On 4 April 2011 the ICC Executive Board talked glowingly about the World Cup that had concluded in Mumbai two days earlier. Among their remarks:
"This ICC Cricket World Cup has been very successful and memorable....
"...the event was the most successful in history.
"The tournament reinforced the attraction of 50 over cricket and showed the enthusiasm and excitement generated by nation v nation cricket.
It's always a mug's game trying to predict winners in an event such as the ICC Cricket World Cup. One prediction I feel reasonably confident about is that Australia will not win its fourth consecutive title.
I'm neither Robinson Crusoe nor Robertson-Glasgow when I rate India as the favourites, with most of their matches played on home soil. Their opponents in the final will be South Africa - that's if, of course, the Proteas can make it that far for the first time.
The tenth World Cup of men's cricket is officially open, and the first game, between Bangladesh and India at Mirpur, happens later today. Though it won't (slightly) be the longest Cricket World Cup of all, it's the first one to span three calendar months. The final will be staged on April 2 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai - subject, as I write this, to the venue's fire safety clearance.
Kenya's upset of the West Indies. Ireland's giant-killing of Pakistan. Moments in the sun for Canada, Bermuda, the Netherlands and others. Sri Lanka's rise from minnows to champions. Even Afghanistan's near-miss at joining the club. All these things could be consigned to the trashcan of history with the ICC approving a recommendation to downsize the Cricket World Cup.
We're hours away from the opening of the 2009 Not-So-IPL. Australia has, shock horror, won an ODI against South Africa, and will choof off to the Home Of World Cricket which will host its first official one-day international next Wednesday.
Let's just recap a sequence of events involving the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) over the past year or so:
Just a thought to mull over as I head off to bed.
