World Cup Kick Off

World Cup 2007 kicked off with four warm-up matches today. As expected the minnows were soundly beaten although South Africa was given a scare by Ireland! These were warm-up matches and hence were not given full coverage. However what annoyed me was that cricinfo.com, the most popular cricket website on the internet had live scores and bulletins for two of the matches, did a bulletin for one game after it was over and totally ignored one game- that involving the hosts. One wonders if two black teams playing each other- hosts West Indies versus Kenya- was not important enough to be afforded any coverage. I just checked again and they have now posted a scorecard and bulletin after the fact!

The Aussies and South Africans were complaining about their training facilities. Maybe they were justified, maybe they were not. What I do know is that we are always held up to a higher level of scrutiny than others and particularly developed countries. Only last year, the West Indies turned up at a training session in Australia to find that the usual courtesy of the host country providing local bowlers to bowl at the batsmen in the nets was not provided. A few weeks ago the Aussies warned their fans about crime in the region but didn’t mention that the same time they issued their warning, some members of the English team were attacked and robbed in their hotel in Australia. They also did not mention the vicious attack a few years ago on some members of the West Indies team that left one player unconscious.

A few warm up games left, the official opening ceremony this coming Sunday in Jamaica and then the opening game next Tuesday- West Indies versus Pakistan. Go Windies! I hope to have everything organised by then to enable me to view the games. I tried to purchase the package on willow.tv but was having some problems which hopefully should be ironed out soon. I also hope that despite all my concerns about almost every aspect of the organisation of the World Cup, the tournament is a success.