What If...

Perhaps this is one of the most "open" world cups in a long time. Thanks to the Ashes defeat of Australia. So instead of picking favorites, we said lets envision a "What if..." for each team

So here goes.


What if


...England win the World Cup
Bombay will be treated to the Bhangra version of the sprinkler dance. Shirtless. The headlines back home will be "England retain the Ashes". Likelihood of England winning: Very unlikely

...Australia win the World Cup
We will know exactly what the Egyptian protesters are feeling. The headlines all over will be "Michael Hussey fit for the IPL". Likelihood of Australia winning: Very likely

...Sri Lanka win the World Cup
Technically, it will be the second time a host nation wins the World Cup. The jinx of a host nation never winning the World Cup will be kept alive. The headline in Australia will be "Murali chucks Austrlia's reign as champions". Likelihood of Sri Lanka winning: Likely

...South Africa win the World Cup
Clint Eastwood will direct a movie "Chokes of our Fathers". A story of how Jacob Zuma inspired Greame Smith to overcome a team torn apart by affirmative action; to prove a negative. That the Proteas are chokers no more. Likelihood of South Africa not choking: Very likely

...India win the World Cup
Sachin Tendulkar will say...well you guessed it... "It was just another win". Gary Kirsten will receive the Bharat Ratna and we will need 20 computer screens side-by-side to read the headlines on Times of India. Likelihood of India winning: Somewhat likely


...Pakistan win the World Cup

Shahid Afridi will show Imran Khan how it is done. The victory speech I mean. The headlines in India will be "Bombay burns as Pakistan celebrate". Likelihood of Pakistan winning: Somewhat likely

...Bangladesh win the World Cup

We will have an even longer world cup in 2015. Each knock out phase will be a best of 7 ODI series. All to ensure that the most marketable teams have infinite chances to win the World Cup. Likelihood of Bangladesh winning: Very unlikely

...New Zealand win the World Cup

Refer to Bangladesh

...West Indies win the World Cup
India will do to the West Indies what Clive Lloyd did to them in 1984. Likelihood of West Indies winning: Somewhat likely


...Zimbabwe win the World Cup

Will fast track the death of the 50 over game. It will have the exact opposite effect from the 1983 world cup. 

Likelihood of Zimbabwe winning: Very unlikely

Interestingly, if any of Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands, or Canada win the World Cup, they won't get a chance to defend it in 2015. The ICC has already determined that any of these nations winning the World Cup is impossible. So who am I to assess a likelihood to that.

World Cup Campaigns Begin

True to form, England began their World Cup campaign by doing what they do best. Whining! Two "slams" to the schedule by the English cricketing nobility - Pietersen and Maclaurin. This time strangely the schedule is being criticized for too much rest between games by Pietersen. The other guy is slamming the combined Ashes and WC schedule for being too busy.


Apparently, England don't play their best cricket when they are awfully busy or fully rested. It appears that the reason they have lost against Australia in the ODIs is because that schedule does not reflect true World Cup 'practice'. So they simply didn't put their heart and soul into practice ODIs that were not really practice.

Interestingly enough, they are going home to England for three days prior to flying to Dhaka. The ICC masterminded this additional leg in the journey to further tire out the English team. Right after that, they will have a surge of rest. The World Cup organizers and ICC, led by the cunning Indians, are hoping that this combination of extreme travel and extreme rest will kill England's ability to make an impact in the World Cup.

Unlike England though, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand are not as busy. Since Australia played exactly the same number of days as England, but at home, their schedule counts as rest. Given how hard Australia had to work to beat England in the ODIs, it appears to some that both teams were resting.

Pakistan and New Zealand were simply practicing resting while playing their games. The Pakistan board decided to check out the team's ability to cope with pressure instead by naming the captain a little later than normal. Unfortunately, for England, Pakistan seemed to have coped with this just fine. Amazingly, there have been few media freehits by Pakistani players swearing allegiance to one candidate or another. Surprisingly, the last complaint heard from a Pakistani cricket player was from Usman Khawaja who hasn't received an RSVP for his offer to jump off a bridge.

Sri Lanka and West Indies have quietly fine tuned their World Cup preparations. Both played out some meaningless ODIs. But Sri Lanka are not practicing at the World Cup venues. They have decided to level the playing field by not seeking home advantage. With this in mind, they delayed readying the grounds. Eden Gardens on the other hand was also England's practice venue and hence had to be jettisoned from hosting the England-India game.

