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**UMAIR316** · Feb 4, 2003, 08:37 PM

South Africa

Squad:

Shaun Pollock
Mark Boucher
Nicky Boje
Boeta Dippenaar
Allan Donald
Herschelle Gibbs
Andrew Hall
Jacques Kallis
Gary Kirsten
Lance Klusener
Charl Langeveldt
Makhaya Ntini
Robin Peterson
Jonty Rhodes
Monde Zondeki

Schedule

vs West Indies
vs Kenya
vs Newzeland
vs Bangladesh
vs Canada
vs Sri Lanka

South Africa factbox

Captain: Shaun Pollock

Coach: Eric Simons

Group B (with New Zealand, West Indies, Sri Lanka,Bangladesh, Kenya, Canada)

Strengths: Apart from home advantage, South Africa have trump cards in all key areas -- Herschelle Gibbs is a free-scoring opener, Shaun Pollock niggardly with the new ball and Jacques Kallis the best all rounder in the world. No side will be sharper in the field either, with Jonty Rhodes unsurpassed in the covers.

Weaknesses: South Africa have regularly come off second best against arch-rivals Australia. How they handle the world champions will be key to their chances. Places in the middle order were still unsettled only weeks before the tournament.Fears also persist in some quarters that selection will be a political point-scoring exercise as cricket continues to make its peace with a democratic society.

Key player: Kallis. Few players deserve the tag of genuine all rounder -- a player good enough to play either as a specialist batsman or specialist bowler -- but this man certainly does. He averages 44 in one-dayers and has taken 164 wickets at just under 30.

One-day form: Beat Australia and New Zealand in a triangular in Australia in 2001 but were promptly thrashed on home soil by the Australians. Have also suffered serious reverses to Sri Lanka (in Morocco) and India (at the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka) but home form remains good, with recent series victories over Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Past World Cup performances: Beaten by England in a controversial rain-affected semi-final in 1992 before making a quarter-final exit at the hands of West Indies four years later.Those losses pale by comparison with the semi-final against Australia at Edgbaston in 1999 which handed the Australians a place in the final.

Prediction: Finalists.

::: Reuters

My Opinion:

After 3 dissappointing ends in the past 3 WCs, this might be it. With the home advantage they might be able to win the WC. And also with a dominating victory against Pakistan they will sky high.

**UMAIR316** · Feb 4, 2003, 08:56 PM

Sri Lanka

Squad:

Sanath Jayasuriya
Marvan Atapattu
Mahela Jayawardene
Kumar Sangakkara
Aravinda De Silva
Russel Arnold
Jehan Mubarak
Avishka Gunawardena
Hashan Tillakaratne
Muttiah Muralitharan
Chaminda Vaas
Dilhara Fernando
Pulasthi Gunaratne
Prabath Nissanka
Charitha Buddhika

Schedule

vs New Zeland
vs Bangladesh
vs Canada
vs Kenya
vs West Indies
vs South Africa

Sri Lanka factbox

Captain: Sanath Jayasuriya.

Coach: Dav Whatmore.

Strengths: Well-versed in the one-day game and blessed with considerable experience, including seven players with more than 150 caps. Off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who imparts prodigious turn through a unique combination of finger spin and wrist rotation, is a consistent threat. Batting can be destructive on flat pitches.

Weaknesses: Sri Lanka's batsmen are traditionally vulnerable on the fast, bouncy pitches common in South Africa. Running between the wickets can be sluggish. Fielding has been poor recently. Fast bowlers, Chaminda Vaas apart, are occasionally wayward and prone to conceding a lot of extras.

Key man: Sanath Jayasuriya -- has returned to his best form after struggling with the bat in the early stages of the recent triangular one-day series in Australia. The dashing left-hander was a dominant figure at the 1996 World Cup, attacking the bowling from the first ball and fully exploiting the field restrictions in the first 15 overs.

One-day form: Superb at home but inconsistent overseas. Have not lost a home series or tournament since July 1998. Won the Morocco Cup against Pakistan and South Africa in August 2002 and shared the ICC Champions Trophy with India in September 2002.However, form slumped after that with 4-1 defeat in South Africa and three straight losses in triangular series in Australia.

