Who Will be World Champion of Cricket ?

There is a statistics calculate by Wisden, which ranks the all-time best one-day bowlers, ever to play the game. Interestingly, the Pakistan team in the current World Cup can lay claim to something, which perhaps no team may ever be able to lay claim to, i.e

Four out of the top twelve bowlers ever to play one-day cricket were on the current Pakistan team - and three of the top six to ever play one-day cricket. Wasim at 1, Waqar at 3, Saqlain at 6, Shoaib at 12. Pakistan ended up playing poorly, inspite of this.

Interestingly, Pakistan has now sidelined Saqlain and Shoaib. Both are young, and are ranked 6 and 12 all-time.

Australia win the world-cup - the toss advantage was squandered by sending Australia in to bat.

India should have batted after winning the toss. Ganguly used amazing logic and over-estimation of his teams bowling attack and did not bat first. Bad mistake.

YAHOOOOO!

re: Cricket in the subcontinent
cricket in the subcontinent is doomed. We are never going to see another Indo-Pak cricket match in near future. Just as military regime has taken over the management of cricket in Pakistan, Indian cricket has fallen to emotions. There is a strong feeling in that country that there should be no sporting links at highest levels. If Field Marshal of Chowk wants to change all that, he has to start from his home front. Get rid of Mushy, the whore and get a friendly democratic Pak in place. Games are only played between friends, not between enemies.
That apart, i am intrigued. Reason why many military and ex-military men keep asking for re-establishment of cricketing links between India and Pak has more to do with lost revenues than any humane sentiments. Pak board lost something to the tune of 10 million dollars last year alone, huge some by subcontinental standards. Much of this money would have gone into military pockets in Pak.

India outperforms Pak in every department. Science, Arts, movies, etc, etc. Heck, pak`s military leaders have lost every war they fought with India. There may be a desire to outdo India in the only field where Pak stands a chance viz Cricket. Alas, even that chance has now slipped away. Indian team today is vastly better than the best team that Pakis can produce.
BTW, losing to Australia was not a shame. Indians fought well and went down fighting. Hell, they had 8 consequetive wins before going to finals and losing to an all time best team ever. That is something.
Sridhar

To Brother Hamidm, seriously you really do hate hindoos or it`s just the wicked humor. I`m a Paki but I don`t hate them all the time. Is something wrong with me :) But please dont hate`em we all share the same genes dont we. At least my ancestor came from the wrong side of the border. But more importantly keep your humor comming.

Aussies...world cup champs of 2003. India was simply outclassed.

mr sridhar,
shall we clap in unison at your profound and penetrating expose of pak psyche??as far as being ahead of pakistan in all aspects....no shit. pakis should start comparing themselves with bhutan...that would be par, just like india comparing itself with pakistan, and i am sure the pakis will come out smelling like the leading light of the world. btw with 500 million people living below the poverty line, you still have the cheek to talk about `mera bharat mahaan`?

The good thing coming out of this world cup is chance for new players to replace old ones, at least in Pakistan.

Two Muslims did not perform well but two Sikhs performed good. Lets hope it does not play on the streets of Ahmedabad. Any harijan on the team? Now or in the hisotry of Indian cricket?

I feel sorry for the Indian team loss. I guess Indian can turn their attention from disappointment to celebrating the birthday of the unborn and possibly unconceived great great grandchild of Nehru.

Time to play hockey now.

...... i feel good .......... i don`t know why, i don`t even care about cricket, but i still feel vindicated and sort of smug.......... i feel like walking across the street to doctor gupta`s house and going ``na na na an boo boo`` .....

...... last night i went over to his house for the unholy gathering of head wagging dravids and karnataks gathered for the world cup party ......... not that i am a hindoo lover, astaghfirullah, but the man always has a stock of single malt scotch that i love ...... and his wife, god bless her, makes some mean palak pakoras ......... allah ki kasam, i never touch her other vegetarian offal, but the pakoras do go well with her husband`s whiskey ...... so after polishing off half a bottle of eighteen year old macallen, a plate of pakoras, and a pound or two of rather good fried kingfish, i came back home to watch the first war of this century on television.......... the infidels planned on staying up all night and then watching the game - fools!........actually the war is not as exciting as i thought it would be, and i was having fun at the guptas, but mrs hamidm dragged me home - she hates it when i start having fun ............