India have started their preparations very smartly. In order to avoid miffed egos, they picked all their first string players. Unfortunately, most of them are injured. So as the injuries tumble out of the closet, the real team will be named just a day prior to the start. This is a great ploy to upset all the plans that Bangladesh has made to beat India again. Sehwag, Praveen Kumar, Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh are all expected to be replaced. If not anything, India want to prove that they truly mean it when they say that they take every match seriously.

Graeme Smith once again got ahead of himself. His team went to the 2007 WC expecting to win. So this time they are expecting to win but they have decided to define winning as getting into the finals. Here's the priceless quote, "In 2007 we went there with the expectation of winning the tournament, and put ourselves under so much pressure," Smith told the IOL Sport website. "Yes, you have to want to win the World Cup and that has to be your mindset, otherwise, what's the point of going there. Reaching the final is the goal."

Related Posts

1. World Cup Game Changers
2. Indian team reacts to the Eden move
3. Team slogans for the world cup
4. India can't win the World Cup

Eng v Aus 547th ODI: Tram Drivers v Bus Conductors

In joint statement the ECB and CA said....

"The mercifully last and positively final game of England's temporary migration to Australia will be a game between Australian Bus drivers and England Tram Drivers. "

They clarified that their lawyers have prevented them from using the word "tour". Which is a completely misleading; if not an entirely wrong word to describe England's visit to Australia


"Tram Drivers from Wales are also eligible" - They added later in response to a question raised by the selectors, who have been asked to name the respective sides in less than 24 hours. Australian selectors were told they there was simply no time to "trim" the side later so that had to name a 15 man squad and not a man more.

There just aren't enough men with a working set of hands, legs and a non numb brain from the original squads. So depleted are England, that had Monty Panesar been in the squad, he would have batted at #4 and fielded at point.

On the Australian side, Australia's first choice Test and ODI captain is out with an injured pinkey. Their up-until-last-month first choice T20 captain, current back up captain for Tests and ODIs and as-of-today future Test and ODI captain (as long as the first choice captain is not in the side) is resting.....phew...

Only in Austrlia can some one as out of touch as Michael Clarke can ask for and get rest.

So they will be led by their official but really second-choice T20 captain; Cameron White.

The series is starting to resemble the chariot race from Ben-Hur.

A full 26 years after an India - Pakistan World Championship final was inventively and humorously taunted by a group of local Melbourne fans as a clash between Bus Drivers and Tram Conductors, life has come a full circle in Australia.

World Cup Game Changers

This has been a dull couple of weeks cricket-wise. A few ODI series winding down, but none really indicating anything more than what's already known. Australia refuses to be written off. They have combined well against England. The latter are the strangest team of the lot. They are T20 Champions and just thrashed Australia in the Ashes. But they appear to be an ODI dud. It's hard to imagine England suddenly becoming ODI World Cup contenders.


Australia's game changer is Brett Lee. Even though Shane Watson is going to be the bulwark of the team, Lee's experience of the Indian conditions, plus his obvious enjoyment when playing in front of Indian spectators makes him a serious threat to opposing teams. Steve Waugh identifies him as the key to Australia's fortunes and I agree.

England's game changer is Pietersen. Unfortunately, he's not turning it on off late and that's got to hurt England's chances as well as the spectators. Pietersen on song is devastating and spectacular to watch. For the World Cup's sake, I hope he fires a few times.

Pakistan will depend on Abdul Razzaq to turn games on their head. They are by far the most dangerous team in the tournament. They have always played ODIs very well in India and there is no reason to believe that they can be walked over. They have good sub-continental warriors in Tanvir, Gul, Afridi and Razzaq in their side.

Sri Lanka's key is going to be Angelo Matthews. He is a superb all round talent and will be key to their fortunes.

Dwayne Bravo will be important for the West Indies. He has good temperament, but still needs a big stage to fully emerge. There have been pockets of brilliance from him, but too often he has not followed up with consistent performances. This world cup can be his claim to greatness.

New Zealand unfortunately have no one they can count on. Despite Vettori, Ryder, Taylor and McCullum being in the side, I can't see them doing anything spectacular on a consistent basis.

