Words of Experts on T20 World Cup

NEW ZEALAND MY TIP FOR GLORY

Graham Thorpe,

You might be surprised, but my pick for winners of the World Twenty20 are New Zealand.

 

The Black Caps have got some big names playing for them and plenty of IPL experience in their ranks - which will count for a lot.

 

Ross Taylor in particular has impressed me. He's got good experience in the format and seems to produce the goods more often than not.

 

Another reason for backing New Zealand is the English pitches, which will be fairly similar to the ones they're used to back home.

 

Andy Moles's side will make many other teams look sloppy in comparison to their superb fielding and discipline as an all-round unit.

 

Jesse Ryder and Brendan McCullum are exceptional players in the format, and it will take a very good side to match that sort of firepower.

 

Twenty20 is a very different game to Test cricket, but if England can mount a serious challenge in the next couple of weeks it will do their Ashes chances no harm at all.

 

Paul Collingwood and his men are outsiders, but if they can start winning, the momentum will build quickly and the whole country will get behind the team.

 

If that happens, the England players will grow in confidence. When the Ashes arrives they'll be raring to go and have the groundswell of support behind them.

 

But you'd have to say England's lack of experience in Twenty20 will count against them.

 

They've also got a potential banana skin in the form of Holland to get past in their opening game. And that might not be as easy as you'd think.

 

India have been successful in the format largely because they play so many more matches than other nations.

 

The IPL may be criticised, but as far as India are concerned it is a real blessing because each side is composed of experienced stars and young, developing players.

 

The number of young cricketers from India who are involved in this time is of huge benefit to the future of the team.

 

I think they will be favourites for many World Twenty20s to come because of the experiences which the developing players will have gained.

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When it comes to batting technique in Twenty20 it's the players who don't panic who will do well.

 

The pressure builds very, very quickly and you've got to be versatile.

 

These days it's all about flicks and dinks. The Yorker is being dealt which much better than it used to be. The game is evolving all the time and it's fascinating to see techniques evolve.

 

Eoin Morgan is a classic example of that invention and batted with real confidence when he came in against Scotland in the warm-up match.

 

It is encouraging that an England player is showing as much composure at the top level as Morgan is, and it will be very interesting to see how he fares against better opposition.

THE TEAM IS A BALANCED ONE

Paul Collingwood, 

The benchmark for the T20 World Cup was set in 2007 when all the teams played some real high-octane cricket in a charged atmosphere for two weeks. The tournament now comes to England, and I expect the country to embrace this showcase of international cricket warmly. It starts an exciting summer of cricket for us, what with the Ashes following on the heels of the World Cup.

 

Looking across the teams, one would have to say that India and Pakistan would be the teams to beat. The defending champions have some really powerful hitters in their batting line-up and plenty of skill in their bowling. It was all on show during the Indian Premier League, and the fact that all the Indians featured prominently in that tournament ensures that they are the most mach-ready side in the tournament. The side is of course wonderfully led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has made the Indian team an attractive, talented and aggressive unit.

 

However, it's hard for any team to go back-to-back on World Cups and the defending champion tag brings with it huge expectations. The Indians will be the most watched team in the tournament, and while they are used to that, it will be interesting to see how they respond to being favourites ahead of the tournament.

 

If I have to pick a team as dark horses, it would be South Africa. They have good seamers in the side, and these blokes could play a critical role in English conditions. Once again, they have some good hitters in the side, who relish batting on wickets here.

 

Another factor I would like to mention is that most of the South African squad players were involved in the IPL, and that exposure will hold them in good stead. I think the 'IPL effect' will be felt in this World Cup, and players who have been involved in the tournament will have a major role to play in the World Cup. This is why, looking ahead, I would like to see more English players involved in the IPL. It's a world-class tournament, and even though I did not play a single game for Delhi Daredevils, I really felt the exposure to the team was a value-add for me. The same goes for all the other England players who were part of the first weeks of the IPL.