Past World Cup performances: Surprise winners of the 1996 World Cup, defeating Australia in the final, having not previously qualified for the knockout stages of the tournament. Crashed out of 1999 World Cup after first round.

Prediction: Third-place qualifier for Super Sixes

My Opinion:

With the lack of ability playing in fast pitches, I don't expect them to past 1st round, no genuine fast bowler who can trouble top class batsman, Murali will be useless in South Africa.

**UMAIR316** · Feb 4, 2003, 09:29 PM

New Zeland

Squad:

Stephen Fleming (captain)
Andre Adams
Nathan Astle
Shane Bond
Chris Cairns
Chris Harris
Brendon McCullum
Craig McMillan
Kyle Mills
Jacob Oram
Mathew Sinclair
Scott Styris
Daryl Tuffey
Daniel Vettori
Lou Vincent

Schedule

vs Sri Lanka
vs West Indies
vs South Africa
vs Kenya
vs Bangladesh
vs Canada

New Zealand World Cup factbox:

Captain: Stephen Fleming.

Coach: Denis Aberhart.

Strengths: Team work -- the most consistent feature of all successful New Zealand sides -- and the ability to make the most of limited playing resources. Fielding is another asset, as is the bowling of Shane Bond, the team's fastest bowler for two generations.

Weaknesses: The balance of the side, if Chris Cairns is not fully recovered from injury. The hard-hitting and confident Cairns is the perfect fulcrum as one of the world's few genuine all rounders. New Zealand have also struggled to find a topper former bowling at the death.

Key man: Fast-scoring opener Nathan Astle, who will be playing in his third World Cup. While regarded as New Zealand's finest one-day batsman, his record away from home is not as good-- nor is his World Cup record.

One-day form: Ended a poor run by beating India at home 5-2, although in different pitches were a factor. Fleming says the team will do even better in better conditions. Earlier in 2002 lost 3-0 in Pakistan, 3-1 in West Indies and were knocked out of the Champions Trophy at first hurdle.

Past World Cup performances: Semi-finalists in 1975, 1979, 1992 and 1999, quarter-finalists in 1995. Most impressive World Cup was in 1992 when a bold strategy of opening the bowling with off-spinner Dipak Patel and launching the innings with pinch-hitter Mark Greatbatch -- along with the inspired batting of captain Martin Crowe -- helped New Zealand set the early tournament pace. But they lost that year's semi-final by four wickets to Pakistan, who were urged to fight like cornered tigers by captain Imran Khan.

Prediction: Semi-finals.

::: Reuters

My Opinion:

New Zeland are regarded as the dark horses. With the recent crushing victory over India their morale will be sky high. Their pace bowlers will win them matches because their batting is the weak point. And they are in a fare easier group, with the exception of South Africa I expect them to win all their other games but I think they will not make it to the semis.

**UMAIR316** · Feb 5, 2003, 01:36 PM

West Indies

Squad

*Carl Hooper
+Ridley Jacobs
Shiv Chanderpaul
Pedro Collins
Corey Collymore
Mervyn Dillon
Vasbert Drakes
Chris Gayle
Wavell Hinds
Brian Lara
Jermaine Lawson
Nixon McLean
Ricardo Powell
Marlon Samuels
Ramnaresh Sarwan

Schedule

vs South Africa
vs New Zeland
vs Bangladesh
vs Canada
vs Srilanka
vs Kenya

West Indies factbox

Captain: Carl Hooper.

Coach: Roger Harper.

Strengths: Their batting -- in Brian Lara, Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul they boast world-class experience, backed up by the youthful promise of Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan, fresh from his first one-day century.

Weaknesses: Their bowling. Mervyn Dillon boasts more than 100 wickets in tests and 99 in ODIs but there is little obvious quality queuing up behind him. Vasbert Drakes's statistics looked good against Bangladesh -- 12 one-day wickets at 6.5 apiece -- but, aged 33, he has only just returned to the team after seven years in South Africa.

