Not even half way through the super eights (something bought in to try and give the world cup more meaningful games) and the semi finals are almost determined. By making the groups smaller (so that Scotland, Canada etc only played three games), a purple day for the likes of Bangladesh and Ireland have put them through to the super eight. Now, instead of having eight teams that were threoretically supposed to be able to beat each other in the super eights we have two teams that will struggle to get anywhere near to the others (stuggling to even give them a game - and playing six times). The West Indies' good form in the group stages, including a good win over Pakistan was immediately neutralised as they took forward two meaningless points from a win against Ireland (surely Pakistan would have troubled the other nations in the super eight making the West Indies win something of value). The format was instigated to get the top eight sides into the second phase and a couple of one-off results have shown up the ridiculousness of that HOPE.

Looking at the world cup overall, we have seen no team win a game batting second needing to score over 250 and all teams needing to score under 240 have won batting second (usually at a canter). The number of games providing any drama can be counted on one hand and we are already close to only being able to look forward to the semi finals. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka and England are playing for four spots (and if England lose soon this will almost be done and dusted). If one forgets about the silly weather rule of 91, it was that group stage (where seven teams were able to beat each other) that we hoped for here - but Bangladesh and Ireland are not even going to get close to having any impact on this group, where as Paksitan and India would have had.

The grounds are half empty, the cricket is unexciting and even then, there really is nothing that can happen on the pitch that will make one remember this world cup for anything other than what happened in the hotel room in Jamaica.

I could not agree with you more. You can add the extremely long duration (more than 6 weeks) as one other factor.
As I have pointed out eleswhere on this web-site, this particular tournament has to be the most boring and listless world-cup ever.

Ticket prices are too expensive.The Icc are too concerned with 'the bottom line' than the image of the game. There are too many meaningless matches and the west Indies are virtually out of it.

However, the volcano could erupt if the icc stop thier 'dead horse flogging' and lower the prices of the tickets. Faced between the pool /beach and the cricket ,so far i'd take the pool except for 2 matches, Zim v ireland and SA v SL.

The West Indies world cup is running oout of time to be remembered for it's razzmataz. Teams won't do it 150% on the field until the fans come in and cheer. Sure they'll play good cricket, but it wont be spectacular, whhich the world cup deserves to be.

Strange decisions like charging spectators full price for the second day of WI v Australia really need explaining, because spectators only saw half a game.

Frankly I think that Pakistan and India would be almost pleased that they are out of what is rapidly becoming a farce.

Come on ICC, Lower the prices. Let people take in horns, costumes etc. Get the 'razzamatzz 'back and the atmosphere , and the cricket wwill follow.

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I have a dream.... (Martin Luther King)

With regards to "lesser" teams qualifying then I say well done!!!!


If allegations of wrong doings by teams can be substansiated then surely these teams do not deserve their place in the "TOP 8"........

Teams like Ireland show a lot of promise and I'd rather see teams get beat actually trying rather than seeing teams lose to fulfil promises to spread betting companies........

Let us not jump to conclusions here just because India and Pakistan lost to minnows.

Regardless of anything, Ireland and Bangladesh should not be competing with world-class teams in a world cup competition.

Milo, it's tricky. One could argue that if you wanted the second phase to have contain eight teams that were the most equally matched and therefore provide notionally the most competitive games then why not skip the first phase altogether and restrict the World Cup to those teams. Yes, this is effectively a super 6.....or should be but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The Indian and Pakistani teams should be exceptionally embarrassed to have had to go home so soon, and so on that score (i.e. the competitive aspect of it) any blame for the tournament losing its lustre should be placed firmly at their door rather than the minnows (I know that's not your intention) or even the ICC. Everyone's know for long enough about the format, there should be no excuses, especially as I'm sure most of us felt the first group phase was a mere formality (I know I did)......and if that's the case the it serves us right.

The tournament is simply too long. These eight teams should be in two groups of four, with the top two of each going to the semis.....thereby a total of 39 matches an not 51.

I would like to see an increased number of the knockout matches prior to the semi-final stages. It makes for more engaging viewing i think and gives people more incentive to watch as this might be the last time the respective team on show plays. Something that the WC has lacked thus far is that bit of tension and suspense, although the Sri Lanka - England match did offer such things, i feel a longer more substantial knockout phase can only ensure for more games of that nature.

We can argue about Ireland, but Bangladesh is a full test nation. There is simply no way that they could reasonably be excluded (and I wouldn't want to see that for either Ireland or Bangladesh, both of whom got to the Super Eights on merit).

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Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

Exactly, Pakistan and India werent good enough so they dont deserve to be in the super eights.

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Mark.

It's a shame about the grounds, if the world cup was ten years ago or in the original grounds the atmosphere would be somewhat more memorable. I think it's poor marketing by the ICC and the building of new grounds which lose the atmosphere of the old grounds anyway and then they have to jack up the prices in order to pay for the losses. And now there's talks of after the world cup for Baseball to be played on some of the grounds...

I don't know how well the ICC planned and marketed this world cup but at the moment it has been a disaster and it hasn't evan finished It won't be remembered for achievements such as Gibbs' six sixes or Hayden's record tonne. There has been nothing in this tournament to try and revitalise the game in the Caribbean.