ICC Cricket World Cup - May/July 2019

[SaiSrini]

So the talks are that the WC was started in June was because English tweaking Cricket Board did not want to mess their tweaking domestic competition. ECB first by reducing the number of teams and if this is true have tweaked the international cricketing arena. If this was BCCI there would be so much hoopla and hatred, I so tweaking wish BCCI gets back on its feet from its own internal crisis and gets back to owning the cricketing stage. A good businessmen will always protect its business no matter what and ECB is completely brainless. Giving your domestic competition a higher priority when compared to a WC is brainless decision.

India vs Pakistan will definitely be washed out. We already have rain falling in Afghanistan and South Africa match, well tweaking done ECB and ICC . Although the crowds were not present in the 2007 WC, this has to be the worst WC of all times. I am not exaggerating but having 3 games already abandoned with West Indies and South Africa being a crucial match... 4th one on the loom for tomorrow and that match being the biggest seller for ICC.. might have one today.. in this day and age when Cricket is already struggling as a sport to make name for itself, when 50 over cricket is in a tough spot against T20 cricket.. ICC and ECB tweaked it up more and is not acceptable at all.

How can ECB reduce the no of teams? I don't think ECB is even in a position to be dictating such decisions. I'd maybe agree if BCCI was involved in it because BCCI is a money powerhouse now because of the money India flows into cricket.

This World Cup should've started one month late. July is known to be among the driest months in England. And July-August are also known to be warmest, which helps everyone (England's warm weather is no patch on the subcontinent, to which all teams are accustomed to by now due to the IPL and international cricket).

 

[Alexei.]

Prediction for tomorrow
Washout, Maybe T20 but no ground covers so that won't be possible

 

[WubbaLubbaDubDub]

Prediction for tomorrow
Washout, Maybe T20 but no ground covers so that won't be possible

Exactly a country that is supposed to be first world and have worst problem compared to 4th world countries in sporting arenas. A tweaking WC and they have to put heaters on the ground for water to evaporate.

 

[Alexei.]

Exactly a country that is supposed to be first world and have worst problem compared to 4th world countries in sporting arenas. A tweaking WC and they have to put heaters on the ground for water to evaporate.

Yeah, but nothing can be done now, This WC's a waste

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Guys, at least let the game be called off first.

 

[Bevab]

Asghar was their best batsman. He was a really good leader too, but you are right.. AFghanis are on a mission to self destruct themselves since Najibullah could have easily played and Shahidi could have been dropped. I must say I am mightily disappointed with AFghanistan so far this WC. Even if they came close in Sri Lanka game, Sri Lanka just showed them why they are a world beaters. Poor management, poor execution. There is something wrong since the drop of Asghar as the captain.

Asghar is most definitely not their best ODI batsman. He's a fine test player but that is largely due to the aggressive fields there allowing him to play proactively and get out of pressure like the Pakistani captain. Doesn't work the same way in ODIs. Their best batsman in terms of pure skill would be Rahmat Shah who has to stand up at some point in this tournament now that Shahzad who's their best white ball player isn't there.

Agree with Asghar being a better captain than Naib but had it not been for him being a captain, he wouldn't have even found himself in the playing XI and that is a tricky thing for any management to deal with.

 

[Bevab]

So the talks are that the WC was started in June was because English tweaking Cricket Board did not want to mess their tweaking domestic competition. ECB first by reducing the number of teams and if this is true have tweaked the international cricketing arena. If this was BCCI there would be so much hoopla and hatred, I so tweaking wish BCCI gets back on its feet from its own internal crisis and gets back to owning the cricketing stage. A good businessmen will always protect its business no matter what and ECB is completely brainless. Giving your domestic competition a higher priority when compared to a WC is brainless decision.

India vs Pakistan will definitely be washed out. We already have rain falling in Afghanistan and South Africa match, well tweaking done ECB and ICC . Although the crowds were not present in the 2007 WC, this has to be the worst WC of all times. I am not exaggerating but having 3 games already abandoned with West Indies and South Africa being a crucial match... 4th one on the loom for tomorrow and that match being the biggest seller for ICC.. might have one today.. in this day and age when Cricket is already struggling as a sport to make name for itself, when 50 over cricket is in a tough spot against T20 cricket.. ICC and ECB tweaked it up more and is not acceptable at all.

Would like a source on this too, I dislike the current format and this iteration but last June was the driest month on record and other months are even worse to play in. To play devil's advocate, England has been receiving record amount of rains over this month and given how flood alerts have been placed in certain regions it's fair to say that such amount of rain was probably unexpected and bashing them for this is absolutely wrong.

Now where I do think they should be criticized is in how they have dealt with these conditions. No matter the logistical efforts required, reserve days and rescheduling should have been done for one. Broadcasters should have been told explicitly about this very issue in order for them to comply and fans should have been compensated too. The worst thing is the poor drainage facilities and the lack of proper covers to prevent wet outfields. Expecting such things from ICC and ECB is futile though when they are a lot more interested in making the quick buck at the expense of long term growth with regards to their lack of proper internet video coverage (a lot of cricket videos suffer from copyright strikes and are taken down quickly). Even England's own WC games aren't live on Free TV and are instead locked behind a paywall let alone for other teams. And the highlights available after 24 hours are shown only beyond 1 AM. Not really the kind of steps one would take to grow the game.

 

[Bevab]

Sri Lanka squandering the initiative here. Mendis needs to get a move on.

In a team where nearly everyone has been dropped or been out of the period for extended periods of time, how does Mendis alone get to keep his spot in the side? He averages 27 after 66 ODIs with just 1 century. These are horrendous stats for someone who bats in the top order and is seen as the mainstay of the side. He doesn't don the gloves full-time or bowl part-time either. He's a good test batsman and if the SLC board has any sense, they would allow him to concentrate on that for now and make him play a lot more List A games (has got 2 50s in 20 innings) before ever wearing a coloured Sri Lankan jersey again.

Funniest thing is that I remember him being dropped for a series versus India once owing to poor form, and it was in the format where he is actually good!

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Toss is going to be a good one to lose tomorrow. You'd want to bat first in such a high pressure match but with the weather around it's going to be a tricky first hour and not to mention that it's always better to bat second in a rain affected match.

 

[LiveLoveABD]

Good luck to all our boys on both sides of the border. May we have a cracker of a cricket match and put on a show for the cricketing world and invoke emotions that only we can.

Of course, doesn't take a genius to figure out that I hope India win by 1 run or 1 wicket. Hope Asif Ali makes an impression to remember. Still feeling for him and hope that little angel above powers him to greatness tomorrow and the almighty puts a smile on both their faces.

 

[Alexei.]

Asif Ali

Sources tell he's likely to be dropped today i

 

[Alexei.]

Chances of rain till almost 40-50%

 

[Alexei.]

So, Manchester :
Google weather at 11AM: 3%
BBC Weather at 11AM: 49%
Accuweather at 11AM: 26%

 

[Punk_Sk8r]

To be honest it never rains like this in June, by end of May things start to get hot here...last June and July were insane

 

[Aoun13]

Probably this is the biggest mismatch between the Indian and Pakistani team since I have started watching cricket. For me, it should be a cake walk for India because Pakistan has no momentum, neither we have a settled unit.
It seems Pakistan will be going in with the 5 genuine bowlers, so the chances are that Shaheen Shah will continue to play and Shadab will come in place of Asif Ali.
Frankly, I feel Shoaib Malik should be dropped, dropping Asif Ali will cost Pakistan team.