Assessing the Teams

[Chubb]

Zimbabwe

Duffin *
Rinke
Masakadza
Taylor
Coventry
Chigumbura
Ewing
Utseya
Panyangara
Mahwire
Hondo

Four Reserves
Rainsford
Higgins
Ireland
Meth

Strengths
Er... bat down to number ten? (and they'll need to!)
Masakadza is very talented, so is Panyangara.
Coventry and Chigumbura is a good aggressive middle order.

Weaknesses
Inexperience
General lack of quality
Lack of specialist batsmen
Political situation means anything can happen between now and the World Cup
The batsmen get too aggressive and get themselves out
They don't really know how to work a ball around for singles, it's big shots or nothing
The bowlers leak runs and aren't penetrative
Their fielding is poor
They can't play swing
They can't play left-armers
They can't play high-quality spin
They can't play pace, with the exception of Duffin
They can't play any bowling except part-time dobbers
The coach is volatile and prone to making excitingly confrontational statements, which tend to backfire
Their running between the wickets can best be described as inept
Too many bits-and-pieces players
Team disharmony
Corruption
Racism


It's enough to make me wonder why I bother.

[Dizzy #4]

Canada

*JM Davison
+PB Dassanayake
D Chumnany
Qaiser Ali
DES Maxwell
A Bagai
N Ifill
GR Codrington
U Bhatti
A Patel

Pros
*They got the best all rounder outside the test world, John Davison. In fact, he might be better than some high class allrounders himself!

*They have gone through a rejuveanation program, now claiming to be not a "1 man band"

*Easily the strongest team of the 5 qualifyers, with thier own set up domestic league producing new talent

*A brand new coach in Nicks

*Youthful

Cons

*Without Davison, they have no chance of winning againest test nations, and sometimes other qualfiyers!

*No other reconized players

*Inexperinced


Prediction: A roughie for the top 8

[adharcric]

Originally Posted by Blaze

I don't think that the gaps between 2-7are big enough for any team to be overly confident of victory in the games between each of those teams though.

Hell, even Australia can't be overly confident of victory against Bangladesh anymore, and thats #1 vs #9.

[marc71178]

Originally Posted by Dizzy #4

Pros
*They got the best all rounder outside the test world, John Davison. In fact, he might be better than some high class allrounders himself!

Tikolo?

[Dizzy #4]

Not as good recently as Davison!, he did a Jim Laker, 17 wickets, 2 tons, one of them a double as well, if he fires, The one man band could make it to the 8, possibly the semis!

[steds]

Originally Posted by oz_fan

West Indies
Weaknesses
Leadership problems
Often when a big wicket goes (Lara, Gayle, etc) confidence is lost.
No really recognised bowlers
Not many big hitters down the list

Add "Selectors not knowing who their one quality spin bowler is"

[chaminda_00]

Originally Posted by Dizzy #4

*Easily the strongest team of the 5 qualifyers, with thier own set up domestic league producing new talent

Don't know about that mate Scotland, Ireland and Holland are all stronger then Canada with or without Davison. Ireland have a lot stronger batting line up then Canada and have more depth in bowling and really anything Davison can do with the bat Morgan and Ed Joyce can do better. Holland have a better all rounder in ten Doeschate as do Scotland in Dougie Brown and both have a lot more depth in batting and bowling. Davison is past it and hardly plays for Canada anymore, he didn't even play in the ICC Trophy or InterContinental Cup for them last year. Also all three have better domestic competition then Canada, producing county standard cricketers. They will be lucky to win a game.

[Dizzy #4]

I think Holland has gone down since Lefebvre left

[chaminda_00]

I guess you haven't watched them over the past 12 months then, their developing some very good depth and have a lot more balanced side then they had in the past. No doubt their bowling isn't as good as it was with Lefebvre, but their batting has improved ten fold.

[marc71178]

Originally Posted by Dizzy #4

Not as good recently as Davison!

So the double he scored in the last 3 or 4 days doesn't count ?

[Samuel_Vimes]

Originally Posted by marc71178

So the double he scored in the last 3 or 4 days doesn't count ?

I thought you had to be able to take wickets to be an allrounder?

[steds]

Originally Posted by Samuel_Vimes

I thought you had to be able to take wickets to be an allrounder?

Nah.

[GIMH]

Originally Posted by oz_fan

England
Likely Team
Trescothic
Strauss
Vaughan
Pieterson
Collingwood
Flintoff
Geraint Jones
Giles
Hoggard
Harmison
Simon Jones

.

Pretty much the Test team there, which is what most English fans were calling for in their emails to Sky earlier. Alas, we'll probably end up with Solanki and Ali and Mahmood etc. The only one-day specialist in the England side I'm a fan of is Collingwood, but well, he's a test player now as well.

[chaminda_00]

Originally Posted by steds

Nah.

I guess you don't need to be able to score runs either...

[Nnanden]

Originally Posted by Chubb

Zimbabwe

Weaknesses
Inexperience
General lack of quality
Lack of specialist batsmen
Political situation means anything can happen between now and the World Cup
The batsmen get too aggressive and get themselves out
They don't really know how to work a ball around for singles, it's big shots or nothing
The bowlers leak runs and aren't penetrative
Their fielding is poor
They can't play swing
They can't play left-armers
They can't play high-quality spin
They can't play pace, with the exception of Duffin
They can't play any bowling except part-time dobbers
The coach is volatile and prone to making excitingly confrontational statements, which tend to backfire
Their running between the wickets can best be described as inept
Too many bits-and-pieces players
Team disharmony
Corruption
Racism