2023 ODI World Cup Discussion

[Pat_Bee]

I’ve no interest either really. Just sledging laddo when Zimdesh get hammered.

I look forward to it as long as you actually watch us play…you’ll see what talent actually looks like.

never actually seen it first hand before.

[sam_ahm]

This is my current World Cup 2023 Power Rankings based mostly on current form, but slightly taking conditions into consideration:

1) India
2) England
3) South Africa
4) New Zealand
5) Australia
6) Pakistan
7) Sri Lanka
8) Bangladesh
9) Afghanistan
10) Netherlands

Just a couple of months ago, I would have had Bangladesh at 6...but both Sri Lanka and South Africa have really been on a tear lately. I will still say, if BD can gel...they can still finish in the top 5 or 6, but they will really have to improve by leaps and bounds from their current level. It CAN be done, but the odds are long.

That entire Tamim Iqbal episode was quite messy and I feel bad for Tamim... It's a shame that two of Bangladesh's biggest players have had an ugly spat in public.

I'll put Bangladesh above Sri Lanka and England above India. Aussies above both NZ and RSA.

The tournament shoud be good.

[Kriterion_BD]

That entire Tamim Iqbal episode was quite messy and I feel bad for Tamim... It's a shame that two of Bangladesh's biggest players have had an ugly spat in public.

I'll put Bangladesh above Sri Lanka and England above India. Aussies above both NZ and RSA.

The tournament shoud be good.

Oh yeah I've lost massive respect for Shakib as a person over this - I already didn't hold him up that highly. Tamim reacted the way anyone would have in his situation...definitely an Asian cricketer. Shakib idk what was going on through his mind...he clearly believes his own myth that he's some kind of demigod figure in Bangladeshi cricket. He's lost a lot of his fans during this fiasco. But hey, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen just had a very public rift just a few months ago (possibly far earlier).

Anyways, back to the cricket!

I definitely believe Bangladesh are a far better side than Sri Lanka...but SL have beaten us the last 2 times and 4 out of the last 5 or something like that. I expect the record to be settled in the World Cup. I will also take the hawish/bullish stance and say that Bangladesh should be able to beat 2 out of England/Australia/South Africa/New Zealand in these conditions.

RSA's batting looks scary to me...just as imposing as England and India! If anything, RSA has a weak ODI bowling attack, IMO.

Expounding on my rankings above:

1) India have home advantage, a full strength side, and SKY seems to have cracked the 50 over code. Only possible weakness is age factor with so many 30+ players. Some niggles might be inevitable. Home team has won the last 3 ODI world cups...

2) England's awesome batting, perhaps even better than India's. Average bowling, but when your batters can regularly threaten 400 totals, a club cricket bowling attack will still win most games. As with India age may be a factor.

3) South Africa - Mediocre to decent bowling, but their batting lineup looks incredible. But its almost guaranteed they will choke for 1 million seventy third time.

4) New Zealand would be higher if not for Kane's injury and fitness...he's not 25 years old anymore. Southee is hurt and both he and Boult are in their mid 30s or close to it. Ross Taylor's absence will be felt. Can their unbelievable run of semi-final or better finishes keep going?

5) Australia - recent form is poor, but they were resting a lot of players. If any team has the potential to soar in my rankings, its the Aussies. Can't disregard their championship pedigree either.

6) Pakistan - as always unpredictable: they will lose when you least expect it, and win when you count them out. Never too far from the headlines or a scandal what would a cricket tournament be without Pakistan?

7) Sri Lanka - one of the hottest teams around on results, but its a testament to how far the 1996 champions have fallen that an 11 game winning streak only puts them at 7th place. Still, the most talent this team has had since 2015.

8) Bangladesh - drama off the field, drama on it...that sums up Bangladesh over the last several years. Some senior old heads plus some up and coming young'uns with loads of talent. First Bangladesh squad to include players with an ICC title in their resume (4 players from the 2020 Under-19 World Cup Champion team).