 

The England team is not on the top of anybody's list of favourites, and we are not complaining. It's good to play without the pressure, and truth be told, we have not won enough as a team in T20 as yet. This is a bit of an irony since England was the place where T20 was played, but the national squad has been a bit of an under-achiever. This is mainly due to the fact that we have not played enough as a team, and there are some rough edges that show up in a format that gives very little margin for error.

 

This time round, we will miss the many talents of Freddie Flintoff, but we have to get on with the game. Guys like KP, Dimi and Bopara give the team good firepower, while our bowling has been in pretty good rhythm of late. The team is a balanced one and if we stick to our plans and back our abilities, we could go the distance this time. (Gameplan)

RARING TO GO IN WORLD TWENTY20

Paul Collingwood, 

A lot of people would have looked at Twenty20 as a step too far when it was brought in to county cricket. However, it has brought a modern edge to the game which has proved to be extremely popular. Twenty20 to an extent revitalised the county cricket circuit, and it is now proving to bring the same to the international scene. In terms of the excitement, we as players are the same as the fans.

 

It is great for us to be involved in, as it is for the fans to watching the game. Playing in a shortened and exciting format, in front of bigger crowds, is great for players. It is also great to bring in a new brand of fan to the game, and appeal to a younger audience. The success of the IPL shows that, and all professionals want to play in the IPL. Twenty20 really is great fun to play in.

 

Chris Gayle is the best Twenty20 batsman in the world, without a doubt. In this shortened version of the game, it is essential to get off to a good start. With Chris at the top of the order, you have one of the best strikers of the ball in world cricket. He's not afraid to take on the quicks at the top of the innings, and this can take the game away from you before you know it. The game is perfectly suited to his aggressive style, and as a captain, he is someone for the young West Indian team to look up to. For a neutral, he's also great to watch.

 

For me, Muttiah Muralitharan is the best bowler in Twenty20. When Twenty20 cricket came in, I think everyone thought that spinners would struggle. This has been proved wrong though, and Murali has been an example of this. He has shown in all formats of the game how dangerous he can be, but in Twenty20 this is emphasised. One over can win or lose you a game, so having a magician like Murali come in to your attack will make Sri Lanka a real threat in the competition. As a captain, being able to turn to someone who consistently ensures runs are restricted, is a real quality to bring to the team.

 

In the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, there were a few things that weren't right for us. We were still an inexperienced Twenty20 side, and looking back on the tournament and the quality of players on show, we simply weren't quite good enough. Individuals like Yuvraj Singh were at the top of their game. He came in against us and changed the game in an unforgettable over when he hit six sixes off Stuart Broad. It was a tournament where a few players made a name for themselves, and unfortunately we couldn't match it.

 

This year, England will have a real chance of winning the competition. As the hosts, we will have the fans behind us, and also the self-belief that we can do well. We didn't have the belief in 2007, but with a younger side with a lot of potential, there is no reason why we can't go far. Twenty20 requires a little bit of luck, and we will need that, but on a serious note, if we start well and get some momentum, I think we will be there at the end.

ICC World Twenty20 2009 - News

Sri Lanka ready to return to international cricket

Three months after surviving a deadly terror attack in Pakistan, the Sri Lankan team will return to international cricket at the ICC World Twenty20 2009. 

Sri Lanka has not played as a team since March 3 - the day gunmen attacked the team convoy en route to a Test in Lahore, killing members of the security detail and injuring players and coaching staff. 

"Everyone has recovered after what happened in Lahore," coach Trevor Bayliss said. "We are back to normal. It's good that they've been playing cricket. When we get into the bus, we'll be a bit nervous, I guess." 

Sri Lanka will face a difficult task in the tournament, which starts Friday at Lord's, facing Australia and West Indies in the group stage. Only two teams progress to the Super 8 stage. 

The top members of the squad did get experience in the Indian Premier League. Captain Kumar Sangakkara and former skipper Mahela Jayawardene (Kings XI Punjab), Sanath Jayasuriya and Lasith Malinga (Mumbai Indians), Tillekeratne Dilshan (Delhi Daredevils) and Muttiah Muralitharan (Chennai Super Kings) all played the bulk of their team's matches. 