Key man: Lara -- his last of 15 one-day hundreds came two years ago but he remains the team's prized wicket. Has not produced many fireworks recently -- always a danger sign.

One-day form: A home win over New Zealand and a 4-3 series victory in India in November will have given them real confidence. Against the big guns, though, they have struggled. Last time they played South Africa -- at home -- early in 2001 they lost the one-day series 5-2. That came immediately after a 6-0 drubbing in Australia.

Past World Cup performances: West Indies won the first two finals in 1975 and 1979 before surprisingly losing the 1983 final to India. Since then, their results have declined, although they went close to surprising Australia in the 1996 semi-finals. In 1999, despite the fine fast bowling of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, they crashed out after the first round.

Prediction: Will struggle to reach the Super Sixes second round.

My Opinion:

With the recent abroad victory against India, West Indies team will be high on their confidence, with young talents like Sarwan, Chanderpaul, Gayle, Samuels, and Hinds they can stand against any bowling lineup in the world and with the emergence of young fast bowlers like Drakes, Collins, Lawson they might have a good chance. But they are not a semi final material, I expect them to be eliminated in super 6s.

**UMAIR316** · Feb 5, 2003, 02:03 PM

Kenya

Squad:

*SO Tikolo
MO Odumbe
AY Karim
AV Vadher
RD Shah
HS Modi
BJ Patel
MA Suji
AO Suji
TM Odoyo
KO Otieno
JO Angara
PJ Ongondo
DO Obuya
CO Obuya

Schedule

vs South Africa
vs Canada
vs Newzeland
vs Srilanka
vs Bangladesh
vs West Indies

Kenya Factbox:

Captain: Stepehen Tikolo

Strenghts: One thing about the Kenya team that no other minnows is that they have something called teamwork. They have caused many upsets in the past like beating India twice and beating West Indies once in the 96 World Cup and they will looking for that once more but this time their advantage is they have a homefield.

Weakness: They have a very mediocore team which doesn't consist of any world class players. Their batting is very fragile and their bowling is below average with no genuine fast bowlers to trouble average batsman.

Key Man: Maurice Odumbe, the former team captain. Since abandoning the captaincy Maurice Odumbe has enhanced his individual performance and led the way by example, he recently played 2 good knocks against Australia and Pakistan each in PSO Tri Nation Tournament.

One Day Form: They are on a long losing streak, their last international victory came in November of 2001 against India and since then they have yet to win a match. With a dissappoint recent 3 match ODI series against Zimbabwe they will looking to improve front of their home crowd.

Past World Cup Performance: Qualified for the first time ever in 1996 WC by winning ICC Trophy and causing the biggest ever World Cup upset up to date by beating the mighty and formidable West Indies side which consisted of Lara, Hooper, Richie Richardsons, Ambrose, Bishop, Walsh etc.

Predictions: Will lose to S Africa, NZ, WI, SL but will win against Namibia and Bangladesh.

**UMAIR316** · Feb 5, 2003, 02:22 PM

Bangladesh

Squad:

Khaled Mashud
Al Sahariar
Alok Kapali
Habibul Bashar
Hannan Sarker
Ehsanul Haque
Sanwar Hossain
Khaled Mahmud
Manjurul Islam
Mashrafe Mortaza
Mohammad Ashraful
Mohammad Rafique
Talha Jubair
Tapash Baisya
Tushar Imran

Schedule

vs Canada
vs Sri Lanka
vs West Indies
vs South Africa
vs New Zeland
vs Kenya

Bangladesh World Cup factbox:

Captain: Khaled Mashud.

Coach: Mohsin Kamal (Pakistan).

Strengths: Bangladesh have some useful batsmen, inparticular Habibul Bashar, who has hit five test half-centuries in a row, and Mohammad Ashraful, the youngest player -- at 17 years and 63 days -- ever to score a test century. Both,however, have performed less well in the one-day format.

Weaknesses: Inexperience and a dearth of bowling. They have also struggled to find a pair of successful opening batsmen. Fielding is mediocre and often crumbles under pressure.

