If you were pitching teams in a best of 7 series then for my Money Australia are still the best, almost any of the other teams are capable of beating any of the others though.

In the world cup any of the semi finalists are going to be capable of beating any of the others in a one off game therefore I would only hazard a guess at semi finalists not the winners, and for that you need to look at consistency. England have some genuine matchwinners and therefore can beat anybody as have Pakistan. Both sides at the moment do not have the consistency though and so I would suggest that semi finals would be between Aus, SA, India and any one of WI, Eng, SL, Pak or NZ.

This though has to be qualified with the fact that there is over a year to go and things can change (Injuries / loss of form to key players or even something "clicking" in one of the inconsistent sides) so any predictions are liable to be a bit off the mark. Lets try this again next January.

Australia, unless someone puts in a fluke performance with the ball in the semis to knock them out. I think a lot of it will come down to the toss though in the windies. Nearly all the top odi teams are capable of putting on 300+ scores with a bit of luck and on a good pitch, and chasing that sort of score is always hard no matter who is bowling so it will be a hard to predict series but for the wrong reasons imo. Then again, if the last windies v england test series is anything to go by then a lot of the current windies pitches are bowler friendly in which case pakistan and england would be front runners as they have the best bowling attacks at the moment.

India are a top class side but they're chokers, I suspect they'll breeze into the semis but once the pressure is on they'll collapse and lose. Australia don't have the bowling talent/control they used to have (unless warne decides to re-select himself) but they have more bottle than any of the other sides, they're unlikely to crumble under the pressure of a final, especially as half the side has been there several times before.

So, if the world cup was held next month and all first choice 11 players were fit, and assuming good batting wickets, i'd say semi finals of south africa, pakistan, india and australia, and a final of pakistan v australia. Assuming bowler friendly wickets, then south africa, pakistan, england and australia, final the same and same end result.

Yup...India chokes. They play very well, reach the finals and lose there. They have done it so many times that it must be a record by now. Hope the new leadership will improve things.

India Vs Australia final and ponting will go bezerk once again with the bat hitting another big ton.

it has got to be Australia. I think Pakistan will do very well and posibbly even get to the final but Australia will win it. Unless England make some big improvements and stop making their ODi Team exactly the same as their Test team we will not win it, we will get through to the quaters or mabey the semi's.

IMO Australia. They have the world's best ODI bowler (Lee). They have excellent batters like Gilchrist, Ponting, Martyn, Symonds, Clarke and Hussey.

The only threats for the Aussies are NZ, Pakistan, England and India.

Lee holds to the key to whether Australia will win the WC or not.

If he is at his best then yes Australia will win, if his not playing that well then India or Pakistan will win.

Ok.. i might go down in flames for this hahaha but i predict an Aussie Vs Pak Final with Pak winning!!!

GO TEAM PAKISTAN!!!

Well looking at Pakistan current track record it could be pakistan. The good thing about pakistan now is that whenever they have needed a player to perform well then one player takes up the task and achieves. Before, there was always a huge batting collapse especially after Inzi had gotten out. Also, Pakistan are bringing in young pace bowlers who are performing well, Gul against india 2004, Rana vs india 2005, a new Akhtar vs England 2005, Asif vs india 2006.

Today's scorecard against India shows how Pakistan can semi-collapse. It took two solid innings to give them a somewhat below par total on a flat wicket.

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James May

I think Aus are always going to be up there but it's a world cup remember. All it takes is one bad day, one dodgy umpiring decision and it can be all over. Pakistan have heaps of talent so they will probably make the final four. India have the batting to chase down any total so I think they will be there and the last semi finalist,..... call me biased if you must....... New Zealand. Just because Im an eternal optimist........ Also, there are some really talented young players coming through in NZ at the moment and some may be picked for the world cup. The NZ team in a years time will probably be better than the current one.