"It is the established players who will have to do the bulk of the work," says Sangakkara, who will be leading the national team for the first time since replacing Jayawardene as captain in March. 

"We will have to first concentrate very much on the two group games against Australia and the West Indies, and then move forward." 

The team boasts many experienced players, complemented with a few young players, such as uncapped all-rounder Isuru Udana, who took 16 wickets in the domestic Twenty20 competition. 

"We have some plans and strategies as to how we should go against our opponents," Sangakkara said. "If we play to form, there is no reason why we should not get the better of our opponents." 

Last year in Toronto, Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan in the final of a Twenty20 event, involving also host Canada and Zimbabwe. 

Sri Lanka has dropped experienced bowlers Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando but Lasith Malinga is back in the squad, showing in the IPL that he has fully recovered from a knee injury. 

Ideal situation for Malinga: Bayliss 

Bayliss said the gradual buildup in workload will help Malinga's return. 

"It's good to see him back in the side after a serious injury and, hopefully with a lot of cricket coming our way, he'll be fully fit," Bayliss said. "It's an ideal situation where he's now required to bowl just four overs. Maybe ODI cricket is the next best thing for him, and then probably test cricket." 

Sri Lanka is the only team in the competition which will rely on a twin spin attack, with Muralidaran and the unorthodox Ajantha Mendis laying claim to being the two best tweakers in the world at present. 

However, Sangakkara may not use both in the same team, with the option of using spinning all-rounders Dilshan and Jayasuriya and thus extending the batting order. 

Sri Lanka opens against Australia on June 8 and will play the West Indies on June 10.

Sangakkara ready to sweep through IPL and into World Twenty20

Sri Lanka’s new captain, Kumar Sangakkara spoke exclusively to the ICC about his passion for Twenty20 cricket, his thoughts on the 2007 event and how he believes the IPL isn’t overkill for cricket, as long as international teams maintain a good balance to combat fatigue. 

Do you enjoy playing Twenty20? 
Very much so, it’s been quite a revelation to all the players, spectators and the administrators as to how big Twenty20 has become in such a short period of time. Especially at international level it has become very popular. It started in England and caught on really well but in other countries there has been some resistance to the role that Twenty20 has started to play in the international calendar. 

But I think the one international that we played against India in Colombo at the R.Premadasa Stadium proved the detractors in Sri Lanka wrong where we had the biggest-ever crowd in for the shorter version of the game on that night, people enjoyed themselves thoroughly and there was great cricket on display. 

As players I think all we want to do is play good cricket. Whether that be Twenty20, one-day or Test cricket the onus is on the players to put on the best display that they can and make sure that the spectators get their money’s worth and also that you play to the spirit of the game, that you score the runs, you take the wickets that go into your stats as well so that at the end of your career it all stands together as recognizing you as a great player of the game. 

What are your memories of the first ICC World Twenty20 in 2007 on and off the field? 
On the field, it was noticeable that it’s a different form of the game and you really can’t play it the same way you would play one-day cricket – you’ve got to change your game and the composition of your team varies but it was a real pleasure playing in that real intense staccato version of the game, it was electrifying and all the players really enjoyed themselves, especially as the competition was still as tough and you had to squeeze all of it into 40 overs. 

Off the field the sharing of the experience of the World Twenty20 with not just the players but also all the spectators who went to watch the opening game between the West Indies and South Africa in the stands, it was great to see and get a feel first-hand about how the spectators were accepting this format of the game. Also seeing South Africa, the various cross-sections of society from little children of all races and colour really coming together and enjoying something that transcends everything – politics and whatever else is going on in the world. Sport takes precedence and seems to unify people very strongly. 

What can you take from the 2007 tournament, where you had a somewhat mixed-bag of an event, and move forward to the 2009 event? 
A lot of things, number one being that in Twenty20 it takes very little to lose a game. Also I feel this version of the game evens the playing field for all teams like when Zimbabwe beat Australia and it going to take a lot of work in preparation both mentally and physically to make sure that you’re ready for the tournament in England and I think we’ve got a lot of groundwork to do from now onwards to make sure we’re fully prepared and have no excuses or complaints when we get to England. 

