We're Almost There - And The Wait Should Be Worth It
©REUTERS/Adnan Abidi (JAMAICA). Picture Supplied by Action Images
It has been hard to get away from the fact that last week, during which the warm-up games were played, there were a myriad of problems and embarrassing incidents. Serious technical difficulties prevented many from receiving score updates, there was a
falling sightscreen, a hotel fire that may or may not have stopped
Shahid Afridi going to the beach, the trophy itself was
damaged and a
dodgy pitch in Trinidad.
Let us hope then, that any teething troubles have now been ironed out; after all, this is the World Cup, not some village green tournament and the eyes of the world will be on it. People not normally used to watching will tune in and the World Cup can ill afford to shoot itself in the foot, with, say, a sightscreen falling over during the final.
What we should have, however, is an open World Cup. There is no doubt that the pack has closed significantly on the Aussies; the South Africans actually head them in the rankings, but any one of the top eight teams could genuinely challenge. That has to be good for the game and the tournament.
One thing is for sure, it is going to be a feast of cricket that will last from here until the end of April. 51 matches, 6 weeks, 16 teams make this the biggest and longest World Cup of them all and there is no reason why it shouldn't be the most entertaining to boot.
So, what can cricketworld.com users look forward to over the next six weeks? Well, live ball by ball commentary of all games, audio coverage where possible, audio and video reports from our men in the Caribbean Nick Gear and Rod Gilmour, blogs from West Indies players Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Denesh Ramdin, up to the minute reports, scorecards with reaction and comment from John Pennington, Tom Cowle, Khondakhar Mirazur Rahman, special World Cup competitions, and lively discussion on the forum.
It's going to be a hell of a ride. Enjoy it!
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