ICC T20 World Cup
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="mimic" data-cid="569026" data-time="1459506810">
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<p>England was embarrassed last year at the odi cwc.. didnt make the quarterfinals..</p>
<p>And the Windies with their ongoing drama with their players contracts and so on.. </p>
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<p>England won in 2010, Windies in 2012. Their T20 teams don't need redeeming, in contrast Australia, NZ, SA, given T20 should be right up their alley - and SA have hosted, need redeeming. They've been pigshit. Running up to this England beat NZ, Aussie, India & then thrashed Pak 3-0 in UAE</p>
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<p>Its like saying the Fijian sevens team making a final is redemption because their 15's team is utter shit.</p>
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<p>Add to that England won it last time with a bunch of guys no one had heard of (bar KP), and are in the final this time after dumping alm ost all their specialist T20 players, guys like KP, Bopara, Wright, Carberry who have been lighting up shit like the Big Bash. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="mimic" data-cid="569035" data-time="1459516377">
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<p>its nothing like the 7s team..</p>
<p>most of the cricket teams are generally the same.. and im pretty sure they have the same coach(es).. and most of the time, the same captain..</p>
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<p>In T20's? Bullshit.</p>
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<p>They are barely half the team usually - often less than that. And the same captain is rare. Bailey used to be the specialst short for Aussie captain. Afridi leads Pak, Morgan England, when England won it last Collingwood was the captain & the likes of Lumb & Keiswetter were stars.</p>
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<p>Look at our bowling unit. Only Satner plays tests, Nmac, Mitch, Milne, Elliot are all T20 & sometimes ODI only guys. Munro is batting 3. Boult couldn't get a game & he's ranked what 7th in the world in tests & FIRST in ODIs. Anderson is ranked 12 in ODIs & Jordan 76. Anderson doesn't get in the T20 squad</p>
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<p>England are using their specialist T20 unit (No Broad or Anderson there), the guy who fucked us - Roy, has never played a test, Eoin Morgan is a specialist short form captain, Andre Russell has played one test & 40 T20's. Charles has never played one. Glenn Maxwell is close to the highest paid T20 player around, nowhere near the Aussie test side. Toss in Faulkner, Finch, Pollard, literally 90% of the top T20 guys are T20 specialists who get a decent shot at ODIs maybe but are nowhere in tests.</p> -
<p>20/20 is awesome!</p>
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<p>Windies need 19 off 6. Cue 3 consecutive 6s!</p>
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<p>Edit: 4!!!!!</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Billy Tell" data-cid="569654" data-time="1459703097">
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<p>20/20 is awesome!</p>
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<p>Windies need 19 off 6. Cue 3 consecutive 6s!</p>
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<p>Edit: 4!!!!!</p>
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<p>Really thought the Windies were toast during that chase but they have players all the way down the order who can hit big. Stokes really contributed in that last over, leg stump half-volleys, no yorkers when he needed only a couple of good ones.</p> -
<p>WI men and women winning is soo much better then England men and Aussie women winning. Nice job WI :good1:</p>
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<p>The WI men are interesting. Seriously good in the T20s, but crap in the ODIs and tests. AB De Villiers has spoken about it recently, that more and more players will become T20 specialists because that is where the money is, which will hurt ODI and even more so test cricket as players choose BBL/IPL etc over playing tests for their country.</p>
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<p>I'm not sure what the answer to that is. You can't begrudge the players going for the money given how short professional sporting careers are.</p> -
<p>This is worth a read if you like your cricket. Reminder that West Indian cricketers have always chased the money away from their homeland.</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/995019.html'>http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/995019.html</a></p> -
<p>Women's cricket is really, really shit. It's great that it's getting a bit of exposure this year, and having their games as the curtain-raisers in the World Cup and Big Bash is a really progressive initiative.</p>
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<p>But it's never going to take off as a mass spectator sport. It's slow bowling, crap fielding and small hitting on fields with 40m boundaries. </p>
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<p>As for the guys, well done to the Windies, a hell of a way to win it. But i am not surprised they won, their T20 side is packed with talent, there are enough guys there who can go big that they can cover for the fact that half of them will fail every game. And their best players play enough T20 they should be fucking guns at it.</p>
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<p>My tournament highlight was how silent the ground was at the end of the Windies v India semi. That was awesome. </p> -
<p>Yeah. If Australia weren't going to win, then I was happy as long as India didn't.</p>
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<p>Samuels calling out Warne was funny as fuck. But victories like this for Marlon are to ignore that he never capitalised on prodigious talent. That's why people mark him hard I think.</p>
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<p>It doesn't excuse in any way Warne's utter boganity.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="mariner4life" data-cid="569727" data-time="1459731151">
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<p>Women's cricket is really, really shit. It's great that it's getting a bit of exposure this year, and having their games as the curtain-raisers in the World Cup and Big Bash is a really progressive initiative.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But it's never going to take off as a mass spectator sport. It's slow bowling, crap fielding and small hitting on fields with 40m boundaries. </p>