Do you think this year’s tournament will be taken with more focus in comparison to the 2007 tournament where many teams didn’t necessarily know the tournament format? 
Definitely – I think players have got a lot more exposure to the game, the IPL has taken centre stage in the world in cricket and it has come to make cricket look like the English Premier League franchise format. Players are well aware how important this format of the game is especially to their country’s prestige in the format. 

Players are going to play a lot more intensely and they’ll be better prepared, there will be different players in their teams’ make-up, players who might not have had a chance to play one-day or Test cricket, some of them termed as Twenty20 specialists. 

In my mind (those players) are more explosive and give you different aspects, not just bowlers, not just batsmen nor your bits-and-pieces players. What I think is really going to improve is the fielding because that becomes far more important in the shorter format of the game. I think you’ll find more athletically prepared sides going out there and putting on a display that is well researched and better prepared this time. 

What will your own preparation be as a batsman for this tournament? 
My own preparation will be to make sure that I fine-tune the shots that I already have, add a few more to my repertoire, and also make sure that if I do get a start it’s like any other format of the game – you have to go on and bat the overs and only if you bat the overs can you really capitalise. 

But at the same time you’ve got to pick different bowlers at different times to take the risks and go for the boundaries. And if there does come a time in twenty20 where you do have to go for everything then you have to be unafraid to hit the ball in the air and hit the ball in the gaps and explore new avenues of scoring. 

If you don’t have reverse sweeps then get them going, (using) paddle sweeps to fast bowlers, coming down the crease to bowlers – I’ll just make sure that I practice every single aspect and cover all bases of my game and that’s my preparation for all formats of the game and it’s not different for Twenty20. 

Will conditions be slightly different in England than in South Africa – what kind of variations are you expecting? 
Well you never know, if it’s a good summer in England you can get beautiful wickets, but the ball always tends to do a bit more there and you might not always get the real big scores, but you might get tough games or close games and still very interesting games. 

In England I think the track record for spinners is very good. They’ve probably been the most successful of bowlers of this format of the game on the county circuit, so that should give a lot of the slower bowlers hope, but at the same time it is up to those players and how well they play and the display they put on is totally up to them. I think they are more than able to take the responsibility. 

You’ll be playing in the IPL ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 and there is a split debate on whether it’s a good thing to be playing in the BCCI’s tournament ahead of the event. Some may say it could leave players feeling physically jaded ahead of an international tournament – where do you stand on this debate? 

I think you always have to balance things out and if you don’t play the IPL then we [Sri Lanka] have no cricket and we’d just be training in the nets and doing all our preparation work – but there is nothing like match practice. So I think the players will be well prepared having played the IPL to go into more twenty20 cricket, but of course the conditions will be different. 

In regards to this too much cricket debate, it’s not going to change anytime in the future, it’s going to be a very hard workload especially for bowlers, but it gives countries ideal opportunities to test their bench strength where they can rotate players in and out and make sure that the best 11 is always in the best physical condition and mental condition to take the field and at the same time give exposure to the fringe players who need the opportunity and exposure to show everyone what they can do and try to break into a permanent place in the national side. 

There are different balances but I think all the countries and all the players will have no choice but to make sure that they have some plan to balance out the heavy workload as well as player fatigue. 

One bonus of the IPL must be that you can look at potential opponents ahead of the tournament? 
I suppose that is true. I think the greatest experience I’ve had in the IPL is, of course, that we are playing excellent cricket but at the same time we’re also playing with and against not just your usual opponents but also with your own team-mates. 

So for me it’s been a real eye-opener in the camaraderie that’s been built, the relationships, the friendships that have sprung up due to the IPL and hopefully it will bring a day when the match referee is not needed to have a look in on games and these tournaments like the IPL are a good way to do that. 

