The Cricket World Cup 2011 has been surprisingly good. I think when most people saw that the competition was going to take over 6 weeks to finish they thought it was going to be boring, but it’s certainly had its moments. Even so, I’m glad they are reducing the number of associate nations in the next cup.
I think it’s important that associate nations get a chance to develop, and the best way to do so is to play against the best teams in the world. Even so, the world cup shouldn’t contain so many associate nations. Instead, there should be a qualifying tournament before hand so that only the best teams get through. Countries like Kenya were never going to beat any of the big teams, meaning that the games were virtually dead before they began. In Group A the vast majority of games could be predicted before they started which is not good if you want excitement.
Group B showed why it’s still important to have some smaller nations in the competition though. Ireland beating England was probably the highlight of the tournament for smaller nations and proved that they can compete. The Netherlands also did well in certain games. I think it’s almost certain that both these nations would be the ones to progress to the net tournament though, so limiting the associate nations to two entries wouldn’t deprive anyone of the David versus Goliath games that can throw up some interesting results.
As for who’s going to win the tournament, I think Sri Lanka have a good chance although they may struggle in the final when they don’t play at home. India and Pakistan are playing today and it’s probably going to be a great game, but I think India will probably win.