WARRIORS
Davy Jacobs, Ashwell Prince, Colin Ingram, Mark Boucher, Johan Botha, Nicky Boje, Craig Thyssen, Juan Theron, Makhaya Ntini, Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Justin Kreusch, Garnett Kruger, Arno Jacobs, Lyall Meyer, Jon Jon Smuts.

VICTORIA BUSHRANGERS
David Hussey, Ryan Carters, Aaron Finch, Shane Harwood, John Hastings, Brad Hodge, Andrew McDonald, Bryce McGain, Clint McKay, Glenn Maxwell, Dirk Nannes, James Pattinson, Rob Quiney, Peter Siddle, Matthew Wade.

WAYAMBA ELEVENS
Jehan Mubarak, Mahela Udawatte, Mahela Jayawardene, Jeevantha Kulatunga, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Kushal Janith Perera, Rangana Herath, Chanaka Welegedara, Ajantha Mendis, Farveez Maharoof, Thissara Perera, Damitha Hunukumbura, Shalika Karunanayake, Isuru Udana, Sameera Zoysa.

CENTRAL DISTRICTS STAGS
Adam Milne, Bevan Griggs, Brad Patton, Brendon Diamanti, Doug Bracewell, George Worker, Jacob Oram, Jamie How, Kieran Noema-Barnett, Mathew Sinclair, Michael Mason, Mitchell McClenaghan, Peter Ingram, Seth Rance, Tim Weston.

Nimsworth predicts
The lack of Lalit Modi is obvious from the onset in this years edition of the CLT20. As opposed to last years inaugural tournament there are two groups of five teams with the top two teams advancing into the Semi-Finals then into the Final. It’s so to the point and not drawn out that you’d wonder if the BCCI had anything to do with organising it. Group A consists of all the winners of their respective domestic Tournaments but really it’s a two horse race with the proven T20 powerhouse of the Bushrangers and whoever finishes second to them. Wayamba and Central Districts make up the numbers while I think the Warriors can edge out the Superkings due to the fact their squad actually plays cricket together and arent just a group of names thrown into a yellow kit.

Freemo predicts
I know they’re IPL Champions, but Chennai always look shaky to me. They rely too much on their stars too do all the work, while the second-tier players give nothing. When Winston Churchill said “Never have so many owed so much to so few” he was talking about the Chennai squad. But stars can’t shine all the time, especially in short tournaments. You know me, I like champion teams, not teams of champions and mediocrity.

Speaking of mediocrity, the counties have been cut from this year’s fixture. Sadly, Wayamba and Central Districts didn’t take the hint, so we’re still in for a few pointless one-sided by-the-numbers games. Victoria and Chennai to make it to the semis, though Chennai’s Indian players may struggle again in South Africa.

Group A Key Player
Freemo’s pick
A middle order salvage operation or two from Mark Boucher might inspire the rest of his Warriors and they might hit a run of form.
Nimsworth’s pick
Why it has to be the warriors Jon Jon Smuts of course. Only joking! Look for the Bushrangers Aaron Finch to continue his rise.

Squads
MUMBAI INDIANS
Shikhar Dhawan, Sachin Tendulkar, Ambati Rayudu, Saurabh Tiwary, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, R Sathish, Ali Murtaza, Dhawal Kulkarni, Aditya Tare, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, JP Duminy, Lasith Malinga, Ryan McLaren.

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE
Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey, Praveen Kumar, R Vinay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Cameron White, Ross Taylor, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, Dillon du Preez, B Akhil, Abhimanyu Mithun, Nayan Doshi.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Cullen Bailey, Daniel Harris, Graham Manou, Daniel Christian, Gary Putland, Peter George, Callum Ferguson, Michael Klinger, Jake Haberfield, Tim Ludeman, Shaun Tait, Tom Cooper, Chris Duval, Cameron Borgas, Aaron O’Brien.

GUYANA
Ramnaresh Sarwan, Royston Crandon, Lennox Cush, Travis Dowlin, Sewnarine Chattergoon, Narsingh Deonarine, Jonathan Foo, Derwin Christian, Christopher Barnwell, Esuan Crandon, Devendra Bishoo, Assad Fudadin, Paul Wintz, Steven Jacobs, Richard Ramdeen.

LIONS
Alviro Peterson, Thami Tsolekile, Craig Alexander, Shane Burger, Richard Cameron, Werner Coetsee, Cliffe Deacon, Zander de Bruyn, Robert Frylinck, Neil McKenzie, Ethan O’Rielly, Aaron Phangiso, Jean Symes, Jonathan Vandiar, Vaughn van Jaarsveld.

Nimsworth predicts
Aside from Guyana, Group B consists of all the losers of their respective domestic tournaments with the RCB not even making the finals. Guyana after their one man steal of the Carribean T20 final thanks to Johnathan Foo will be looking to emulate the sucess of T&T last year. But it wont be an easy fight with the Mumbai Indians and Bangalore filled to the brim with high profile players, with Bangalore going as far as making sure Cameron White, Jacques Kallis and Ross Taylor wear the RCB red as opposed to the respective kits of their Group A domestic champions. South Australia got to this tournament largely due to Mark Cosgrove, Kieron Pollard, Shahid Afridi and Shaun Tait and I dont even care about the bloody Lions to be honest. Mumbai & Bangalore to duke it out in the semis despite a strong showing from Guyana.

