Cricket World Cup- highs, lows, summary

[Foley]

Ok so how good was that World Cup?
Obviously a sensational final but what are peoples thoughts on the good and bad of the CWC19?

 

[Gary Baldi]

The format worked well - the likes of Ireland will feel they had to be there, but having more competitive games worked well. There were fewer give away games and the tournament was a better watch.

They need to stop using Kookaburra balls. A tennis ball would be better.

Less sponsorship as it at times if felt cheap to watch at times. I'm surprised they didn't have a sponsor for a sponsor.

Good to see a new team win it - as much as some India fans are moaning, they had no right to win because they turned up.

Sad to see the state of Sri Lanka and the West Indies at the moment. The same can be said for Pakistan at times.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

As I said on the other thread, I thought it improved as it went on.

For some reason the early stages produced very few close games with the bat totally dominating.

Once the pitches started being less flat, the games got better.

It's a real shame it was on pay TV, although it was excellent that the final was on terrestrial.

DRS has really come of age - very slick and only giving one DRS appeal to each team per match worked well. I know some commentators were saying that if any part of the ball is hitting the wickets on a review then it should be out, but ball tracking IS only a prediction and there has to be some margin of error.

The standard of umpiring was generally pretty good.

I thought it was a good idea to include some of the 'lesser' teams - I hope the ICC supports them enough over the next 4 years to ensure that they have developed further by the next one.

Ticketing was an issue. I tried to get tickets for some games, couldn't because they were 'sold out' but empty sets were evident. Presumably people had bought tickets but not gone, so there should be some easy online way of people returning their tickets for resale.

Over all though - thoroughly enjoyable, made all the better by today!

 

[SteMerritt]

They need to stop using Kookaburra balls.

And for tests, abomimation of a ball.

 

[Foley]

I thought that the pitches being slower and not totally flat helped the games. The great bowlers generally did well.
It was a shame that the spinners did so poorly.
The grounds generally looked great and the huge number of fans from all Countries was good to see.
I'm not sure about how it could be improved, but Indian supporters buying the Edgbaston semi final tickets then not going seems wrong (final as well)
Really disappointing that S Africa were so poor and Afghanistan won no games (WI were poor too)
Great that India didnt get to the final.
I thought that overall the Sky coverage was pretty good (Saurav Ganguly constantly stated the bleeding obvious!)

And a great great final

 

[Sarge]

as many have said already, it was a shame that the Cricket World Cup, being held in England, wasnt, final apart, on terrestrial tv

I had a decent day out at Taunton watching one of the 'lesser' matches (West Indies V Bangladesh), as I was in South Somerset at the time, - lowest priced tickets for that one were £20 ... I got a pair of em n took me Dad, who was on hol in Minehead at the time

Shame that SA & WI never really got going

Afghanistan & Bangladesh bought something with them to the finals

Pakistan & SL were disappointing I thought


following England's fortunes was often more than bit like watching the mighty U's

Beating Aussies at cricket is always good ( bring on the ashes)... as was beating India - who's, as others have mentioned, massive support think they have some sort of divine right to basically turn up & theyll win

NZ may not be the most flamboyant side, but ( small wobble - like England - apart) were solid and did their job with no nonsense or frills. They fully contributed to what will be one of, if not the most exciting ( CWC ODI),final ever, and pushed England all the way yesterday.

decent competition all in all , with a final that bordered on unbelievable... topped off with an England win, that was very hard won

 

[chuckbert]

the likes of Ireland will feel they had to be there,

... they had the winning captain !..

 

[Berliner]

And for tests, abomimation of a ball.

I umpire at a relatively high level (ICC internationals) and can confirm that the Kookaburra white ball is absolutely gash. Seam swells at the hint of moisture and loses its hardness and shine almost instantly. And they cost the associate boards - at a reduced rate, mind you - 60 quid per ball!

 

[Sarge]

I umpire at a relatively high level (ICC internationals) and can confirm that the Kookaburra white ball is absolutely gash. Seam swells at the hint of moisture and loses its hardness and shine almost instantly. And they cost the associate boards - at a reduced rate, mind you - 60 quid per ball!

any insight youre able to share as to the reasoning behind the blanket utilisation (currently) in the CWC ODI for instance, of the Kookaburra white ball over the British made Dukes red ball, @Berliner ?

 

[Berliner]

any insight youre able to share as to the reasoning behind the blanket utilisation (currently) in the CWC ODI for instance, of the Kookaburra white ball over the British made Dukes red ball, @Berliner ?

Money and contracts between Kookaburra and the ICC...

 

[Sarge]

Money and contracts between Kookaburra and the ICC...

cheers @Berliner

 

[Essexyellows]

Only low for me was that a World Cup was "sold off" to the Sky leeches........... so kind of them to allow us plebs to watch the final!
Should have been on the list of "Not for Sale" events.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

The tournament started with that unbelievable catch by Stokes and finished with a heroic performance by Stokes.