9) Afghanistan - lots of talent, even more attitude. No matter the situation, you can count on them to keep things exciting.

10) Netherlands - will be flying the Associate banner high by crashing the party of Test nations. A win or two is sure to go down in history along with some the greatest upsets in World Cup history.

[sam_ahm]

That entire Tamim Iqbal episode was quite messy and I feel bad for Tamim... It's a shame that two of Bangladesh's biggest players have had an ugly spat in public.

I'll put Bangladesh above Sri Lanka and England above India. Aussies above both NZ and RSA.

The tournament shoud be good.

Oh yeah I've lost massive respect for Shakib as a person over this - I already didn't hold him up that highly. Tamim reacted the way anyone would have in his situation...definitely an Asian cricketer. Shakib idk what was going on through his mind...he clearly believes his own myth that he's some kind of demigod figure in Bangladeshi cricket. He's lost a lot of his fans during this fiasco. But hey, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen just had a very public rift just a few months ago (possibly far earlier).

Anyways, back to the cricket!

I definitely believe Bangladesh are a far better side than Sri Lanka...but SL have beaten us the last 2 times and 4 out of the last 5 or something like that. I expect the record to be settled in the World Cup. I will also take the hawish/bullish stance and say that Bangladesh should be able to beat 2 out of England/Australia/South Africa/New Zealand in these conditions.

RSA's batting looks scary to me...just as imposing as England and India! If anything, RSA has a weak ODI bowling attack, IMO.

Expounding on my rankings above:

1) India have home advantage, a full strength side, and SKY seems to have cracked the 50 over code. Only possible weakness is age factor with so many 30+ players. Some niggles might be inevitable. Home team has won the last 3 ODI world cups...

2) England's awesome batting, perhaps even better than India's. Average bowling, but when your batters can regularly threaten 400 totals, a club cricket bowling attack will still win most games. As with India age may be a factor.

3) South Africa - Mediocre to decent bowling, but their batting lineup looks incredible. But its almost guaranteed they will choke for 1 million seventy third time.

4) New Zealand would be higher if not for Kane's injury and fitness...he's not 25 years old anymore. Southee is hurt and both he and Boult are in their mid 30s or close to it. Ross Taylor's absence will be felt. Can their unbelievable run of semi-final or better finishes keep going?

5) Australia - recent form is poor, but they were resting a lot of players. If any team has the potential to soar in my rankings, its the Aussies. Can't disregard their championship pedigree either.

6) Pakistan - as always unpredictable: they will lose when you least expect it, and win when you count them out. Never too far from the headlines or a scandal what would a cricket tournament be without Pakistan?

7) Sri Lanka - one of the hottest teams around on results, but its a testament to how far the 1996 champions have fallen that an 11 game winning streak only puts them at 7th place. Still, the most talent this team has had since 2015.

8) Bangladesh - drama off the field, drama on it...that sums up Bangladesh over the last several years. Some senior old heads plus some up and coming young'uns with loads of talent. First Bangladesh squad to include players with an ICC title in their resume (4 players from the 2020 Under-19 World Cup Champion team).

9) Afghanistan - lots of talent, even more attitude. No matter the situation, you can count on them to keep things exciting.

10) Netherlands - will be flying the Associate banner high by crashing the party of Test nations. A win or two is sure to go down in history along with some the greatest upsets in World Cup history.

Interesting point you've made about the age factor related to Indian team. No body is talking about it but yeah I agree, it's an old team which lacks fresh faces, may be except Gill and Siraj. It reminds me of the 2003 Pakistan WC Squad, very strong on paper but a lot of those guys were past their peak. Let's see how it goes for India.

Pakistan will desperately miss Naseem Shah, he was looking so good, was bowling beautifully before that Injury happened. Really gutted for him.

