This is six weeks because the ICC have sold it to broadcasters for so many matches over so many days. The more days they can provide for television, the more money they make. ICC should learn from this and sell a shorter quality product.
They seemed to have realised this because they have said next World Cup will consist of only ten teams but they must still have it all done and dusted in a month so the tournament has credibility.
Look at England. They don’t play until Saturday. That is nine days sat on their backsides in Asia. The tournament is so drawn out players are bored to death and fed up. It is hard for them to stay focused particularly as most of these teams have been playing loads of cricket through the winter.
The other thing that has come out of the first round is that despite having zillions spent on them since becoming a full member country in 2000 Bangladesh are no better now than when they first started.
They have had far more spent on them than the associate nations and it is time the ICC looked at this and said teams like Ireland, who have been a revelation in every game they have played and Holland deserve a lot more money to improve their infrastructure.
It is unfair that Bangladesh have had most of the brass and not moved forward. Some of their batting has been appalling. Ireland and Holland have small amounts of people playing cricket and they have thrilled everybody.
Those two countries need help more than anybody.
Of the real contenders Sri Lanka and South Africa are the two best balanced sides. They have both got excellent batsmen, good seam bowlers and spinners plus wicketkeepers who bat well.
They will be very difficult to beat. In the past South Africa have been chokers but they have got quite a number of younger kids who were not in those teams who made a mess of it in the past.
History is not going to affect them as much.
The best batting side is India by far, but their seam bowling, which relies on Zaheer Khan, is very ordinary. They need pitches that turn. They have two good spinners and their batsmen are used to playing spin. If they get the right surfaces they will be difficult to beat.
The best seam bowling attack is Australia’s. They only have one decent one-day spinner, Nathan Hauritz, and he was injured before the tournament so they have brought three fast bowlers and tried to be very aggressive by roughing the opposition up early on with plenty of short stuff.
They have tried to knock over early wickets and get the opposition on the back foot straight away. What they didn’t expect was that their batting would be poor.
It is nothing like it was in the past. Ricky Ponting is a shadow of himself, some of the new guys have played poor to ordinary and nobody is frightened of them anymore.
Ponting’s lack of runs is getting to him and he is captaining on the edge.
He is getting frustrated by small things that normally would not bother him because he is not batting well and his team is not as good as it used to be.
If they fail against India on Thursday he will come under enormous pressure to call it quits before the Australian board is pressed to sack him. It is a huge game for him and Australia. It’s the biggest game in his career for years.
Pakistan have got talent and flair but you always sit on the edge of your seat watching them because they are either going to be absolutely brilliant or awful. They are never dull.
But it is a question of which Pakistan team turns up and the players themselves don’t know how the hell they are going to play so that is what keeps us all intrigued and excited. They have days when their batting is poor and they have other days when they can’t catch at all with their wicketkeeper, Kamran Akmal, the worst offender.
He can be so bad even with a pair of big gloves on that he is more of a backstop than a catcher.
West Indies are a team in transition. Young guys like Devendra Bishoo, Darren Bravo and Andre Russell are very good players. They have lots of talent but as a team have shown in the pressure moments they have not yet got the maturity and experience to handle it well.
Against England and India they were in good positions to win but then their batsmen and tail-enders collapsed when the heat was on.
If West Indies are to surprise Pakistan their youngsters need to rise above the recent failures of temperament and the big game players like Chris Gayle, Kemar Roach, Kieron Pollard and Sulieman Benn have to come to the party. That way the team might surprise people.
So what about our lot? Apparently England have pulled in for ESPN the best television ratings after India matches but for their own supporters they have given us lots of headaches.
They are playing like Pakistan. We lose to two minnows, Ireland and Bangladesh, and then beat one of the favourites, South Africa, defeat the West Indies and tie with India.
It is anybody’s guess how they will play against Sri Lanka and quite frankly I am glad we are not playing one of the associate minnows because we would probably lose.
We are playing a very good team in Sri Lanka at home but it just might be the tough match that gets them going. But I still ain’t putting my money on them.
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