Knowledgable Kenya!!!

Kenya is another team which has been trying hard to make a mark at the world cup.They have soem exciting players in their line comprising of a lot of brothers.The obuya brothers,the odumbe brothers and the suji brothers to nama a few.They were the surprise package last year when they made it to the semifinals due to the fact that they got many points from teams refusing to play in their country and one upset win against sri lanka.They beat west indies in the 1996 world cup which at that time was the biggest upset ever.Kenya play some smart cricket but hopefully with the experience they have earned they could be a vital force this time.We can just wait and watch.

Squad

Thomas Odoyo (vc)
Rajesh Bhudia
Jimmy Kamande
Tanmay Mishra
Collins Obuya
David Obuya
Nehemiah Odhiambo
Peter Ongondo
Lameck Onyango
Maurice Ouma (wk)
Malhar Patel
Ravi Shah
Tony Suji
Hiren Varaiya

Charismatic Canada!!!

Canada the old war horse is all set to start their third campaign this year.They are very experienced and have soem amazing batters.Who can forget John davison's fastest hundred in a world cup match.They are a very unpredictable team who may even get bowled out for a paltry score of 40 odd.The other teams should not be complacent at all against this outfit.They got their first win last year and hopefully they can pull a couple this year.Canada are definitely under-rated.

Group C

Canada
England
Kenya
New Zealand




Ashish Bagai (wk)
Geoff Barnett
Umar Bhatti
Ian Billcliff
Desmond Chumney
Austin Codrington
George Codrington
Anderson Cummins
Sunil Dhaniram
Ashif Mulla (wk)
Henry Osinde
Qaiser Ali
Abdool Samad
Kevin Sandher

Numinous Netherland!!

This is Netherland's third appearance in a world cup and they have been impressive only in bits and pieces.I guess they are the most experienced of the minnows and their team consists of a lot of old players.They are paired with the top 2 teams in the rankings right now,so they will have to do a lot of home work to grab a win.i think their best chance will be against scotland.Hopefully by experience they have learnt to play more carefully and can give the other teams a run for their money.

GROUP A

Australia
Netherlands
Scotland
South Africa

Squad

Adeel Raja
Peter Borren
Tim de Leede
Mark Jonkman
Alexei Kervezee
Mohammad Kashif
Darron Reekers
Edgar Schiferli
Jeroen Smits (wk)
Billy Stelling
Eric Szwarczynski
Ryan ten Doeschate
Daan van Bunge
Bas Zuiderent

Sanguine Scotland!!

This is their second world cup and they were very impressive in their first outing.In 1999 they gave a good fight to australia and pakistan.One of their star players is gavin hamilton who is a prolific run scorer.He has all the shots in the book and surely he will put up a great show.I am sure he will have no problem facing the likes of mcgrath and pollock in the group stage.If Australia are in the form they are in right now i am pretty sure the scottish guys can look forward in creating the biggest upset of the tournament.Their bowling attack also has one english player called dougie brown who once represented the poms.Among the minnows i will give them the best chance of snatching a win.

Group A

Australia
Netherlands
Scotland
South africa


Squad

Ryan Watson (vc)
John Blain
Dougie Brown
Gavin Hamilton
Majid Haq
Paul Hoffmann
Douglas Lockhart
Ross Lyons
Neil McCallum
Dewald Nel
Navdeep Poonia
Glenn Rogers
Colin Smith (wk)
Fraser Watts

Interesting Ireland!!!

Another team making their first appearance in a world cup,hopefully they leave a mark before they leave the carribean.Its going to be a tough draw for them since they are paired with the hosts,pakistan and zimbabwe.They were very impressive in the qualifying matches giving a fight to the other non test playing matches.Not sure of any of their star players but i am sure there will be some good talent.I guess they will be happy beating zimbabwe and hope to spring a surprise with pakistan or west indies.Lets see if they can make it to the next stage.

GROUP D

IRELAND

PAKISTAN

WEST INDIES

ZIMBABWE

Squad

Kyle McCallan (vc)
Andre Botha
Jeremy Bray
Kenneth Carroll
Peter Gillespie
Dave Langford-Smith
John Mooney
Paul Mooney
Eoin Morgan
Kevin O'Brien
Niall O'Brien (wk)
William Porterfield
Boyd Rankin
Andrew White

Buoyant Bermuda!!!

We have 16 teams participating in this world cup and over the next 16 days i am planning to review each team's chances in this mega event.I will be doing this in the order of least favourites to favourites.

Starting of, seeded 16th are minnows Bermuda.Its their first world cup and as debutants generally do, they will definitely want to leave a mark before they leave the island of west indies.Following up closely may be senegal and zimbabwe both of whom are capable of causing an upset.The fact that they are grouped alongside india,srilanka and bangladesh, makes it the toughest group in the group stage.I guess none of us really know how the players play and who the key players are, but i am pretty sure like every world cup, these guys will definitely try springing up a surprise.Hopefully they play some fighting cricket and dont succumb easily.

Group B

Bangladesh
Bermuda
India

Sri Lanka

Squad

Delyone Borden
Lionel Cann
David Hemp
Kevin Hurdle
Malachi Jones
Stefan Kelly
Dwayne Leverock
Dean Minors (wk)
Saleem Mukuddem
Steven Outerbridge
Oliver Pitcher
Clay Smith
Janeiro Tucker
Kwame Tucker (wk)

Interesting World Cup Ahead!!!

Its been a pretty dull few days for me. As an ardent aussie fan i never anticipated such a change would happen.Its an example of total reversal of roles.Now pegged back to the corner the aussies will have to come back with a lot of grit and confidence.A 3-0 whitewash and a loss in 5 games continuously,this is definitely not what the doctor ordered.Its going to be hard to digest this and just as michael hussey said " It will take him a few days to get over the 3 losses" its going to be hard for me too.Despite having massive scores at their disposal they found it hard to defend it.Very rarely do teams lose 2 games on the trot after scoring above 300.I doubt it has ever happened before.So now the bench strength of australia is pretty clear and its time they start grooming their youngsters as in another years time we are bound to see a lot of new faces.Both new zealand and england have gained from the fall of the oz's.Both these teams have played soem amazing cricket over the last fortnight and they can enter the world cup with a lot of confidence.I guess both these teams will be a great force to reckon with. Australia will have to first get rid of their injuries and get their players fit.Once that is taken car of i am sure they will come back strongly.We have a very interesting world cup ahead of us.I have decided to cover the world cup extensively with team's chances,match predictions,trivia and reviews over here.Please feel free to comment and share your opinions during the course of the month.

STARTER

1)A,the coach of B is the master of mind games.During one of his title winning seasons,against one of B's toughest opponents,C, A used a peculiar method to motivate his players in the dressing room.Specifically,he displayed images of Edward Norton's character from the movie American History X, who has a bald head and a tattoo of a swastika, alternating with photos of a star player from C. A then displayed pictures of Adolf Hitler alternately appearing with D,the coach of C. After this was revealed, people started questioning tactics used by coaches and thus sparked off a huge debate as to when they crossed the line with their techniques. Identify A,B,C,D....

2)find the third person and connect the three....



3)who is the first player to score a century and take 10 wickets in the same test match....

4)andrew flintoff won this award twice,in 2004 and after his ashes exploits in 2005.the 2006 award went to monty panesar who beat fidel castro by a very narrow margin.what awards are we talking about?

5)who is the only player to win both PFA Young Player of the Year and PFA Players' Player of the Year Awards in the same season.


mail your answers to baddyg@gmail.com