Worst World Cup "on paper"

[GIMH]

It'll be funny seeing you actually support someone for more than just a couple of games for a change.

[silentstriker]

Meh, lets get this thing over with so we can focus on some real cricket happening afterwards.

[Himannv]

I forgot there was a World Cup going on once India got knocked out.

Sri Lanka, on the other hand, went on the finals and I was drunk for that whole weekend. We lost spectacularly to a squash ball and I ended up with a splitting headache bailing my friend out of jail for drunk driving. What a party..

[centurymaker]

Meh, lets get this thing over with so we can focus on some real cricket happening afterwards.

This is what counts in the end!!! The world cup!!!!

[Uppercut]

It'll be funny seeing you actually support someone for more than just a couple of games for a change.

Yeah, but we suck hard in typical subcontinental conditions so it'll probably result in ongoing mockery or, if people really want to annoy me, patronising comments about how hard we were trying while losing by 370 runs.

Looking forward to it soo much regardless... so this is what it was like to be an England fan in the build up to every Ashes between '89 and '05.

[GingerFurball]

The main reason the Super 8s were so boring was because India and Pakistan had exited though.

Nah, the reason the Super 8s were so boring was because of a complete lack of close, exciting games.

The only game that was really close and exciting was West Indies v England, and that came after both sides have been eliminated. Even Bangladesh v South Africa wasn't particularly close, Bangladesh were well on top from about the 30th over of their innings.

[Spikey]

Meh, lets get this thing over with so we can focus on some real cricket happening afterwards.

?

[biased indian]

Meh, lets get this thing over with so we can focus on some real cricket happening afterwards.

Didnt knew that you had such huge intrest in IPL..

[silentstriker]

The what?

[silentstriker]

This is what counts in the end!!! The world cup!!!!

We just differ in what we find important . I don't care much about ODIs. If India were to lose every ODI from now until the end of time, it wouldn't really bother me.

[Shri]

I forgot there was a World Cup going on once India got knocked out.

Wtf are you on about? The 2007 WC was abandoned midway through the India-Bangladesh game.

[pup11]

Ok, so everyone knows that Australia aren't as good "on paper" as they have been for quite some time.

However, having watched a number of the other major countries over the past few months, the standard of the other teams in this WC really appears to be relatively poor as well

SA are representative of most teams in that they have an excellent core group of players but have precious little to back it up

SL have some high quality batsmen but will only field a couple of decent bowlers

Ditto India

Ditto NZ but with only one bowler

Pakistan are anyone's guess

WI are no hope

Only England look balanced but they lack players of the highest quality

I'd go as far to say that every major nation, bar possibly England, could point to virtually any team that they have fielded in the past 15-20 years and declare them better "on paper"

Dont get me wrong, I'm expecting an exciting contest as there is no longer a dominant team, but the overall standard simply doesnt appear to be there IMO

Don't know what you are taking about mate, Sri Lanka probably has the best LO bowling attack in the world atm, an attack consisting of Murali, Mendis, Malinga, Kulasekara, Matthews, Perara gives them great variety and penetration.
Indian batting line-up probably looks the strongest one world cricket has seen in a while, whereas the English side looks a good all-round unit that isn't really particularly dependent on one or two blokes to win them games and in Strauss, KP, Swann and Morgan they have got quality players as well.
Its really Australia and South Africa that have come back to the pack in the last 12 months or so, also Pakistan would have been one of the firm favourites had Butt, Aamir and Asif been in the mix.
Which finally leaves us with New Zealand, they are the one team that have never really looked that threatening on paper but they still pretty consistently make it into the last stages of an ICC tournament, in McCullum, Vettori, Styris Mills, Ryder, Taylor they have enough firepower to give the other fancied sides a good run for their money, and lets not forget that the format of the tournament is such that after the group stages you just need to win three games to lift the trophy and this might throw up a few surprises.
So put it in a nut shell what teams look like on paper ain't going to mean much once the tournament starts, its how you gel together and gather momentum as a unit during the course of the tournament that is what's really gonna matter.

[GIMH]

?

In fine form lately.

[smalishah84]

Don't know what you are taking about mate, Sri Lanka probably has the best LO bowling attack in the world atm, an attack consisting of Murali, Mendis, Malinga, Kulasekara, Matthews, Perara gives them great variety and penetration.
Indian batting line-up probably looks the strongest one world cricket has seen in a while, whereas the English side looks a good all-round unit that isn't really particularly dependent on one or two blokes to win them games and in Strauss, KP, Swann and Morgan they have got quality players as well.
Its really Australia and South Africa that have come back to the pack in the last 12 months or so, also Pakistan would have been one of the firm favourites had Butt, Aamir and Asif been in the mix.
Which finally leaves us with New Zealand, they are the one team that have never really looked that threatening on paper but they still pretty consistently make it into the last stages of an ICC tournament, in McCullum, Vettori, Styris Mills, Ryder, Taylor they have enough firepower to give the other fancied sides a good run for their money, and lets not forget that the format of the tournament is such that after the group stages you just need to win three games to lift the trophy and this might throw up a few surprises.
So put it in a nut shell what teams look like on paper ain't going to mean much once the tournament starts, its how you gel together and gather momentum as a unit during the course of the tournament that is what's really gonna matter.

Interesting observation but I think what you point out is that teams are probably evenly matched rather than being inherently strong.

[pup11]

Interesting observation but I think what you point out is that teams are probably evenly matched rather than being inherently strong.

Yeah... my point is that I don't agree with social that teams like India, England, Sri Lanka are weaker when compared to their squads from the last worldcup.
Australia and South Africa were the two most dominant sides for the last two decades and they seem to have lost that advantage coming into this worldcup, and maybe that's making social believe that the overall standard of all the other teams have eroded as well which isn't true.
For me on paper India and Sri Lanka go into this worldcup as very firm favourites on the back of their respective batting and bowling line-ups, having said that certain teams that are looking weak on 'paper' might surprise a few people because of the format of tournament.