyone acts like the whole thing is wonderful and the minnow v minnow games pack out stadiums.

We really need to work on positive thinking and promoting ourselves as a sport. Rugby union is a good comparison as they are a sport of a similar size which is distinctly less internationally competitive, and yet their World Cup is seen as this big event, for no apparent reason other than they've kept on saying it is.

**** Rugby Onion btw

quality post from Theirry Henry.

This thread has had a lot of quality posts. Great discussion.