This West Indies team is legit.

For England...said this before but Root needs to step down from being a captain. Rest of the England team is just brainless. Some of the shot selection lol...

As an ODI team though, this England team is legit. Probably their best chance ever to win a world cup.

None of the other teams look convincing except for maybe India. Quality of cricket has dropped by quite a bit. Before we used to have atleast 4 world class teams and some very good teams, now we probably have like 2 top teams and the rest being good to very good to average.

Youtube has got me interested in cricket again tbh. Looking forward to the 10 team world cup. Might just be a great decision in hindsight to have less teams this time.

ODIs and T20s is where you'll find the best cricket these days. Teams can score 400+ in 50 overs now, and domestic T20 is the only time you'll see all the best players come together in the same team.

Test cricket won't last because it's not as lucrative. Players can earn so much playing an eight week tournament in India it's no surprise that fewer players are interested in developing the skill set to play Test cricket.

WI is good as far as T20 goes. Yes, I said only days after they so resoundingly won two tests.

I grew up watching WI. I fell in love with Cricket for WI. I have probably watched more WI games than Bangladesh games.

I only watch Cricket rather occasionally these days. What I have seen in recent years; WI don't have any player with God Forsaken Talent (Lara), immaculate technique (Hooper) or dogged mentality (Adams, any one). Mind it, I'm talking about the (very) *bleep*-end of their glory days. Roach is possibly at par with the Benjamins (W & K) and some miles behind Bishop.

They are good enough to take the T20 world by (Gayle) storm and would be rather competitive in ODI (provided they instill some much needed discipline and attitude) but will struggle against any team that has reasonable talent and enough discipline.

It's probably a pity that even when world Cricket is washed with talents, WI isn't viewed as a major force. They might have escaped being the Zimbabwe, but that's all they have done.

Jay29 wrote:
Test cricket won't last because it's not as lucrative. Players can earn so much playing an eight week tournament in India it's no surprise that fewer players are interested in developing the skill set to play Test cricket.

Glad to see the crap in our country for one sport is affecting the sport all together.

It's not just India tbf. Australia followed with their own big tournament, Pakistan have one, Afghanistan have just started one, South Africa, Windies, England (who pioneered the format in the first place, so technically everything is their fault)... a player can have a very lucrative career hopping from one franchise to the next. Not only that, T20 is less taxing on the body. Bowlers only bowl four overs. Batsman only bat for a maximum of 20 overs.

Excited for the world cup as well. I like the group stage format as it makes it more fair and a lot more sensible. I am trying to see if i can attend any matches at Old Trafford, Leeds or at worst Nottingham.

Yes but the money thrown around in India of all countries is fucking absurd, I should stay away from this thread tbh

It also helps how little time T20 takes which is far more convenient for most people nowadays. I still think test cricket is the best type of cricket because it's the most skilful type. Seeing it fade out will be quite sad.

RealGunner wrote:It also helps how little time T20 takes which is far more convenient for most people nowadays. I still think test cricket is the best type of cricket because it's the most skilful type. Seeing it fade out will be quite sad.

RealGunner wrote:It also helps how little time T20 takes which is far more convenient for most people nowadays. I still think test cricket is the best type of cricket because it's the most skilful type. Seeing it fade out will be quite sad.

Same, my exact thoughts on this matter.

I looked into getting ODI tickets before and it was near impossible. Can't imagine how tough World Cup tickets might be.

Not that there're any games near me. Chelmsford is too small to host anything (an England game in Essex would be amazing. Would be like having the football team at West Ham or Millwall), so I'd have to go to Lords or the Oval.

Quick search around and it seems like most are sold out....and some people are re-selling the tickets for over £1000 lmao

Might keep an eye on viagogo website.

Incredible. You would think cricket is a dying game when you see people talk about it online. But it's going to be more packed than any football world cup

Also just saw Pakistan Vs India is at Old Trafford. Entire Manchester will be on a lockdown

iftikhar wrote:WI is good as far as T20 goes. Yes, I said only days after they so resoundingly won two tests.

