Poorly Conceived Twenty20 World Cup Preview: Group D
So the Harris Sportsthoughts Twenty20 World Cup preview grinds to an apologetic halt on the eve of the tournament. Group D, you’re up:
We are now able to add Twenty20 cricket to that tedious list of sports that England invented and are now a bit rubbish at. Built in the image of the national football team, England only perform as well as the opposition put in front of them. Hence last year, England were shamed by the Dutch, before defeating defending champions India and future ones Pakistan. If they could courageously exit in the semi-finals on penalties to Germany having had Kevin Pietersen sent off, then they surely would. Currently undergoing an operation to become fully South African, which means they are even more likely to plummet out of the tournament in hilarious style. Has anyone seen England and South Africa in the same room? Oh yes, today in Bridgetown.
The West Indies are the home team, which counted for not very much during the last World Cup in the region when most of its support was loitering ticketless outside the grounds trying to listen to what was going down. Might be amazing, might be awful. Which is an improvement on last year’s Champions Trophy, where a second string side were only going to be awful.
Ireland have recently made a habit of taking a scalp in the preliminary stages of major tournaments, before clogging up the second phase with their mediocrity. Quite capable of repeating the trick (see England above). Are destined to be forever plagued by strange men in synthetic orange beards.
Harris Sportsthoughts 
If the Irish are guilty of being mediocre, are they really the ones to blame? Many of us bitter Irish fans keep going on and on about it, but the fact of the matter is our best player is playing for England. I know Morgan is only one player…but he along with Ed Joyce would give the Irish team a stronger look to it.
It’s unfortunate that England have also set their sights on Boyd Rankin, with him having been called up to the England performance squad. I can see the likes of Paul Stirling and George Dockrell heading a similar direction. Who can blame them? At the moment they are never going to make a decent living out of the game in Ireland. But is that Ireland’s fault?
Great blog by the way…only just discovered it
Leprechaun
April 30, 2010 at 10:17 am
I do have some sympathy. Ireland have found themselves in a strange hinterland between the international arena and the county game. A feeder club for England but also a rival. I can’t think of any other parallel in sport.
harrisharrison
April 30, 2010 at 4:51 pm