March 27, 2007

• World Cup 2007!

  I'm ordinarily not that into sports. But, there are occasions when I get obsessed. This is one of those occasions: the Cricket World Cup! Cricket is one of my favorite sports, just barely below soccer. There's excitement, skill, strategy, teamwork, just everything involved. This World Cup has had all that, plus, well... drama. I'll get to that in a moment. This year the Cricket World Cup is being hosted in the West Indies. It began two weeks ago with sixteen countries participating; and now, it's down to eight.

  Here's the big thing... This is, in fact, the first year I'm really following the game. And the big reason was because I realized Bangladesh is competing. Even though they're one of the underdogs, they had an amazing group stage. They were placed in the same group as Sri Lanka and India, two of the juggernauts, and had to qualify in the top two of the group (the fourth was Bermuda) to advance.

  

  And amazingly... in their first match, Bangladesh beat India! I heard my relatives in Dhaka were woken up at 3AM with all the celebrations, and what a thing to celebrate! That's what raised our hopes of advancing into the "Super Eight" stage. Our next match was against Sri Lanka, one of the greats, and we did lose. But we managed to beat Bermuda rather comfortably on the final day and advanced for the first time!

  That was only the start of what's been happening in this World Cup. As far as the good goes: Bangladesh supplanted India to advance to the Super Eight stage. And, by some crazy miracle, Ireland beat Pakistan on St. Patrick's Day, and eventually sealed their place in the Super Eight stage as well, and Pakistan was sent home, that being their second defeat (the first against the West Indies). Pakistan is ranked 4th in the world, and Ireland is comprised of amateur players who had to call home to inform their bosses that they'll be another three weeks in the Caribbean. So, it's been a great game for the underdog teams so far...

  But, the bad... Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer was murdered, less than a day after the match against Ireland. Theories are going around as to what it was... possibly related to match-fixing, possibly related to illegal betting (Ireland winning against Pakistan must have been considered a million-to-one shot), etc. etc. Though, my thought by occam's razor is that it was likely a crazed fan. But, I'll reserve my opinions until the official reports.

  Anyway, now that we're in the Super Eights, it's down to these teams:
  1) Sri Lanka 2) Australia 3) West Indies 4) New Zealand	5) England 6) Ireland 7) South Africa 8) Bangladesh

  My prediction is that it'll finish with Sri Lanka, Australia, South Africa, and the West Indies in the top four places, the final match between Sri Lanka and Australia, and the champion for the 2007 World Cup to be Sri Lanka. Yes, I certainly hope I'm wrong and Bangladesh manages to surprise the world (and you can bet I'll be going for them all the way), but this is what I think is the most probable outcome...

  Besides Bangladesh, Sri Lanka is my favorite team. They have an incredible set of bowlers, a great captain, and are really energetic. Watching them play cricket is a lot like watching Brazil play soccer. Even while they were playing against Bangladesh, I couldn't help but be impressed with folks like Malinga & Vaas bowling.

  

  Anyway, I won't bore anyone with details until more of the matches get under way. (And... I've been watching them while at work, too...). I'll just leave y'all with one last link:

  

  Until then, GO TIGERS! KF

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