I grew up watching WI. I fell in love with Cricket for WI. I have probably watched more WI games than Bangladesh games.

I only watch Cricket rather occasionally these days. What I have seen in recent years; WI don't have any player with God Forsaken Talent (Lara), immaculate technique (Hooper) or dogged mentality (Adams, any one). Mind it, I'm talking about the (very) *bleep*-end of their glory days. Roach is possibly at par with the Benjamins (W & K) and some miles behind Bishop.

They are good enough to take the T20 world by (Gayle) storm and would be rather competitive in ODI (provided they instill some much needed discipline and attitude) but will struggle against any team that has reasonable talent and enough discipline.

It's probably a pity that even when world Cricket is washed with talents, WI isn't viewed as a major force. They might have escaped being the Zimbabwe, but that's all they have done.

Sigh, we had three world class bowlers in Ian Bishop, Ambrose and Walsh and before that (before my time anyway), Croft, Holding, Gardner, Roberts and Marshall. As for batsmen, sigh, Lara, Chanderpaul, Richardson and Hooper were delightful in their own way. It has been a lovely steady decline into mediocrity for WI Cricket aided and abetted by a board that is more cancerous than most shitty presidents, chairmen and DoF in football.

We are excellent at T20 but in a lot of purists' eyes (which there are a lot of), Test cricket is still seen as the real test and we pretty suck at it for while now. Until we beat the nonsense out of England, shocked the hell outta me tbh. Not sure if Jay was expecting this level of loss or loss in general.

I was expecting a 2-1 series win, but with a few difficulties along the way (because an England tour is never perfect). I only expected the one collapse, not three.

Twenty20 sucks. So much luck involved. Most countries don't even play their best players. Just an opportunity to rest players.

Test cricket is the ultimate. 5 days of grueling punishment, endurance and tactics. One bad session can cost you the game. The pitch changes day to day, teams trying to get the best conditions, 80 overs of the same ball trying to get reverse swing, when to declare etc etc.

silver wrote:Twenty20 sucks. So much luck involved. Most countries don't even play their best players. Just an opportunity to rest players.

Test cricket is the ultimate. 5 days of grueling punishment, endurance and tactics. One bad session can cost you the game. The pitch changes day to day, teams trying to get the best conditions, 80 overs of the same ball trying to get reverse swing, when to declare etc etc.

Yup. Fully agreed.

You can get a street kid and he can come in smash some 6s in T20 and become a legend lol. Few years down the line he is never heard off again.

Count all the Cricket Legends and they all have proved themselves in test cricket.

I don't support South Africa or Sri Lanka.

But the ending to their test match is why test cricket will always be the most challenging, and the most rewarding.

Kusal Perera might have played one of the greatest test innings of all time.

That time of the year where West Indies either gives me the greatest of joys or complete and utter misery. Also, Ben Stokes did well yesterday. Too well imo

What in the world happened to Pakistan?

Stokes was just unbelievable yesterday. Great start to the tournament.

I switched my pick to WI after they beat NZ in the warm up game.

When did WI get a good team!?

In my prediction comp (Superbru), more than 50% picked SA to beat England. Do these people even watch cricket?

WI have been quite impressive for a while. Maybe even dark horses.

By while, it's just been about 1 or 2 of decent to good results for WI. Obviously the biggest highlight being the test win vs England. However, upon reading up, I wouldn't get excited about WI after their win vs Pakistan as the latter really fell off a cliff into mediocrity. No idea why or when this happened but it happened.

Hopefully I get up in time for NZ and Sri Lanka but I doubt.

The quicker Pakistan go out, the quicker Mohammad Amir can return to Essex.

England, Australia, India and New Zealand are my picks for the semi-finals. I think the big group format will edge out the Windies and South Africa.

Haven't watched cricket in a while.
Has the SA team regressed? Last time I checked, they had some pretty good bowlers in Rabada and Tahir.