2011 World Cup groups confirmed

look a bit wonky

4 qualify from each group?

Tom is right (for a change). As the only Champions Trophy semi-finalists in Group B, England must be very strong favourites to finish top of the group.

Too many meaningless you can see will happen if only 2 groups and with that quality or lack of it in each group.

when does the tourney take place. i need to book a few months off !!! :-)

2011 ;)

i dont think il be able to take the whole year off Step

You might need to

Last one was about as long :D

how many dead rubbers will we get?

Spread is 6.0-7.5

do 4 sides qualify into the "super" 8 as before

Doubt it. would be more games than last time! :0

it's 4 go through. presumably you carry forward the results from the other 3 qualifiers and then play the other 4. still 12 games to win it.

can see europe dominating group b

organisers reckon they've made a radical change in downsizing the tournament from 51 games to 49!!

Is this for real? Just said on Talksport there is no super 8 stage.

how come afghanistan are not playing .. they beat the netherlands recently and lets face it if zimbabwe are there why not the afghans

42 in group stage

16 in super 8 then??

final??

2 games a day will take a month. lol.

the bigger groups mean less chance of a big team going out with 1 bad performance, you'd imagine of the the course of 21 group games the top sides will go through, personally i think it should go straight to semi finals

that's what i work it out as bend with semi's as well makes it a 61 game tournament!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

is it not a super 6 after the group?

49 games according to Wiki.

29 in India
12 in SL
8 in Bang

49 would make it 42 group games

quarter Finals 4
semi Finals 2

And one super MEGADOG Final

= 49 games

can't be 49. 42 in the group stage for a kick off.

If 4 qualify is there any point in playing Group A games .

No 2nd group stage, the group stage is simply a way of setting up which of the big 7 + either Ireland or Bangladesh plays who in the quarter final stage. something 1 game (ireland v bang) and a draw could have done. But should still be good fun, hard to see a major nation not making the top 4 of their group with such a lot of matches in the group stage.

:_|

Gonna be soooooo many dead rubbers!!! ffs!

Spread on dead rubbers up to 8.0-9.5

windies will get through, will be sorted by then

seems an even worse format than the last one if that's possible. don't the icc watch the champions league (football).

that takes 10 months

Throw 2 extra teams in there afgans and bermuda or usa whatever, make it 4 groups of 4

24 group games top 2 qualify from each

straight to QF 4 games

semi finals 2 games

Final 1 game

31 games could be all done in 3 weeks 2 games a day group stages = 12 days 2 day break 2 QF one day 2QF the next, 1 day break 1st Sem Final next day 2nd Semi Final 1 day Break Final

21 days all done everyone happy, very little chance of any dead games. also chance of upsets due to short group format.

Dougy - I think you'll find it's the chance of upsets is what the organisers are actively trying to avoid.

I like your plan though - makes perfect sense to me.

I like that idea dougy apart from the having 2 quarter finals on the same day. Gotta be able to watch all the quarters in their entirety. would be too long to play one after the other.

If they were only 40 overs long however.... ;)

This looks like the crappest format ever devised

42 pretty pointless matches and then sudden death to see who's best at tossing a coin.

i wonder who was really behind this format .. media perhaps :0

bcci nap

i like the format :D

Logically the supporters of the weaker teams will like the format ...

Lori 07 Oct 16:15


This looks like the crappest format ever devised

42 pretty pointless matches and then sudden death to see who's best at tossing a coin.



In india, Sri Lanka and Pakistan

Can't wait.

sorry bangladesh instead of pakistan

Obviously think we should beat the Dutch, and anywhere other than the sub continent would think we would beat Bangla, but...

Beyond that its what WI team we have by then, and whether we can get justice this time against England.

Come on Ireland and the Blarney Army!

Oh, and betting on which team Ed Joyce will play for...! ;)

think doughy's solution works perfectly .. also allows other teams to truely enter the international fold and perhaps cause a stir or two

If they added two more from the pre qualifying I know Afghans would make it, think Scotland were next in qualifying comp

42 games to eliminate 6 sides (of which you can nominate 5 now)

A further 7 games to eliminate 7 more (Quarters, Semi, and final)

Whoever thought up this must be retarded - or trying to kill off the 50 over format. The Champs Trophy will have had more twists than the supposed one day showcase

Only now glanced at this and it is a truly stupefying format

First match India v Bangladesh, feb 19th in Mirpur

Eng v India - Kolkatta Feb 27th

Other fixtures to be released shortly

http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/newsdetails.php?newsId=1649_1257766980

Complete schedule

http://static.icc-cricket.yahoo.net/ugc/documents/DOC_7A6340D01E522169969E1DA7CF6C74BB_1257777614449_186.pdf

madness

Looks like a tournament and schedule that will ensure no more 50 over cricket after 2011 :0

Wonder which 4 will qualify from Group A after 5 weeks of meaningless cricket :)

is it an attempt to bore the Indian public to death?

No danger of that. The one-eyed mob will only go to India games anyhow at which they will be in a continuous state of frenzied excitement each time Dhoni takes a throw or Tendulkar jogs to mid on.

tournament clearly designed to ensure the top 8 qualify for the final stages this time....

:0

for me, the 1992 format has never been bettered...no meaningless teams clogging up the tourny - top 9 all played each other in a rouind robin (36 matches) - then top 4 went to semis and final - 39 games, was over in 33 days...

scrub the zimbos and add the bangas and repeat...keep the minnows to world t20s or some other rubbish...

So lets see, your basis would mean a team that beat both Pakistan and Bangladesh last time wouldnt even be allowed to qualify?

Someone get the straitjacket out!

yes, the whole reason the format has been changed this time is so that even if an ireland or a kenya fluke a win against a pakistan or bangladesh, they will not advance to the last 8 as they have in the past..

might as well cut out the middle man...

Would possibly be a bit better if only two qualified from each group - might at least get a few meaningful games then. Group A in particular would get a lot more interesting.

What we've got at the moment is basically the same as the '96 World Cup format - a succession of mismatches and meaningless games until the knockout stages. Might just as well get 16 teams, seed them according to the rankings, and play a straight knock-out - at least then every game would count and the minnows would have something to play for.

The Last WC was rubbish because Ireland and Bangladesh qualified for the 2nd group stage. Not a nice thing to say but its what I and many others felt at the time. Not knocking Ireland or Bang at all. Was a great achievement and fully deserved just left a lot of boring games.

The thing about a World Cup is that if a side qualifies to play in it they deserve a few games. i like the Round Robin idea, but you need to ensure that each game is important - as it is sides could beat all the minnows and still qualify, which surely is wrong

I have no problems with the associate sides playing, but if you have the groups too large in the first round you create a lot of meaningless matches. Somehow you have to balance the chance of a big side being humbled (like last time) with minimising the pointless games.

Alternatively, just give the trophy to Aussie and we can forget about this pointless version of cricket ;)

as it is sides could beat all the minnows **and no one else** and still qualify, which surely is wrong

What about winner from each group qualifies for semi finals ,while 2nd from one group plays 3rd from other group in 2 play-off games for other 2 semi final places . Will ensure that most games are meaningful and gives a reward for winning the group .

lots of meaningless matches + a tournament in asia = lots of fun ;)

for the indian bookies that is :)