Born in England, died in India.

They say that World Cup has started in India. I heard that people died of heart attack seeing the first three matches of the World Cup. I would advise ICC not to hold such nail-biters because people will eat others head off :D By the end of 40-odd days of this so-called World Cup, some thousand records will be created which will keep some idiots happy.

The best part of it was that I did not have to even watch one full over in any of the matches. Just a look at the score card shows how much I missed :D Some may be happy to see Sehwag has 'equalled' Kapil's record in World Cup for the highest score in the match against Bangladesh. I was curious/clueless about New Zealand's apparently 'wretched' form these dayss and wanted to catch some minutes in their match against Kenya but before I could get to catch it on TV, I saw that it was over :D I guess one of the goals of the minnows is to 'postpone' their obvious defeat. First thing that they seem to do is to give some batting practice to the 'bigger' team. So that the match will definitely go to say 60 overs! That seemed to be the achievement of at least Canada in their match against Sri Lanka.

So-called experts were pretty late in even thinking, forget doubting, if ODIs have a future.

I think the part of the problem with 50-over cricket is that it is becoming very formulaic, and I think the Powerplays are contributing to that. I think the batting side is saying that we are going to go like hell in the power-plays and in the overs in between we are going to try and pick five or six runs an over without taking much risk so that we have wickets in hand. And if you've got a game of cricket where the batting is playing without risk and the fielding captain is allowing them to do that, then you've got a boring game on hands.

I guess a boring World Cup is written all over.

Update: 30 Mar 2011, 15:14 hrs IST

People can call me a 'cynic' for suspecting that the World Cup is 'fixed' to ensure that Sachin, oops Chennai Super Kings, oops Dhoni lifts the World Cup at Eden Gardens at Kolkota, oops Wankhede at Mumbai. I still feel that the entire thing is being 'orchestrated' to ensure Sachin's 'list of credentials' has a World Cup. At least to 'suspects' like me ;), the cat was out of the bag during the semifinals wheen it was shown on TV - . Well the match between India and Pakistan has started I guess just a few minutes ago, but why bother playing when the result is known. To add some 'authenticity', the Pakistani Minister warns his players not to get involved in match fixing. Dont bother guys, fixing has been taken care of :D