World Cup Group A

[melon]

Thats 100% correct woosah.

There is a 17 year old fella from the Netherlands whose idol is Ricky Ponting. He has always dreamed of meeting Ricky. Today he not only has the chance to play him but to meet him. Cricket Australia have invited this young man into Australia's dressing room at the conclusion of the match.

Playing against the better nations every now and then is great for the minnow nations; it builds character and as woosah said exposes their fans to a different brand of cricket and it will inspire the young people in the country to play for their country.

 

[esoj]

some will get thrashed for sure but then you look on the flip side at a team like ireland that can compete at this level and even get a win against more faniced opposition. I would hate to tell a team like ireland they aren't good enough to play in a world cup.

also as mentioned there was qualifying for the world cup outside the top teams so every team outside the big ones has earnt their place. I think for a world cup you need as many teams as possible and if teams like ireland scotland have the players and qualify then why not? they have every chance to do well like other teams. just look at kenya they came from nowhere last time and made it to the semis.

 

[BokMagic]

OK, so Ireland and Bangladesh certainly showed up my whole argument on Saturday, and well done to them. However, if you look at what Bangladesh has done this year, they`ve played precious little Test cricket, and not a lot of ODI`s against top quality opposition either. they`ve just come off series wins against Zimbabwe and Kenya, certainly good enough opposition, but on a tier just a little below the top 8 teams. They`ve had the time to work on their skills levels, and get their confidence up against slighly lesser teams, and it`s really shown- the warm-up win against NZ, and now the thrashing of India. But would those results have been possible if they toured, say Aus and SA in their last 2 series, getting knocked around etc, with the confidence low and no time to work on game-plans etc? I think not.

Look, it`s great to have the minnows playing against their heroes etc, I`m just concerned about what might happen to the confidence of a Netherlands or a Bermuda, teams that are really on a level below the Irish, Kenyans and Bangladeshi`s, if they get knocked over for 78, or thrashed for 353 in 40 overs.I`m all for growing the game, but it needs to be managed properly IMO. Look at rugby, by managing the development of the lesser nations properly, the likes of Italy have just had their most successful 6-nations ever, and the Argies are very rapidly becoming heavy hitters, capable of beating almost anyone on their day. That is truly great for the global game. Same with cricket- yes, Bangladesh and Kenya have made waves of late, and truly belongs at this level. The Irish have also done very well, but I still think that there are maybe 2-3 teams too many at this CWC, just making up the numbers.