I liked the format where everyone played everyone in the group stages rather than having two groups. Although that was compromised a bit when India chose to not really turn up against England to make sure Pakistan didn't qualify.

The heavy rain wasn't good in the early weeks but fortunately didn't really have any bearing on the group final positions.

Which brings me to the Sky TV sell off. Many many years ago I chose to subscribe to Sky as a sports fanatic wanting to watch sport all the time. So having paid my fee to actually be able to watch the final I am actually a bit annoyed that it was available to everyone for free. The same happened with Champions League final as well having subscribed to BT Sport to make sure I could watch the European finals having missed the year before when I didn't subscribe. So as much as it is good that sport can be made available to everyone for nothing like it used to be I am now left wondering why I bother paying my money as I'm not going to get a rebate back or a sorry from Sky or BT that I have wasted my money to watch their premium events. I would rather they offer a few less meaningful group games for free and keep the final as a pay for match only open to their subscribers. And if they are that concerned about the illegal streaming they just need to come down hard on this rather than penalise their true customers.

 

[Foley]

I pay for Sky and have loved the WC.
Personally I was delighted that the Final was on free to air.
It is clearly good for cricket.
OK I pay to see it but really couldn't care less.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Which brings me to the Sky TV sell off. Many many years ago I chose to subscribe to Sky as a sports fanatic wanting to watch sport all the time. So having paid my fee to actually be able to watch the final I am actually a bit annoyed that it was available to everyone for free. The same happened with Champions League final as well having subscribed to BT Sport to make sure I could watch the European finals having missed the year before when I didn't subscribe. So as much as it is good that sport can be made available to everyone for nothing like it used to be I am now left wondering why I bother paying my money as I'm not going to get a rebate back or a sorry from Sky or BT that I have wasted my money to watch their premium events. I would rather they offer a few less meaningful group games for free and keep the final as a pay for match only open to their subscribers. And if they are that concerned about the illegal streaming they just need to come down hard on this rather than penalise their true customers.

I'm not sure I have heard anything quite so selfish for quite a while! It didn't affect you - you could still watch the final on Sky. And you also could watch the other 40-odd games, unlike everyone else. You would really have preferred that only Sky subscribers could watch that nationally important sporting spectacle because you think other people watching it devalues your Sky Sports package slightly? Even Sky themselves didn't think that! And you want Sky to give you a rebate or an apology for letting the country watch it? Words fail me - please tell me you are joking?

 

[m]

I'm not sure I have heard anything quite so selfish for quite a while! It didn't affect you - you could still watch the final on Sky. And you also could watch the other 40-odd games, unlike everyone else. You would really have preferred that only Sky subscribers could watch that nationally important sporting spectacle because you think other people watching it devalues your Sky Sports package slightly? Even Sky themselves didn't think that! And you want Sky to give you a rebate or an apology for letting the country watch it? Words fail me - please tell me you are joking?

That's a good deal more considered and understated than the reply I had drafted; well done!

 

[Didcotox]

Don’t understand the anti sky brigade.

Sky have the best coverage of EFL football which is why I subscribe to it. It is costly but you do get a lot of sport for your money. The advantages of having dedicated sport channels is that they are able to provide excellent coverage.

BT sport for the last two years have had the major football finals free to air on their YouTube channel but in all honesty I’m not that bothered about European football so don’t pay for BT anymore.

You can now also subscribe to sky sports on a monthly basis, iirc when I used to do it when I had BT for everything it was twenty quid a month or so so you could have just subscribed to sky for the duration of the WC.

The days of everything being on terrestrial tv are over, and if you want your sport fix you need to cough up to pay for it. I’m not made of money but I sacrifice other areas of my life in order to have Sky.

 

[Didcotox]

The biggest high point for me is that my son really enjoyed it. We were both jumping in the air during the super over. He’s not into football and I have to drag him to games. He doesn’t mind rugby but has only really showed an interest since I booked tickets for the six nations in Italy next year for my birthday so maybe cricket will be the shared interest. He enjoyed it that much we have just booked tickets to a Surrey T20 game at the end of the month.

 

[Marked Ox]

I thought a lot of the fielding was entertaining in itself, not just catches but the general ground fielding. Obviously there was some shockers from all teams but when the fielding was top level, it was absolutely stunning and probably at least a level above previous World Cups.

The obvious stunning catch by Ben Stokes springs to mind but some of ground fielding by both England and New Zealand yesterday was perfection. A couple of instances by Bairstow when sliding, cleanly collecting the ball and throwing it in one motion at top speed to Buttler. Likewise, the catch by Ferguson to get Morgan was superbly done.

 

[Marked Ox]

The biggest high point for me is that my son really enjoyed it. We were both jumping in the air during the super over. He’s not into football and I have to drag him to games. He doesn’t mind rugby but has only really showed an interest since I booked tickets for the six nations in Italy next year for my birthday so maybe cricket will be the shared interest. He enjoyed it that much we have just booked tickets to a Surrey T20 game at the end of the month.

You're going to ruin it for him with that then.