The World Cup 2011, A Look back

India
April 1, 2011 2:04am CST
Dear all, The cricket world cup started on the 19th of February, and is nearing its Finale. The world cup featured 48 matches up till the final. We can say that it was a successful world cup on the whole. It had more attendance compared to the 2007 World cup, where the ground attendance had reduced considerably, due tot he early exit of India and Pakistan. This World cup did feature some great matches and also some mediocre matches. The mediocre matches were largely due to fact that there were one too many associate teams playing. I am all for associate teams playing, but it is best if only the best two of the associate teams play. Like this, the standards of the matches that involves the associate matches will improve and more cricket fans will watch those matches. The World cup saw the teams divided into two groups, Seven teams in both groups, Group B was considered as the "Death Group", where, almost all the major teams found it difficult to qualify to the next round. All the teams that qualified, really had to fight for it. Group A saw the the top four teams qualify to the next round, without much difficulties. The quarter finals saw a major upset when the KIWIS defeated a strong South African team. The India Australia Quarter final match was a highly talked about one and it lived up to its expectations. And the result of the match is that it will be the first world cup in thirteen years where the Australian team will not be featuring in the finals. The semi final matches: one saw an easy victory for the Srilankans against England, and the other semi final match saw the much awaited clash between arch rivals India and Pakistan. The atmosphere all around India and Pakistan was amazing. Both the nations came to an "ALMOST STAND STILL". Many offices were given half day offs and colleges and schools were given offs to watch the match. The match provided all the masalas required for an India Pakistan match. There was enough tension, joys and sorrows for both the teams and in the end it saw an Indian victory. This victory meant that India has defeated Pakistan in all the world cup matches. 5 out of 5. On the 2nd of April, at Wnakehede stadium, Mumbai, two Asian teams will fight it out for the crown of World champions for the first time in the history of world cups. It will be an interesting final, since both teams know the positives and negatives of each other as they have played each other so many times. It will be a match which will be looked upon for various reasons. Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international century is one. It will be the last match of Muttiah Muralidharan. It will also be the third time that both these times will have appeared in a World cup final. Amidst all the match fixing allegations the World cup is coming to its end and the best thing about it is that the best two teams have qualified for the finals. A lot is at stake for both the teams, so I believe that fixing the finals will be a looonngg shot...!!! As an Indian I would like to see Sachin score that illusive 100th international century and result in an India victory. But as a cricket fan, may the best team win. All the best to both the teams...!!! Share your views... Balu.
1 response
AKRao24
@AKRao24 (27424)
• India
1 Apr 11
Hi Dear Balu! Yes I too think this time we had a nice World Cup tournament 2011! There were 14 teams in all. I am not going to discuss any thing about the matches already played individually as these have been discussed at length on this form on day to day basis! Yes like you say I agree that Pool B had a tougher teams to face with each other than Pool A. But then I personally felt that I enjoyed every match! Though there were small teams or minnows in he tournament, which most people say that they were not good enough to play in the World Cup, their performance have left the Cricketers with spell bound! Ireland beating the England is one of the highlights in this Tournaments! There have been many Stars in making from many small teams who would be coming as big stars in future in the World Cricket, because of this World Cup Tournament! The new bowlers and batsmen from various teams have left a land mark in this tournament. Perhaps this is the tournament of the World Cup which has seen maximum number of centuries so far! No other World Cup had this many number of Centuries! All the pitches,may it be in Srilanka,in Bangladesh or in India,they were prepared nicely and no body was given any chance to complain about the pitch. All were good yielders! There were so many ups and downs in this tournaments! No team wanted to take the defeat easily.Except for the new teams all the other teams bounced back aggressively when they have lost any match to make their presence felt in the tournament! There have been a tie in this tournament in this tournament because of making equal runs by each team! I really have no idea if such thing has ha[pend in the past in any other World Cup Tournament! Now this world Cup tournament will be last one for two great International players , one is Muthiah Murlitharan from Sri Lanka and another is Sachin Tendulkar from India! For Indian side there have been two factors which generated an immense interest in me to watch the matches regularly and meticulously, apart from its winning spree, one is that Yuvraj has come back inti his form and has completed three half centuries and one century in the tournament to win the man of the match each time, for he was good wicket taker too in those matches! Another thing which I still eagerly awaiting is Scahin Tendulkar's 100th International Century, which will be another mile stone to be remembered in this tournament if accomplished tomorrow along with his 18000 runs in ODIs! One most important event which requires special mention is the starting of friendly talks of India with Pakistan on political platform , because of this World Cup tournament! Other wise after the Mumbai blasts the relations between two countries were quite hostile. It was indeed a big achievement that the Prime Ministers of both the Countries watched the match sitting together till the end and there were also some constructive political talks between the two nations. there were many VIPs in this tournament who were seen along with the common people to enjoy the match,though they could have watched the match by sitting in the VIP box! There were many foreigners in the form of tourists, visited India and had a nice time along with the match! But the most encouraging thing is the visit of Pakistani people to attend the semi finals at Mohali, who were warmly welcomed and given an appropriate treatment as any normal guest would get from Indian side! Thus for me this World Cup tournament has been a big success and will be remembered till the next one in good taste! Thanks for the discussion!