The group that you’re playing in for the ICC World Twenty20 has got Australia but you’ve also got the West Indies who were of course eliminated in the first round of the 2007 tournament which explains why they’re in the same group. It’s the only group without an Associate team – is it a daunting prospect of a group knowing that one of you will definitely be going home. 

It is a daunting prospect but at the same time if you want to win a tournament you’ve got to beat all the sides in the first round or the second, you’ve still got to beat them, so my feeling is get it over in the first round and make sure that hopefully you beat both teams but if beating one team is enough to qualify then just try and win every game you play and make sure you progress in the tournament. 

Tough opponents at the start might give us that much more motivation to try and break into the second round and go further in the tournament. 

The men and women are playing alongside each other in this tournament for the first time, and the Sri Lanka women’s team will be involved. Do you think that’s good for women’s cricket and Sri Lanka cricket? 
I think it’s very timely that it has happened. Women’s cricket has come a long way in the last few years in terms of recognition and status and I think everyone has got to recognise the fact it is a game that must run parallel with the men’s game. 

If you can have concurrent tournaments like this it will give a lot of exposure and a lot of experience to women’s cricket and especially to a side like the Sri Lankan side who come into tournaments like this where they get the chance to experience not just playing against their opponents but also learning from the men’s game. 

Do you have much to do with the Sri Lanka women’s cricket team? 
Not really. They do train in the same gym that we do and we have tried to make sure that it is run as professionally as men’s cricket is, but we still have a long way to go and a lot to do to make sure they have the same facilities and the same opportunities to improve and become a leading force in women’s cricket. 

We have the girls and the talent to do that and now it’s just the responsibility of the Sri Lanka Cricket board to keep on injecting the finance and injecting the qualified personnel to guide these girls into better cricket.

Why Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies are in one group

	India's win in the ICC World Twenty20 in 2007 means they're the top ranked team this time © Getty Images

How the groups were made

The 12 teams competing in this year's World Twenty20 are the nine Full-Member countries and three Associates who made it to England through the qualifying tournament, which was held in Belfast. They have been divided into four groups of three each based on their seeding, which depended on their standings in the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2007 (for the teams that took part in it). Since India were champions they were seeded first, their opponents in the final, Pakistan, were ranked second, while the losing semi-finalists Australia and New Zealand were seeded third and fourth. The top four seeds were then put in four different groups for this year's tournament.

The best among the rest, South Africa, were seeded fifth and put in the same group, D, as the team seeded fourth -New Zealand - while Sri Lanka and England, the 6th and 7th seed, were placed in groups C and B. Had West Indies at least finished eighth in 2007, there would not have been a 'group of death' this year. But they did not even win a single game, losing to Bangladesh because of an inspired innings from Mohammad Ashraful, and were seeded 11 and placed in Group C. Bangladesh, who qualified for the Super Eights in 2007 but didn't win a game in that round, were eighth and put in India's group.

Group A - India (1), Bangladesh (8), Ireland (9) Group B - Pakistan (2), England (7). Netherlands (10) Group C - Australia (3), Sri Lanka (6) West Indies (11) Group D - New Zealand (4), South Africa (5), Scotland (12)

Each team will play the other in its group during the preliminary round and the top two will qualify for the Super Eights. What this means is that either Bangladesh or Ireland, or both, are assured of a place in the second stage, while one of Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies will crash out after round one, leading to the possibility of another group of death in the next World Twenty20, in the Caribbean in 2010.

If two teams in a group have equal points at the end of the first round, the one with more wins will be placed higher. If they have equal points and the same number of wins, a likely scenario, then the team with the higher net run-rate will be ranked higher. Should net run-rate also fail to separate the sides, then the one with the higher number of wickets taken per balls bowled in the group stage in which results were achieved, will be preferred. And if the teams remain in a deadlock, then the winner of the group match between the sides will prevail. If all of the aforementioned tie-breakers fail, the teams will be separated by drawing lots.

And should the weather in England wreck all the three matches of a particular group, the top two seeded teams in the group will progress. No points, however, will be carried forward from the group stage into the Super Eights.