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And the winners are...
Cricinfo staff
April 30, 2007
It might have been the longest World Cup but, despite all the organisational
mishaps and lop-sided contests, it produced a worthy winner. Australia were
head and shoulders ahead of the rest - no team even came close to
challenging them - but a number of other individual performers stood out
through the tournament. We asked members of our staff to select their best
World Cup XI and there were no surprises that Australian players dominated
the list.
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Heartbreaks and red-letter
days
Rahul Bhattacharya
April 24, 2007
The drama of the World Cup, its very weight and
its scope, its highest joys and deepest sadnesses, have been found in the
semi-finals. Look at the last four competitions. The most climactic finish in
World Cup history, its greatest collapse, its most infamous riot, its greatest
robbery, its most sensational arrival, its most famous walk, all in the
semi-finals: the 'I was there' moments.
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World Cup Memories
'He who hesitates is lost' - Woolmer
Akhila Ranganna: The South African team arrived in England for
the 1999 World Cup and was greeted in the country by one of its best springs
ever, so was this inclement weather something that really bothered you at all?
Bob Woolmer:
Interestingly when we [the South African team] arrived in 1999, the weather had
cleared up. I remember I was going to Hove in Brighton to start our pre-World
Cup warm-up. The weather was beautiful; we were in jerseys, playing down by the
sea there. We had a wonderful practice at Hove. I do not remember it being that
gloomy. But I do remember a very very cold match against Sri Lanka at
Northampton. I do not remember it being a bad summer as far as we were
concerned. I thought, may be the good weather followed South Africa around.
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Self-inflicted pain
Fazeer Mohammed
April 11, 2007
"Dey wukkup in de West Indies bowling!"
Relentless cut-tail has the remarkable power of stripping the veneer of decorum
from any occasion, moving Adriel Richard, the CMC CricketPlus producer, to draw
on his Bajan dialect, in the midst of a "live" update, to describe the extent to
which West Indies bowlers were torn apart by South Africa's rampant batsmen.
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South Asian
shuffle
Osman
Samiuddin
April 10, 2007
The joy of
cricket, the vitality of it, in the subcontinent has migrated southwards and
eastwards. Whether it is a permanent shift or just temporary asylum can only be
guessed but, as Karachi and Mumbai stand jaded, Colombo and Dhaka are set to
sparkle.
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An Irish record, and the World Cup's biggest
stand
Steven Lynch
March 26, 2007
Jeremy Bray carried his bat through Ireland's
50-over innings against Zimbabwe. How many times has this happened in the World
Cup? asked Rae Clarke from Galway
That fine effort from Ireland's
Jeremy Bray
at Kingston was the 10th time someone had batted
through his country's allocation of overs in the World Cup. The first instance
was on the opening day of World Cup matches, in 1975: after England made 334 for
4 in their 60 overs
at Lord's, Sunil Gavaskar occupied 174 balls for 36
not out as India crawled to 132 for 3 and a 202-run defeat.
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Fuelled by team spirit
Dileep
Premachandran
March 21, 2007
The son of James Joyce was instrumental in
Ireland qualifying for this World Cup, with two centuries and two fifties in
the 2005 ICC Trophy. And before the more literary among you get apoplectic,
yes we do know that the man who wrote Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake
passed away in January 1941. But by a happy quirk of fate, Edmund
Christopher Joyce, Ed to his Irish and English team-mates, was also born to
a James, and his 399 runs from five games were the focal point of a campaign
in which the next highest scorer for Ireland was Trent Johnston with 183.
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Thanks Bob, you did make a difference
Osman Samiuddin
There are occasions when words, or anything else, are not enough. This is one of
those occasions.
The last time I met Bob Woolmer was shortly before the team left for South
Africa, over a seaside dinner, where, with a few other cricket tragics, we
dissected the West Indies series, Pakistan openers, slip catching and South
Africa. A dodgy stomach apart, he was much as I have known him over a couple of
years.
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The world's laughing-stock
Osman Samiuddin
First, an apology to the Irish: what follows is meant in no way to take anything
away from what must be one of that immensely warm, tiny nation's greatest
sporting achievements. They outplayed Pakistan with bat, ball, mind, body, soul
and all else that goes into the winning of cricket matches.
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India
far ahead of the rest
Travis Basevi and George Binoy
Have you ever felt out of your depth on a
cricket field because the opposition was overwhelmingly superior in terms of
runs under their belts, wickets in the kitty and sheer number of matches played?
Several of the teams currently in the Caribbean will feel like that too. This
week's List compares the cumulative runs, wickets and averages of each of the
World Cup squads.
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England can
surprise other teams
Tony Greg
The England team received a huge confidence boost for the World Cup when
they managed to get into the CB Series final at the expense of New Zealand.
This boost in confidence after their disastrous Ashes series became even
more evident when they then beat Australia 2-0 to take home the trophy.
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Most open tournament yet held
Ian Chappell
The 2007 World Cup has all the makings of the most open tournament yet held
with as many as six teams having a realistic chance of lifting the trophy at
Kensington Oval in late April.
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Captain's comeback: Take Three
Lights, camera, action and take three for Michael
Vaughan's return as England captain - and that's just this winter's count. As he
gave his pre-departure press conference in a plush Gatwick Airport hotel there
was a distinct feeling that we'd seen all this before. more |
Lara aims to defy
curse of the host
Though home advantage has traditionally been anything but that at the World
Cup (no host has ever won the tournament apart from Sri Lanka who were
co-hosts and won the 1996 final in Lahore) Brian Lara, the West Indies
captain, believes his side might be best placed to crack the curse.
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