World Cup

[dancingmongoose]

Who's going to win?

[Phylos Fett]

Australia.

[chenyan]

Afghanisatan

[ab5ides1]

Afghanisatan

Sorry to say, but they're not playing so it would be impossible for them to win. My bet's Australia cos we're the number 1 team and we have Shane Watson who (if he continues in his current vein of form) could come to be known as one of the great all-rounders.

[Phylos Fett]

My bet's Australia cos we're the number 1 team and we have Shane Watson who (if he continues in his current vein of form) could come to be known as one of the great all-rounders.

I'm hoping a couple of the Australian injured players stay that way, and another one or two get injured, so we can pick the better team than the current 15 man squad.

[outbreak]

Can't see us (australia) winning this year. Too many of our big players are in dire form and it's taken heroic efforts to win these one dayers against england. My moneys on South Africa

[Machinax]

My semi-final picks would be Australia, South Africa, India and ... either England or Sri Lanka.

[batcarry]

india vs england final.....

[Phylos Fett]

Can't see us (australia) winning this year. Too many of our big players are in dire form and it's taken heroic efforts to win these one dayers against england. My moneys on South Africa

Heroic efforts? They've all seemd just like normal ODIs to me - good games in parts, boring for the most, but nice tight finishes.

[Sureshot]

South Africa are my favourites, Imran Tahir could have a huge impact on international debut!

[ab5ides1]

South Africa are my favourites, Imran Tahir could have a huge impact on international debut!

Pressure on de Villiers to read him properly from behind the stumps though!

[nilet]

Bangladesh outside bet on home territory.

[kezza]

Probably not Australia

Sorry to say, but they're not playing so it would be impossible for them to win. My bet's Australia cos we're the number 1 team and we have Shane Watson who (if he continues in his current vein of form) could come to be known as one of the great all-rounders.

Sure Australia have Watson who is questionably the number 1 all rounder in the game at the moment, the only problem is that the other 10 players are a liability. Without Mike Hussey there isn't another decent and in-form batsmen in the squad. The bowling isn't much in the bowling either, Tait, Lee and Johnson are known as bowlers who can either rip through a batting lineup or hemorrhage runs unfortunately for the Aussies the later seems to becoming more common, and they don't have a quality spinner with international experience or form.

England have arguably the best spinner (Swann) and swing (Anderson) bowlers in the world at the moment, and the bowling should prove a handful to most teams. The loss of Eion Morgan is a big blow but this is the sort of situation that is designed for Kevin Petersen (think world Twenty20 or Day 5 of the Lords test in the 2005 ashes), and the rest of the batting lineup (Strauss, Trott, Bell, Collingwood) should be solid. They have just lost the one day series in Australia but I think the players minds would not have been completely on the job, as it was an extremely long tour and the emphasis would have been on winning the ashes, and I expect them to lift for the world cup.

India have the most destructive batting line-up and are very capable in the slow bowling department, the one area I can see that they would be vulnerable is the pace bowling. At home they will be a handful.

New Zealand have good players but lack the consistency and leadership to win the world cup. I would expect them to make an upset or two.

Pakistan also have good players but lack consistency. I would give them an outside chance to make the semi-finals.

South Africa are a very stong side but I feel that they don't quite have the 'x-factor' player to win the world cup.

I keep hearing Sri Lanka being tipped as favorites from many sources but I believe they rely to much on one or two players to win the tournament.

I heard that the Windies haven't won an ODI against a test playing nation (except Bangladesh) since 2009. You would think that a team with players like Gayle and Pollard would be able to make better results than they are. I think they may struggle to make it out of the group stage.

Bangladesh, Canada, Ireland, Kenya, Netherlands and Zimbabwe are they to make up the numbers and have no hope of making it to the final although I feel that Ireland or Bangladesh will beat the Windies and make it out of group B.

Therefore my predicted semi-finalists are England, India, South Africa and New Zealand (would have included Australia ahead of NZ if Hussey was included in the squad), with Australia and Sri Lanka as outside bets. And my predicted final would see England beating India in the final.

I believe that the player who will make the biggest impact and therefore be likely to win the player of the tournament award would be from the following group:
Shane Watson, Kevin Pietersen, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Harbhajan Singh and Muttiah Muralitharan

[Machinax]

Well...that was quite a start from India.

[Chasjs]

I think that if Pietersen at the top of the order comes off for England then they have a real chance.

I think it's a really good move. Pietersen loves being the main man as much as he loves the big occasion. This is the World Cup and without Morgan he is the main man. He hadn't scored a hundred in ages in Tests. Then in the Ashes in Australia he gets his career best. He's been poor recently in ODIs but would you bet against him showing the world he's still a top top player in this tournament?

Still, with rumors of Eoin Morgan's injured not being so bad part of me is hoping someone gets injured in training before the knock-outs, preferably Tredwell .