P.S. .... is it just me, or is the war on tv a sleeper ......... it is kind of pretty - with downtown baghdad silhouetted agains a grey sky and light reflecting off the tigris river and big balls of fire going off in the background ......... but there is no sound, no blood, no gore ........ these still shots of baghdad don`t really do it for me ......... i`d rather warch the redwings whop the blues and see stevie score his first goal of the season ..... so what if it was an empty net - at least the sound was on ..........

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India might have lost but they certainly did not disgrace themselves. This is the team for the future with most of the players being very inexperienced. Even the mighty present day Aussies lost the world cup in final 1996 which is when the nucleus of the present day team started building up. India is in more or less the similar position. If the selectors show some patience with this team, they will pretty much be the team to watch out for in 2007. Also remember the fact that Indians were able to do so well in South Africa, a place where they have never performed well to put it mildly. One really wonders what would have happened had the cup been in the subcontinent. This team has the spirit which very much reflects the new India, an aggressive country who believes they have a place for themselves under the sun. Look out for the men in blue in the Carribean in 2007.......

But what worries one more is the state of cricket in general. Never mind all the talk of globalization and new countries coming in, it certainly is not in a great shape. Except Australia, India, and perhaps the West Indies (perhaps the most unlucky team in the tournament), no other team is showing any promise of new and exciting talent. Even the minows Kenya who created history had more or less the same team they had in 1996. One really hopes that this is just a passing phase and in the coming seasons we will see some exciting games with exciting young players.

HI Folks,

Quite opposite to what I thought and wished Aussies won the worldcup in a style.

Ricky Ponting`s batting was just awesome and took match away from India. There was a time when I thought Aussies might end up scoring 400 runs.

Congratulations to Aussies on their 2nd consecutive world cupvictory. Australia is set to win next world cup.

India played great cricket in the world cup and has nothing to feel bad about. India is blessed with some very talented cricketers and their future seems very bright. I hope BCCI does not do the stupidities that PCB is so famous for.

I am thinking of taking off from cricket for a while, I will continue to work on some of the articles that I am writting.

Jarrar

Players from subcontinant got to improve their mind strength , pressure absorption and physic. And less ( much less ) conecentration on money.

Congratulations to Aussies on their WC win. They outclassed India in all aspects of the game. India and the other teams of the world need to do a lot more to match the might of Aussies.

re: #37 by rsridhar

[Get rid of Mushy, the whore and get a friendly democratic Pak in place. Games are only played between friends, not between enemies.]

The nature of regime in Pakistan is neither the business of BCCI nor the ICC. I don`t think cricket in subcontinent is doomed. I am quite optimistic that this World Cup will spark more competition. It will be a turning point for the subcontinent. Younger players with tougher temperaments will emerge. In 2007 the young guns of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will have more experience to challenge the Aussies in West Indies.

re: #37 by rsridhar

[There may be a desire to outdo India in the only field where Pak stands a chance viz Cricket. Alas, even that chance has now slipped away. Indian team today is vastly better than the best team that Pakis can produce. BTW, losing to Australia was not a shame. Indians fought well and went down fighting. ]

If Sridhar is so confident of India`s cricket superiority over Pakistan, why does he oppose an Indian cricket tour of Pakistan in April? Three test matches and 3 one-dayers will determine if India is really that good. You can`t determine this on the basis of just one World Cup match. Kenya just beat Sri Lanka in the World Cup but that doesn`t make them the better team.

The real reason why India avoids playing Pakistan is fear of defeat. Indian politicians are quite aware that cricket is taken too seriously in the subcontinent and despite, the win at Centurion, India are likely to get thrashed by Pakistan in a test series.

To mask this fear of losing, Indian politicians are inventing reasons like Kashmir, infiltration, unfriendly attitude, blah blah blah. After all, the hockey, soccer, squash and polo teams from both countries are still playing each other.