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<p>As for the guys, well done to the Windies, a hell of a way to win it. But i am not surprised they won, their T20 side is packed with talent, there are enough guys there who can go big that<strong> they can cover for the fact that half of them will fail every game</strong>. And their best players play enough T20 they should be fucking guns at it.</p>
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<p>My tournament highlight was how silent the ground was at the end of the Windies v India semi. That was awesome. </p>
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<p>In the shorter form it is a similar principle to the OZ team of the mid 2000s, my mate and I used to catch up over summer for a few beers and loved watching that team play cos you could guarantee two or three of that top seven would get big hundreds, a couple would fail but the rest would chip in enough for the inevitable mammoth total.</p>
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<p>Teams in this tourney feared Gayle obviously but a couple of other top order batsmen really kicked arse when he failed ( as inevitably happens in cricket )</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="569732" data-time="1459731818">
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<p>Yeah. If Australia weren't going to win, then I was happy as long as India didn't.</p>
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<p>Samuels calling out Warne was funny as fuck. But victories like this for Marlon are to ignore that he never capitalised on prodigious talent. That's why people mark him hard I think.</p>
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<p>It doesn't excuse in any way Warne's utter boganity.</p>
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<p>Yeah I have a feeling Warne may sit a bit higher in the echelon of cricketing greats in years to come than Samuels will.........</p> -
<p>And if Warne was anything but a gigantic chav, he'd be right up there with the gentlemen of the game.</p>
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<p>As it is, we can only admire his ability to bowl, and some of the women he's ploughed.</p>
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<p>His ex-wife - not bad for three kids through that, and mid-40s (also fairly boganish).</p>
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<p><img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/04/264CD64400000578-0-image-a-86_1425448866388.jpg" alt="264CD64400000578-0-image-a-86_1425448866"></p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="mariner4life" data-cid="569727" data-time="1459731151">
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<p>Women's cricket is really, really shit. It's great that it's getting a bit of exposure this year, and having their games as the curtain-raisers in the World Cup and Big Bash is a really progressive initiative.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But it's never going to take off as a mass spectator sport. It's slow bowling, crap fielding and small hitting on fields with 40m boundaries. </p>
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<p>I reckon that is changing as more real athletes come into the game - the Windies have some players who can clear the fence and not just the boundary rope and they also have strong arms in the field. Reading that article I posted above Matthews, who scored the runs in the final, picked cricket over track and field. Once there is money in T20, the standard will rise fast I reckon as it becomes a career choice.</p>
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<p>NZ Women really seemed to lack athletes in the team - plenty of plodders in the field. The Windies basically won that semi-final by consistently turning 1s into 2s and running singles when hitting straight to a fielder in the circle.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="KiwiPie" data-cid="569738" data-time="1459732503">
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<p>I reckon that is changing as more real athletes come into the game - the Windies have some players who can clear the fence and not just the boundary rope and they also have strong arms in the field. Reading that article I posted above Matthews, who scored the runs in the final, picked cricket over track and field. Once there is money in T20, the standard will rise fast I reckon as it becomes a career choice.</p>
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<p>NZ Women really seemed to lack athletes in the team - plenty of plodders in the field. The Windies basically won that semi-final by consistently turning 1s into 2s and running singles when hitting straight to a fielder in the circle.</p>
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<p>I agree with that. Some of our women are now earning around 6 figures for sport with endorsements, and while they'll probably always lag behind the men, making it a career instead of a hobby is massive.</p>
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<p>I can't begin to imagine how you'd nail down a fulltime job interview with "by the way I need 12 weeks off a year to play and train cricket!" if you didn't have any other income.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="569737" data-time="1459732252">
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<p>And if Warne was anything but a gigantic chav, he'd be right up there with the gentlemen of the game.</p>
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<p>As it is, we can only admire his ability to bowl, and some of the women he's ploughed.</p>
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<p>His ex-wife - not bad for three kids through that, and mid-40s (also fairly boganish).</p>
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<p><img src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/03/04/264CD64400000578-0-image-a-86_1425448866388.jpg" alt="264CD64400000578-0-image-a-86_1425448866"></p>
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<p>She needs to practice the resting bitch face more then she'd have fewer wrinkles round the forehead.</p>
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<p>Definitely something for M4L to have a look at over lunchtime in the toilets though......</p> -
<p>I genuinely feared the West Indies might disintegrate as a cricket team (it might still happen...) but what a start to 2016 it has been!</p>
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<p>U19 World Champs</p>
<p>Mens T20 World Champs</p>
<p>Womens T20 World Champs</p>
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<p>Fantastic! </p>