Fair assessment of the teams, I too have a feeling that South Africa may punch above their weight this time provided they play the right XI ... Drop Lungi.. Play Rabada, Coetzee, Jansen, Maharaj and Shamsi as bowlers... They have a very good batting line up and the above 5 bowlers are good enough to do the job.

Bangladesh probably have their best bowling attack till date and that's despite Ebadot missing out. I was also quite impresses by Tanzim Hasan Sakib... Looked really good.

[Kriterion_BD]

Less than 24 hours to go...gonna have to set my alarm and wake up for NZ vs ENG!

Should be a great tournament!

[andrea lanzoni]

I'm watching the inauguration match of this World Cup.
In a stadium with a capacity of 100.000 people I could tell the attendance is about 5.000......

It's not only ridicolus, it's shameful.
Organizers are marketing amateurs unable to raise (at least) 30.000-40.000 thousand fans to (partially) fill the stands.
They couldn't raise such a crowd in a 8 million people city!

The whole world is not understanding how a sport may have a World Cup with 10 teams ONLY.
Now the world is laughing at a match (with last edition finalists) attended by few friends and siblings.

India is world's cricket main market? Wrong: India is only the first for viewrship.
After being unable to draft a calendar within six moths from the beginning of the tournament, after having to adjust it only few weeks before tournament start, now Indian organization is offering a miserable show of a World Cup played in a deserted stadium.

[Kriterion_BD]

England is the only country where neutral world cup games will be well attended to be frank. And I'm not sure how many would turn up for a hypothetical expanded WC match between say Netherlands and Zimbabwe in Manchester or a smaller county ground.

England posting 283 in their 50 overs. Thats a good solid total, if its competitive and at the moment looks like NZ will chase that shit down in 35 overs

I think cricket is best when 280 is a par score, meaning have some absolute highway were 320+ is a par score, but also have some tracks where 235 is tough to get, and the tournament averages out to 280 or so. Its just as boring to watch two teams smash 350+ as it is to watch 185 beating 175.

[andrea lanzoni]

Yes in England they market effectively.

This however does not explain why India manages so poorly.
In India you don't have problem to easily raise 30.000 cricket fans, in ANY place in the Country, regardless the match.

If the WC organizers were not able to have more than 5.000 people on the stands it's only their ineptitude. No excuse.
I wonder at what price they offered the game, how they involved schools, business, etc., what marketing (if any) they did.

Finally: 5.000 to watch previous edition finalists in an inauguration match is something that in ANY other sport it would have been easily achieved.

These days there is the Rugby World Cup in France. Organizers have sold 2.5 million tickets: 95% of all matches capacity.
It includes matches where there are Countries such as Tonga, Samoa, Georgia, Fiji, Uruguay. All sold out.

The Indian organizers are light years behind. Their ineptitude is that they don't even see it....

[TapsC2]

England is the only country where neutral world cup games will be well attended to be frank. And I'm not sure how many would turn up for a hypothetical expanded WC match between say Netherlands and Zimbabwe in Manchester or a smaller county ground.

England posting 283 in their 50 overs. Thats a good solid total, if its competitive and at the moment looks like NZ will chase that shit down in 35 overs

I think cricket is best when 280 is a par score, meaning have some absolute highway were 320+ is a par score, but also have some tracks where 235 is tough to get, and the tournament averages out to 280 or so. Its just as boring to watch two teams smash 350+ as it is to watch 185 beating 175.

I agree with the 280 par. That suggests the conditions were fair. High scoring pitches almost always favour the better team. Low scoring pitches only need maybe 2 heroes out of 11 which is possible( an example being Zimbabwe winning in Australia)

[Kriterion_BD]

Well looks like 280 was way under par there lol. Perhaps this entire tournament will be win the toss bowl first especially for the day night games as winter creeps in…

Bangladesh are in for a bit of a tricky first game. It will be the first day game and way up in the north. I reckon in those conditions bowling first would be the way to go.