Cricket World Cup group stages, May 30 - July 6

[mikesiva]

Imam gets his century!

Then out hit wicket.

[sussexpob]

The myth of Gayle as a great ODI player

Did anyone say he was a great ODI player?

Certainly I havent..... but I think its undeniable hes the best T20 player to have ever played.

I'm happy for WI to pick anyone who doesn't march down the wicket, salute and throw his arms in the air like a big irritating ponce

When Stokes scored those two hundreds at Lords I think he shared a salute with Joe Root to celebrate. Buttler saluted Sheldon after smashing him for a six a couple of months ago, the press in the UK exploded in laughter and thought it was brilliant.....When a West Indian does it as a celebration, the press claimed it was (in their exact words).... "the most cowardly act ever seen on a cricket field"..... wonder what the difference is Maybe we can take a hint from the Twitter storm this week, where the most famous England cricket fan going called Bairstow's celebration vs India "legendary".... only to then criticism a bisexual women in the world cup for doing the same thing only a few hours later.

White man from England does something....

Black, gay or female person does the same .....

No one had much to say about Ben Stokes continually harassing Samuels at every single opportunity with foul language. If we had to ban people for this sort of thing, no one would have a team to field.

[Arthur Crabtree]

If England make it to the final, Sky say it will be on fta. Not clear what channel that means though. I read it may be Sky1 which isn't available through Freesat or Freeview.

[Durhamfootman]

been so long since cricket was on FTA that they may need to run a series of programmes explaining the rules to a generation of viewers who've never watched live cricket

"Dad....Joe Root has hit 6 balls.... why isn't he celebrating a 50?"

[Durhamfootman]

"Dad... what's a single?"

[sussexpob]

Gayle has put his own interests ahead of the WI by choosing when he'll be available, and be fit, based around the T20 alternatives. It's arguable that this is understandable and that any WI player who comes along of comparable ability will do the same. But nevertheless, it's still a problem for the WI. I don't know how much of a problem or embarrassment for the WI was his encounter with a female Aussie interviewer or if that was part of a wider issue regarding his behaviour. So I'm not aware if that is of relevance.

I wonder how many employees would stick around with undying loyalty after a decade turning down 2000% pay rises elsewhere, while their employer had sent them on tours without paying them, had tried to force huge pay cuts onto them with no justification, had forced them through 5 or 6 consecutive tours without even providing them with any contract or terms of employment, had arbitrarily fined them and dropped them from teams when they spoke out about it to the press, and who had threatened to terminate your career at the top level unless you ditched your personal sponsor at great cost to yourself, just because they happened to sign a deal much later themselves with a competitor.

Loyalty is a two fold thing, and the WICB have continually mugged off its players, and as such, deserve zero loyalty in return. Its not fair at all to judge players who stand up for themselves and their employment rights, and throw that back in their faces as some greedy money grabbers who dont turn up for internationals because they have better things to do.

Far from being "arguably understandable", it couldnt get anymore understandable. Literally who in any form of employment would turn down 2 million dollars to stay with an abusive, demanding, unreasonable employer who pays you 1.95 million a year less, refuses to put terms of service on paper, constantly tries to reduce your wages for no justifiable reason, then occasionally decides not to pay you it anyway?

If England players werent getting 95% more base rate pay before West Indies and had to rely on the Big Bash and IPL to earn a living, I wonder how many of those would be leaving the IPL early to come play a May test vs BD.

[Durhamfootman]

If England make it to the final, Sky say it will be on fta. Not clear what channel that means though. I read it may be Sky1 which isn't available through Freesat or Freeview.

Ch 4, seemingly

who also have their only Grand Prix on the same day, so it would probably involve showing it on More4 or E4 or something

[Arthur Crabtree]

Surprising news.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Shaka is the highest scorer in the competition again.

[Durhamfootman]

Shaka is the highest scorer in the competition again.

fancy not picking him

schoolboy error

[Arthur Crabtree]

He's not going to the semis/final though. So he won't make any more points of course.

[Durhamfootman]

he's done his work and proved his worth

I thought the SF's would be contested by Australia, England, India and WI, so only picked players from those teams. I did not factor in the feast of group games and the famine of KO's, so as a strategy it was flawed from the outset

[Arthur Crabtree]

The 574 day qualification period comes to an end tomorrow funnelling into a pair of knockout games.

SLvIndia
AustraliavSA.

So there is competition for first place and meeting NZ or England.

SA could finish below WI on NRR, don't know how likely that is. This is for the bottom-apart-from-Afg spot.

No competition for Pakistan in the nearly but not good enough position.

[ianp1970]

If England make it to the final, Sky say it will be on fta. Not clear what channel that means though. I read it may be Sky1 which isn't available through Freesat or Freeview.

Ch 4, seemingly

who also have their only Grand Prix on the same day, so it would probably involve showing it on More4 or E4 or something

So somebody thought it a good idea to have the Cricket World Cup final, Men's Wimbledon final and the British Grand Prix all on the same day

[The Professor]

Tough luck for Pakistan

Tale of what could have been for them. Rained off game, annihilation to West Indies and dispiriting loss to India is the story of their World Cup