Who will win the World Cup 2011?

World Cup 2011 is a vital tournament as for as 50 overs format is concerned. The previous One-day World cup was held in the year 2007. In this span of four years, cricket faced an acute diversion in the interest among the viewers. The Twenty Twenty format is dominating the cricket world. No one can deny that Test cricket has its own dignity and in my opinion it is not in jeopardy.
It is the One-day game which is facing the real test for survival. I hope this World Cup will be a real boost to bring its pride back.
So who will be the Champions?? The answer was so easy when posted prior to last World Cup as Aussies were imperious then. Now its anybody's Cup.
Australia as i said earlier was magisterial and the World Cup Final was never a thriller except the 2007 World Cup where Sangakkara and Jayasuria had put some pressure in the inital stage. But now its totally different. They have a mediocre bowling attack. None of them have a consistent rhythm or length to generate pressure to the opponent. Compared to Test cricket, they have a decent batting line up in the one day format. But its never sufficient to lift the cup. To me Australia will positively make up to the semis, not more than that.
South Africa on the other hand have a lustrous line up of both batting and bowling. Experienced players like Kallis, Smith and Amla topping the order followed by some big hitters in the middle. Their pace bowlers are pretty much promising. But they lack in good threatening spinners which is very much imperative especially in the sub continental pitch. Also they show very poor game play when they are under pressure.But for that, I feel they have a good chance of entering into the finals.
Coming to Sri lanka, if you had noticed they march towards the victory as an extra ordinary team effort when it comes to some champions trophy where all the countries participate. And now its more advantageous for them as they are well versed in sub-continental pitch. They have the upper hand over almost all the other teams in reaching the finals.
To me India is my favorite country to lift the Cup. I wont say they have a strong batting or bowling line up, but its really a promising side. Yuvaraj and Pathan's role are very important and if its India that is going to take the Cup away then these two guys have to be in good form.
Teams like England, West Indies, Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand are very much unpredictable. They may rise up or shatter down.

World Cup 2011 should be for India in my opinion. With fingers crossed, waiting for the event to kick start.

What Dhoni can do? He is at his best

Day before yesterday, Indian cricket once again faced a humiliating exit from World Cup T20 2010. Certainly India does not deserve to qualify for the semi final which i could sense in the way they bowled and fielded in all the three matches of Super 8 league.

After reading the interviews and comments by the Senior cricketers, i really dont understand why almost everyone blast at Dhoni? I feel the squad that went to play some sensible cricket, had only Dhoni apart from Raina who has put all his 100% effort.Gambhir's running between the wickets, yuvraj's fielding, Zaheer Khan's pathetic bowling, Vijay's thoughtless batting and worst of all an unwatchable fielding by the entire team has left the team down.

But i wonder what Dhoni can do? His captaincy on the field was good and he always stands as an example in both batting and fielding. What else can we expect from a Captain. Its the responsibility of each team member to take it seriously and play. The body language of Yuvraj and Gambhir clearly shows they are not giving their 100%.Same is the case of other players too.

And where did the IPL came here? We had a very worst experience in World Cup 2007 at the same Carribean and there was no IPL those days. Players from every country are playing IPL. Take Sri lanka for example. More than half of their players have played in IPL and now they are in semi final. IPL is again a cricket tournament. Blaming IPL is a very lame excuse that anyone can give.

BCCI must first appoint coaches exclusively for bowling and fielding. They must build at least two grounds in India with bouncy and fast pitch. Players must be trained to play pull shot well in Ranji Trophy level.

I hope India will come back in the Next World cup well with all the necessary changes needed in their side