Run Up to the World Cup

[BeeGee]

They've got blue balls.

 

[Burgey]

PCB bans wives and family from travelling with team | ESPNcricinfo.com

Pakistan trying to get their players in the zone.

Good decision. Players are too pampered these days. They are there to do a job, not to go to a west end show with the missus before a night cap and tucking the kids into bed. It’s a joke. Do your ****ing job ffs

 

[vcs]

It's a bit of a joke TBH. If my job involved a lot of travel and long overseas stays, I'd hate my employer to tell me "you can't have your family over with you".

 

[Burgey]

There are a stack of jobs where people go Os for extended periods and their family doesn’t get to go.

 

[Top_Cat]

It's a bit of a joke TBH. If my job involved a lot of travel and long overseas stays, I'd hate my employer to tell me "you can't have your family over with you".

Difference is few other jobs have careers that end in your 30s if you’re lucky to get that far.

 

[Arachnodouche]

Reminds me of Lemmy from Motorhead and how he wouldn't let the other two guys get their wives on tour. Job is a job. Lemmy never had to worry about wives of course, that would've helped.

 

[Jezroy]

By the way, the weather looking pretty reasonable for the first five games or so. Worst forecast is cloudy.

 

[Howe_zat]

Each side's chance of winning, as a percentage, according to bet365

England		29.18
India		23.34
Australia	17.51
New Zealand	8.75
South Africa	8.75
Pakistan	4.61
West Indies	4.61
Sri Lanka	1.31
Bangladesh	1.08
Afghanistan	0.87

 

[Daemon]

Good value on NZ no?

 

[trundler]

Looking forward to shootouts between the fab 4

 

[Prince EWS]

Good value on NZ no?

Yeah NZ and Pakistan are both paying overs for mine. They could certainly bomb - they're not really paying overs for anything other than "winner" and "finalist" - but they're both a bigger chance of having it all click for them than that.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Overly generous to Australia methinks

 

[Mike5181]

Overly generous to Australia methinks

Any team with Cummins, Starc, Warner, and Smith is going to be up there.

 

[Daemon]

They’ve been playing well of late. I think it’s justified, especially now that it looks like Smith is back in good nick.

 

[GoodAreasShane]

Any team with Cummins, Starc, Warner, and Smith is going to be up there.

They still have no clear idea on the makeup of the top order, or the preferred option for 3rd pacer. Absolutely nothing fills me with any great confidence about Australia's chances

 

[stephen]

Yep, world cup winning teams either are home sides or have no obvious weaknesses.

1999 had an ATG Australian side with Fleming as probably the weakest player and he was pretty good. The 2003 Aus side was peak Aus with Hogg being the glaring unknown in the lead up to the tournament, but he turned out to be Australia's second best spinner of all time. The 2007 Aus side was simply unbelievable. 2011 India had an intersection of their 00s greats and their modern greats at home. 2015 Australia had the still very good Johnson, the emerging Starc, Faulkner in the form of his career and s bunch of great players - a hungry Smith, Clarke, Bailey, Warner and a few others. And even though they weren't as good as the 99, 03 or 07 sides they had the home advantage.

This year ours England that has both the zero obvious weaknesses and the home ground advantage.

 

[CricAddict]

Any team with Cummins, Starc, Warner, and Smith is going to be up there.

Finch and Khawaja as well are in great nick. And we never know what Maxwell can do. Australia certainly one of the favorites.

 

[trundler]

Steyn out of the first match.

 

[mr_mister]

It's paying $66 for six sixes in an over to occur during the WC. I put 10 on

 

[tooextracool]

Yep, world cup winning teams either are home sides or have no obvious weaknesses.

1999 had an ATG Australian side with Fleming as probably the weakest player and he was pretty good. The 2003 Aus side was peak Aus with Hogg being the glaring unknown in the lead up to the tournament, but he turned out to be Australia's second best spinner of all time. The 2007 Aus side was simply unbelievable. 2011 India had an intersection of their 00s greats and their modern greats at home. 2015 Australia had the still very good Johnson, the emerging Starc, Faulkner in the form of his career and s bunch of great players - a hungry Smith, Clarke, Bailey, Warner and a few others. And even though they weren't as good as the 99, 03 or 07 sides they had the home advantage.

This year ours England that has both the zero obvious weaknesses and the home ground advantage.

Probably a bit of an exaggeration with the 1999 Aussie side - Reiffel, Moody and even S. Waugh were fairly average ODI players, not to mention that Lehmann had achieved precious little in his ODI career at the time. And, even though in hindsight it may seem preposterous, there were significant question marks about the longevity of Shane Warne's career after a very serious shoulder injury. On paper they may have been the third best side in the tournament. In terms of performance through the semis, they may have been the worst of all the semi-finalists.