Cricket World Cup 2007 Preview: England

[This is the fifth in a series of collaborative articles assessing the merits and demerits of the teams competing for cricket's World Cup in March/April in the West Indies.]

Sibin Mohan
If any team can be called "perennial chokers" then England fits the bill. They're the team to have reached the finals of the World Cup the most number of times while never having won even once. Of late, injuries seem to be taking their toll with some of their best players being in and out of the team. Added to that, there is the problem of certain players refusing to play for the English team for the weirdest of reasons. There was the case of Darren Gough who dropped out of the English team to "spend time with the family", but then ended up in participating in the English version of "Dancing with the Stars". Pietersen, Vaughan, Flintoff are all capable of taking away a game from the opposition but Vaughan has been in and out of the team with injury worries. Monty Panesar shows promise every once in a while, but is not consistent. The English team recently surprised everyone with their wins over Australia. But in spite of these encouraging signs, I honestly believe that they won't be able to go far in the World Cup.

Prediction: Fail to qualify for the semis

Aditya Kuber
During the ICC Champions Trophy in October-November 2006, England were too focused on the upcoming Ashes and as a result performed badly. They maintained throughout that the Ashes was their focus and not this tournament. Well, we all know how the Ashes panned out! An immediate outcome of that was England tried to up their game for the Commonwealth Bank Series and finally succeeded in doing so towards the end. They do have some momentum going but the side just does not look settled.

England has done poorly since making the final of the World Cup in 1992 and this time around, there is renewed hope thanks to the presence of players like Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen. Michael Vaughan has also just announced that he would be fit by the time the squad leaves for the Caribbean. But the question is who will they replace? What about the opening slot? In Australia, they experimented with Mal Loye (who just doesn’t get the game, does he?) and Joyce. But I would think that Andrew Strauss needs to open. He is a natural opener and is best in that position. With Pietersen and Vaughan returning, that may just need to happen. So the old firm of Vaughan and Strauss at the top suddenly gives the team a better outlook.

In Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood and Andrew Flintoff, England has a fairly sorted middle order that should deliver based on current form. Paul Nixon as the wicketkeeper is adequate and can score a few if needed. But the bowling is where the wheels start to come off a bit for England. With Harmison retiring from one-day cricket, the pressure is squarely on Liam Plunkett who has burst on to the scene with recent performances. Sajid Mahmood is still erratic and Monty Panesar inexperienced. James Anderson can be devastating on his day, but these are not too often.

England has a good core and with all-rounders like Flintoff and Collingwood, they should be able to challenge for the prize but this bunch has always been under-confident. If they believe, maybe this time they just can. It’s a question of getting the basics right. But that’s where England often gets it wrong.

Prediction: Surprise semi-finalists (maybe!)

Angshuman Hazra

"All the King's horses and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again"

The battered Englishmen have done the seemingly unthinkable; after all, defeating a near full strength Aussie side in finals is an unheard of feat this millennium.

Duncan Fletcher and his boys were treading dangerous territory when they kept wishing off signs of their impending ODI nadir in the name of 'preparations for Ashes 2006-07'. After the 5-nil Ashes washout though, they were faced with only one escape route to redeem themselves - a good show at the CB series and world cup.

To their credit the Englishmen clawed their way to the finals past New Zealand and put their best foot forward to win it. But the damage, methinks, has been done. The two-match CB finals miracle looks just that - a last ditch exertion inspired by 'we CANNOT return from this continent having lost ALL matches to the great foe' jingoism and facilitated by increasing Australian woes in defense of totals, size irrelevant.

Minus the decisive services of Caribbean-savvy Harmison, the quartet of Collingwood, Flintoff, Panesar and Pietersen - in that order of merit - have too much on their plate to take England beyond the Super-8 stage.

Predictions: No show at the semis

Zainub Razvi

Unlike in the subcontinent, one-day cricket is England is not the most popular version of cricket. One-day games are in fact often ridiculed as being ‘Mickey Mouse’ contests and England’s (generally poor) results in them are hence treated with a measure of disdain. In fact, such has been England’s preoccupation with test cricket that often they’ve treated their one-day squads as an experimentation ground, trying out different players and possible combinations for their test sides, rather then trying to pick the best team, a policy which has seen them award over 200 one-day caps since the format first started, compared to 160 for Australia in the same time.

And its not like all these players are always not good enough, you get the odd case of a Anthony McGrath being produced in every country, but what is surprising for me is how so many of these players, despite having the obvious talent and ability, fail to deliver. From amongst the current squad, there’s no more an obvious example then the captain Michael Vaughan, despite averaging in the 40s in test cricket, Vaughan’s one day average after is under 30, with no hundreds, and strike rate of just 68. The funny thing is, that whilst in most teams, after well over 70 games, such a player would struggle to find a place in the squad, but in England, he’s not only find the place in the squad but also got the captaincy, even though he’s been injured or semi-injured for the best part of one and a half years!

You can only wonder if this trend in England’s performance is down to an attitude problem, because often, whilst seeing England play, you do get that impression that they really couldn’t be bothered less about one-day cricket. Off late though, they have given glimpses of getting over their one-day mental block, winning four matches in a row, 3 against full strength Australia, to win the tri series in Australia at the back end of a tough Ashes tour. They manner in which they won, ultimately, seemed to suggest to me, that with everything previous commentators in this thread have talked about aside, England’s chances may well hinge on just one thing, their own self belief and attitude. And like every else, I’m afraid, I’m not convinced, they have enough of it.

Prediction : Finish last in super eight

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Also Read Our Other Previews:
India
Pakistan
West Indies
South Africa
Sri Lanka
New Zealand
Zimbabwe
Bangladesh, Kenya
Canada, Scotland, Ireland, Bermuda, Netherlands