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| Sanga will depend on the old brigade |
The cream of world cricket has begun to arrive in England for what is being touted as the latest blockbuster on the world stage, the T-20 World Cup which gets underway in England on Friday.
But even the favourites are admitting that newest World Cup in the world will have its fair share of intrigue, thrills and spills usually associated with global showdowns.
“Twenty20 is a format where there are no favourites. There is no place for tags in this explosive format as any player can change the course of the game in no time. It's down to which team plays better cricket on that day”, said India opener Gautam Gambhir who will be a member of the defending champions.
Gambhir’s remarks only reinforces the fact that cricket’s most vibrant crowd-puller is as unpredictable as a lottery going by the fact that most of the players in the arena have come off an Indian Premier League in which two teams that finished at the bottom of last year’s event Bangalore and Deccan Chargers entered the 2009 final.
Pakistan, the losing finalist at the inaugural World Cup in South Africa also acknowledges that the tournament is not for the faint hearted. “We have the talent, but it's a tough competition where other teams will do their best to finish at the top”, said Pakistan skipper Younis Khan.
Sri Lanka prefer not to be drawn into a verbal showdown and will be keeping their fingers crossed. “All countries are going to come with a plan and every player in the team should know his role”, said skipper Kumar Sangakkara.
The south paw Sri Lankan leads a team that has some ageing brigades with no place to hide this time as their followers have now come to grips with Twenty-20 cricket and failures may not be tolerated.
But countries like England and Australia are hoping that a little bit of luck could push them in the quest for the title after the former lost out on the services of an injured Andrew Flintoff and the latter is taking a gamble with speedster Brett Lee.“It is somewhat of a risk. He (Lee) probably isn't quite ready, but with a few more games he will get there,” said Australia’s chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch.
On the positive side South Africa and New Zealand are perhaps the only teams that could spread out their wares for rivals to see.
“We have plenty of match-winners with bat and ball; it's a matter of them performing as consistently as possible. This is our strongest squad so there are no excuses,” said New Zealand coach Andy Moles.
Likewise South African coach Micky Arthur said: “Whether the conditions suit pace or slow bowling, I believe we can field a team with seven possible bowlers and batting down to number ten”.
Teams: Group A- Bangladesh, India, Ireland. Group B: England, Netherlands, Pakistan. Group C: Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies. Group D: New Zealand Scotland, South Africa. |
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