World Twenty20 News
I’ve not been able to talk much about the upcoming World Twenty20 taking place in South Africa in September. There has been plenty of news from around the countries but time constraints have meant a lack of coverage here! I’ll try and wrap up the most interesting bits so far now.
We’ll start with the hosts South Africa as there is quite a story to tell here! They left out Jacques Kallis, the finest all rounder in the world, believing he scores too slowly in the shorter forms of the game. He was getting stick around the time of the World Cup in the West Indies, but he should still be in the squad if you ask me. And then when Mark Boucher stood up for his mate, he got severely reprimanded as well! Cricket politics are never the most straight forward in South Africa so I won’t go too deep into it – and they still have the players who can make a big impact in the game such as Smith, Ntini and the like.
Australia have lost Shaun Tait through injury, but Brett Lee comes back – so that’s one step back and three forward then! If the Aussies don’t win the cup then blow me over and call me Maria. Although of the countries taking part they don’t have the most experience in this form of the game, I’m going with the “best players will adapt” thinking here.
Murali will be missing for Sri Lanka which will be a huge huge blow to their chances of winning, although they will still be in the reckoning if they play as well as they did in the West Indies. Jayasuriya could be the real key to the way they start games with the bat and set them off to some good targets.
England might as well not bother going such is the chance we have of winning with some journeymen county cricketers. If we win, I really will eat my hat. I can’t bear to talk about our team anymore so I won’t. Not even the one-day resurgence against India makes me more positive about our chances in South Africa.
I heard in the news in the past couple of days that the organisers were planning to make sure they didn’t make the same mistakes as the “Real” World Cup organisers did. Well they’ve got a headstart as the tournament only lasts a couple of weeks, and dull and one-sided games will be less than half as long as the routs in the West Indies! They also plan to let plenty of people into the large stadiums, with tickets apparently going for as little as £1.38 – now if that doesn’t get the grounds full I don’t know what will!
Right, there’s a headstart on what has been happening, for the latest up to date news from all the main sources in the world, check out the World Twenty20 page at Live Cricket Updates! Just before the start of the tournament I’ll also come back with a view of the tournament from a betting point of view – those who have read for a while will know I’ve been doing ok in this recently!
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