One-day form: Since the 1999 World Cup, they have not won in 26 matches -- 25 defeats and one match rained off. They lost to Sri Lanka in August with their lowest one-day total of 76 and, five months later managed just 77 when losing to New Zealand in the Champions Trophy. But they at least managed to cross 150 twice in three games on tour in South Africa in October while scoring 195 and 182 against West Indies.

Past World Cup performances: Made their debut in 1999 after winning the ICC trophy, beating Scotland and achieving a shock victory over an under-performing, but already qualified, Pakistan.

Prediction: A first-round exit after beating Canada and --perhaps -- Kenya.

My Opinion:

Unlike last time there won't be an upset, the only team they have a chance to beat in Canada, they will be beaten by Kenya.

**UMAIR316** · Feb 5, 2003, 02:52 PM

Canada

Squad:

Ashish Bagai
Ian Billcliff
Desmond Chumney
Austin Codrington
John Davison
Nicholas de Groot
Joseph Harris
Nicholas Ifill
Davis Joseph
Ishwar Maraj
Ashish Patel
Abdul Samad
Fazal Samad
Berry Seebaran
Sanjayan Thuraisingam

Schedule:

vs Bangladesh
vs Kenya
vs Srilanka
vs West Indies
vs South Africa
vs New Zeland

Strengths: N/A

Weakness: Not enough experice against the big sides, recently lost heavily to a local South African team.

Prediction: Will lose all their matches.

What are Canada doing there?
A side that boasts about as many West Indians as the Windies, Canada attend their second World Cup when they make the trip to Africa. Nobody is expecting them to win the tournament, but what exactly can we expect from them?
Surprised to hear that Canada are at the Cricket World Cup? Well, you�re not alone. "You tend to find with the Canadians that they're completely surprised they've actually got a cricket team, and even more surprised they've qualified for the World Cup,� admits squad member Ian Billcliff.

The Canadians qualified for the World Cup by taking advantage of the tried-and-tested route available for all up-and-coming cricketing nations - a match against Scotland. The Scots were beaten by their Canadian hosts in a play-off for third place at the recent ICC Championship, with the North Americans thus taking the final spot for this year�s tournament.

This is Canada�s first World Cup since 1979. They lost all three games

USA v Canada was the first international cricket match played in the modern world. The first game between the two nations was held in the 1840s, and was watched by 10,000 spectators at Bloomingdale Park in New York. The fixture is thought to be the oldest international sporting event in the modern world, predating even today's Olympic Games by nearly 50 years.

Until the late 1920s it was commonplace for the West Indies, England and Australia to tour Canada.

One such tourist was some chap called Sir Donald Bradman. He appeared to have enjoyed the experience, too - describing Stanley Park in Vancouver as his "favourite cricket ground.�

Toronto held a number of matches between India and Pakistan in 1996 because, says the Montreal Gazette, �The angle being that Canada was pretty much the only place on Earth these two death's-door rivals could play without causing a riot.� Unfortunately it was also in Toronto that Pakistan batsman Inzamam decided to jump into the crowd, wielding a bat, and attack a fan. Who had called him a potato.

The 1996 games were, �with the possible exception of the opening ceremonies at the Montreal Olympics�, the most watched sporting event ever to be held in Canada.

According to Dr Ali Bacher, �Of the 30 million people in Canada, five million are avid cricket fans, and one out of four million people in Toronto are supporters of the game.�

In fact, 90% of all cricketers in Canada play in the Toronto District Cricket Association.

An estimated 1,000 registered cricketers play for 34 teams spread over four divisions of �escalating skill and competition� at 17 venues around the city

Most of Canadian cricketers are �new Canadians� - expatriates from the West Indies and Asia. Says squad member Ian Billcliff, �you probably wouldn't find a more multicultural team in the world.�

The make-up of the Canadian team certainly didn�t impress the Scotch much when they were knocked out. While the ICC qualification rules insist that there must be nine native born players in every Scottish XI, there was just one in the Canadian team.

Just five of the Canadian squad members have ever played first class cricket.

Unfortunately, things haven�t been running all that smoothly for the Canadians of late. Last month coach Jeff Thomas was sacked for reasons which are yet to be made public. He�s been replaced by Gus Logie, who only met the players for the first time in mid-January.

