Cricket World Cup 07

Firstly, this world cup will be forever remembered for the death of “Mr Cricket” aka Bob Woolmer, whatever happens from here on in. At 58 and still unknown cause of death it was a tragic loss for his family and for the sport as he was Pakistan coach and widely tipped to succedd Duncan Fletcher it he did step aside or get sacked but not to be, R.I.P Mr. Woolmer.

Of course, as this is just an update the West Indies went through today against Zimbabwe as Bermuda got mauled by India, who set the highest ever world cup ODI score of 413 and Bermuda were never in the hunt. Previously, England got beat by New Zealand and then beat Canada, albeit unconvicingly after Preston’s own Flintoff has decided at around 4am to get drunk and fall of a pedalo or something like that.

Dan Van Bunge was the victim of Gibbs 6 sixes in an over and it has been evident that Bermuda, Canada, Netherlands, Scotland are behind the other cricketing nations. However, the world cup cricket despite hardly even gaining a mention in the social circles in which I lead my life has thrown up a few shocks. Pakistan’s loss to Ireland which resulted in Inzamam-Ul-Haq retiting from ODI after the world cup and Ireland drawing with Zimbabwe a few days before. Bangladesh beating India was another shock, not on as high a scale but still unexpected.
The question does have to be asked, like the San Marino’s, Andorra’s and Luxembourg’s of the football world, should teams like Bermuda, Netherlands etc be in the world cup competing at this level? The argument for yes is look at Ireland beating Pakistan on St Paddy’s day and they did qualify for the tournament but the argument for no is they are simply not good enough…take Gibbs’ 6 sixes in an over, India’s 413-5 against Bermuda for examples. The smaller nations do need to play the “better” ranked cricketing nations but in a world cup? or another ODI series or couple of matches could be a suggestion.

Thats the update from me for now and I just hope England can avoid the banana skin of going out of the World Cup against Kenya as it will next be the easiest game ever. Come on the Barmy Army! and lets keep supporting the minnows to see if they can pull off any more shocks and convince more people they should be given a chance at this level.

March, Wed 21, Group B, Bangladesh v Sri Lanka Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad
March, Wed 21 Group D Pakistan v Zimbabwe Sabina Park, Jamaica
March, Thu 22 Group A Netherlands v Scotland Warner Park, St Kitts
March, Thu 22 Group C Canada v New Zealand Beausejour Stadium, St Lucia
March, Fri 23 Group B India v Sri Lanka Queen’s Park Oval, Trinidad
March, Fri 23 Group D Ireland v West Indies Sabina Park, Jamaica
March, Sat 24 Group A Australia v South Africa Warner Park, St Kitts
March, Sat 24 Group England v Kenya Beausejour Stadium, St Lucia
March, Sun 25 Group B New Zealand v BermudaQueen’s Park Oval, Trinidad

An update

Since I last posted on here quite a few things have gone on!
I am writing 2 stories for the fortnightly edition of my student newspaper, 1 which I submitted today and 1 for Monday.
I am setting to work on my elective assignment due in on the 30th March.
I have got a placement at a local bi-weekly paper back home for a week so thats good news.
I am still doing my radio show 9-11am on the Uni student radio station and still enjoying it.
The NUJ/Liverpool JM research project is going to be followed up on Sunday so hopefully that will end up with my name on a website and more to add to the CV.
I have been working once a weekend for the past month or so and am doing tomorrow to keep a steady cash flow coming in and I get to work at a footy ground...can't knock it.
I keep meaning to post more often on here but I guess i am just lazy...but recently as I say I have been busy and have been trying to avoid Mr. Murdoch's conglomeration and convergence by signing in and getting a google account. I am signed up for so many (insert expletive here) websites/forums/newsletters/pileofcrape-mails that I didn't want any more but I had to create a google account to sign in so cheers more spam for me! That seems to be the problem with the media industry, some change is good but other is unneccessary and pointless or just to make money. I'm not a great fan of an oligopoly-type media market and am glad competition is still healthy but my personally frustration lies with this "google" account. I use google regularly and have never needed an account but Mr Murdoch and associates have been swift to acquire this and MYspace (or as its now been coined "Rupert's space") to try and squash all competition but for me, it will always be the BBC! Can't be your quality, serious PSB for top-notch journalism.