World Cup 2007 - Preview

World Cup Cricket 2007 - A Quick Preview

As the World Cup draws nearer, I thought I’d write some previews for all the teams. Unfortunately due to lack of time, I had to postpone it until the last day. Here I talk about teams’ prospects, team in general, their strengths and weaknesses.

Australia was a big winner back in 2003 without even losing a match. But this year I feel all the teams would lose at least 1 match. The reason being this particular edition is way too long and has too many matches, so keeping up good form throughout the tournament is going to be a big challenge even for the mighty Australians. The key to winning this World Cup, I feel, would be coming up with match winning performances on important matches and at vital times.

Once you are in the semi final then it’s kind of a lottery – its anybody’s game. At that point one feels any team can beat the other on its day.

I don’t expect this World Cup to be high scoring affairs in the regions of 300 (except may be games involving the minnows). A score of around 250 should be fairly competitive. Since there are no day-night matches, all matches should start on an even note so the toss factor in this tournament would not be that significant. However, since it’s a high profile tournament, teams winning the toss should look to bat first and set up a good score and put pressure on the opposition.

My Semifinalists

1. Australia
2. Sri Lanka
3. India
4. South Africa

I am guessing Sri Lanka will win the World Cup…but as always I hope India wins it.

For today I will send out previews for only West Indies and Pakistan. Will send it for the other 6 big teams before they play their matches or as and when I finish writing.

PS: I welcome any feedback (positive, negative, constructive…..)