**superglue** · Feb 5, 2003, 07:19 PM

Originally posted by UMAIR316:

Toronto held a number of matches between India and Pakistan in 1996 because, says the Montreal Gazette, �The angle being that Canada was pretty much the only place on Earth these two death's-door rivals could play without causing a riot.� Unfortunately it was also in Toronto that Pakistan batsman Inzamam decided to jump into the crowd, wielding a bat, and attack a fan. Who had called him a potato.

lol.....Alooo hahahah

**UMAIR316** · Feb 8, 2003, 06:52 PM

Ok friends the first match of the WC starts tommorrow at 3 Am eastern, who do you think will win. South Africa is an obvious choice but lets not count out the very talented Windies team, they pulled of an amazing 4-3 victory over India and that is a huge accomplishment, their batsman will be trouble for SAF.
here is the preview

Watch out for a close and entertaining lung opener
Kris Srikkanth - 8 February 2003

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The excitement of the World Cup is already in the air, at Newlands in the beautiful city of Cape Town. The first encounter is going to set the tone for this World Cup - host South Africa taking on West Indies.

On paper South Africa might look like a stronger team, and many pundits wouldn't even dare to give West Indies a chance of pulling off a big upset. I think West Indies will give their best to make this a close and entertaining encounter.

To my thinking, both the teams are evenly balanced. West Indies batting can be very explosive and tear apart any attack. The likes of Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Brian Lara, Carl Hooper should never be taken lightly by any side. The resilience of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the talent of Ramnaresh Sarwan makes the West Indies batting line-up an awesome one.

It will be interesting to see whether the stylish batsman Marlon Samuels makes it into the side. If he has recovered from the injury and is fit to play, any bowling attack will find it hard to have a crack at the West Indies batting.

I would think that West Indies would go in with four fast bowlers, with Hooper and Gayle wheeling their arm over to fill in the fifth bowler's role. Merv Dillon, Drakes and the extremely quick Jermaine Lawson have it in them to cause panic in the South African batting line up.

What might possibly give South Africa the slight edge over their opponents from Caribbean is their better fielding talent and the number of allrounders they possess. The likes of Jonty Rhodes and Herschelle Gibbs are simply brilliant in the field, and surely they will try to set the tempo by stopping valuable runs, putting pressure on the batsmen, effecting run outs, and importantly taking stunning catches. Yes, someone like Jonty flying across the turf is something people travel miles to watch.

The old warhorse Allan Donald still has it in him to strike like a lightning, and the most improved fast bowler in recent times - Makhaya Ntini provide wonderful support to the extremely efficient South African skipper Shaun Pollock. The South African batting looks a well-oiled machine and is capable of posting huge scores, with someone like Mark Boucher scoring consistently low in the order.

The availability of Jacques Kallis for this important game is going to make a huge impact. Kallis is possibly the best allrounder in world cricket today, and if he were to miss the game, that will only help the happy-go-lucky Windies team's cause. Possibly the one thing that will go against the home-crowd favourite South Africa is their uncanny knack of crumbling under pressure. When the two teams met last in the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka last September, South Africa almost choked and scraped through to a narrow win.

I am sure that the first game of the competition is a very important one, and I for one won't be surprised if both these teams qualify for the Semi Finals.

**LahoriMunda** · Feb 8, 2003, 11:26 PM

Just have to say Umair great job to take the time out and post all the squads and articles about this pool... Now if our team shows the same spirit we will come back with the cup.

**ehsan** · Feb 9, 2003, 05:08 AM

I would like WI to win but somehow dont think that iwll happpen. SA must be the favourite to win.

**ehsan** · Feb 9, 2003, 05:58 AM

West Indies won the toss and elected to bat.

Here we go with the first match of the World Cup.

**Dragon~King** · Feb 9, 2003, 06:32 AM

Hinds Out ... WI now 4/1 in 5 overs

**ehsan** · Feb 9, 2003, 06:34 AM

Poor decision, he was clearly not out.

Announcement

Cricket World Cup 2003--->Pool B

Cricket World Cup 2003--->Pool B

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