For South Africa, it's got to be ABDV. This a rock solid team, but needs someone who can burst open the game at its seams. AB is in good form and has played tremendous cricket lately.

And finally for India, I nominate Gautam Gambhir. No good reason. Just gut feel. Gambhir has got to deliver in game after game if India are to win this World Cup.

Portraits: Imran Khan

At a time when the West Indies and their battery of fast bowlers were at their fiercest and conquered all; Imran Khan led Pakistan in 2 series against the West Indies; home and away.

They could not beat him...

People talk about the greatness of Jacques Kallis. He perhaps may be the the greatest all rounder ever. 

But he is no Imran Khan

Relaated Posts...

• Opinions On... Jacques Kallis
• Portraits: Ricky Ponting

Indian team reacts to the Eden move

Eden Garden's India v England World Cup game will now be played in Bangalore. A place where a bomb explored before an IPL game; and led to a subsequent IPL semi-final to be moved from there to Bombay.

The reaction to the move from Eden to Bangalore from most Indians has been that of shame. Imagine a game being moved to the Oval from Lord's because the stadium was not ready. No one thinks that would ever happen. And no one truly believed that it would happen to Eden Gardens as well.

But it did, The lethargy of Indian administrators has reached a new low.

But may be I am wrong. May be its not even lethargy, knowing that Dalmiya was involved, I cannot rule this out as a "calculated" move on his part to strike future deals with Bangalore.

But Eden Gardens has been a shame for Indians for quite some time now. Its just that we have always chosen to look the other way. Whatever charm the stadium held, was really gone when it drove Vinod Kambli to tears. The way people celebrate wins is no yardstick for passion.

But this time we did not even give an opportunity for the Bengalis to reach new lows. Had England beaten India on Feb 27th, just how would the rowdy crowd of Eden Gardens reacted? We will never know.

Perhaps it is better to accept the humiliation of not getting a marquee ground ready than to witness real shame as Eden riots because Pietersen and Sachin collided leading to a Sachin run-out.

Nonetheless the move is a significant event.

So we polled a few members of India's World Cup team for their reaction to this move, how it reflects on India and how it impacts the game in specific

Sachin Tendulkar as was expected said that Bangalore was just another ground just like Eden Garden which was also just another ground. He reiterated his love for the game and how he would play anywhere for his country.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni too was cool about it. He said that its all about the process. He said India already have a process in place to handle venue changes a few weeks before an event. We will just follow the process and not worry too much about the result

Harghajan Singh at first wanted to know what Sachin had to say. When we shared that with him, he said although he would have preferred the noise of Calcutta, he is willing to go any place to win a World Cup for Sachin

Praveen Kumar did not believe this was any shame. He said he chose to look at it as "Change" Just like Obama would. He said that he likes change and was perplexed why there would be any shame associated with it.

When we approached Suresh Raina, he kept us waiting for a good hour as he was shadow batting. Practicing his "new stroke" as he called it. A slog over mid-wicket. We left without his response

Yusuf Pathan said that this question was not in the right area for him and preferred not to comment.

Yuvraj Singh made effeminate faces for a long time and then inquired if Stuart Broad is playing.

Virendra Sehwag for some reason was livid. He said, Kevin Pietersen has accused him of changing his game and that he has never changed his game and never will. He said he doubted if England have the attack to take 10 Indian wickets on Indian pitches. It doesn't matter whether the game is played in Eden Gardens or Bangalore

Ashish Nehra said, just like in 2003 he plans to take out 6 Englishmen out go get India "high on hashish" as the English would like to say. Bangalore, he said, is the right move.

If you enjoyed this...

1. Team Slogans for the World Cup
2. Appointment and Non-Appointment of Captains
3. No One Killed the Australian Supremacy

Misbah for Captain

Misbah Ul Haq is doing every thing he can to make the potential announcement of Shahid Afridi as Pakistan Captain for the world cup, look ridiculous.

During the 4th tie-breaking ODI against New Zealand, while Shahid Afridi, was in the dressing room waiting his turn to bat, biting his fingers, muttering his prayers and holding his bladder like a bride waiting for her late and reluctant groom; with 70 odd to get in 9 overs; Misbah was masterminding a calm chase; ignoring all calls from Afridi to go 'free hitting'.

Unless Ijaz Butt is waiting for Salman to to acquitted; appointing Misbah as Pakistan's captain seems to make the most logical sense to me.