Freemo predicts
Read Nimsworth’s predictions. Look at the list of players he credited South Australia’s elevation into the Champion’s League to. Now look at the South Australia squad for this tournament. Problem? I think yes. This group is looking good for the two Indian sides I think. Like Chennai, Mumbai have a lot of name players, but unlike Chennai, more than one of them is Indian, so they’ll all be able to play. If nothing else, Kieron Pollard and Lasith Malinga will drag Mumbai kicking and screaming into the semis and quite possibly the final. And Bangalore are near certainties.

Group B Key Player
Freemo’s pick
Ross Taylor. From his humble beginnings as New Zealand’s best batsmen, Taylor has really kicked it up a notch in the last year or so. Especially in T20, and especially when not playing for the Kiwis. This is his time.
Nimsworth’s pick
Why it’s got to be the explosive return of Neil McKenzie! I joke of course. Tendulkar has been in absolutely brilliant form in 2010 and look for him to continue that good run.

Final Predictions
Nimsworth
Victoria v Bangalore with Bangalore taking the spoils after another Victorian finals choke. It pains me to say it but you know it’ll happen.
Freemo
Yes. Expect to see Victorian captain Cameron White holding the trophy at the end of this one. Pity he’s not playing for Victoria though.

Firstly a little bit of backstory. One Day cricket was what you might call my “gateway drug” into cricket with the first match I ever saw of cricket (at least that I can vividly remember) was Australia vs Sri Lanka in the Boxing Day ODI in 1989 with mum and dad in our flat in St. Kilda. Hell I even remember afterwards playing cricket at the back of the flats with one of the neighbours discussing how when we were going to get replica kits, “One with my name on the back and one with Dean Jones’s name on the back”, so to say I’m a fan of One Day cricket is an understatement. But onto my gripes with the changes Cricket Australia wants to implement to my favourite format.

1. 40 OVERS A SIDE
Australia is the number one ranked One Day side in the world, the reigning World Champions winning the 1999, 2003 and 2007 and became the first team to retain the Champions Trophy for one reason. Our domestic competition exists to build players for the national team. If the highest form of List A cricket is played for 50 overs then lets keep it that way. Australia doesn’t need (or want) Pro40, Super 40s, Ranger40s or whatever they try to brand it.

2. SPLIT INNINGS
Two 20 over innings a team in theory makes it sound like a One Day Test match on paper and does give both teams equal advantage to play on similar conditions but due to the vague nature of Cricket Australia’s plan what are the official rules? Some of the best drama in a Test match is the battle of Win vs Draw. Lets say Victoria take on Western Australia in a Split Innings Match (we’ll dub it SIM for the time being) and West Australia’s first innings score is 5/115 and in reply Victoria score 2/225. Does WA have to set a target for Victoria? What happens if Victoria bowl them out before they make up the deficit? Are the two innings compulsory? What if one team gets skittled for 50 runs in two innings? Does that make for interesting viewing?

3. CLASSIFICATION
All these new rules and “innovations” make it a completely different game. If they distinguish Twenty20 and List A as different formats when they basically only differ in how many overs you can bat and how many overs a bowler can bowl then how the hell can you introduce all these new rules and laws and still classify these split matches as List A cricket?

4. DESIGNATED “HITTER” (or the MARK BOUCHER RULE)
This one’s the new rule that absolutely drives me up the wall! Cricinfo describes this new rule as similar to the one used in baseball which means that a dismissed batsman could make a second appearance in place of a tail ender. I’m sorry Cricket Australia but contrary to popular belief, I love watching tail enders bat. Lemme ask you this Cricket Australia. In the infamous 438 match at Johannesburg in 2006, would the match have had the same drama in it if instead of Makhaya Ntini walking out to face Brett Lee in the final over it was say, Jacques Kallis? I dont think so.

These are some of my gripes that I have with Cricket Australia’s new proposals. There is nothing wrong with the One Day format. You want to fix it? Stop having pointless seven match bi-lateral series and make the matches mean something, keep those ridiculous boundary ropes off the goddam ground and restricted to Twenty20s only, and finally stop introducing new laws like Supersubs and whatnot! One Day Internationals are meant to be a fun day out at the cricket and I’ll be damned if you do anything to change that.

THE TEAMS

Zimbabwe
Pre Tri Series Form: LLLLW
Tri Series: Runner up
Most Runs: Brendan Taylor (295 at 73.75)
Most Wickets: Chris Mpofu (4 at 37.00)

Suprisingly enough Zimbabwe were the in form team of the tournament topping the table in the group stage and convincingly beating India comfortably in their first encounter and humiliating them in their second encounter with 70 balls remaining. Brendan Taylor was deserved winner of Player Of The Series with stellar knocks of 81 and 74 against India and a career best 119* against Sri Lanka in the last group game. While they have improved in leaps and bounds (and frankly should be a rung above Bangladesh) their cricket still remains in a fragile state but with the 2011 World Cup on the horizon, Zimbabwe might actually be able to notch up some wins.

Sri Lanka
Pre Tri Series Form: WLWWW
Tri Series: Winner
Most Runs: Tillakaratne Dilshan (328 at 109.33)
Most Wickets: Suraj Randiv (6 at 31.00)

With a little bit of a “cleanup” occuring at Sri Lanka Cricket, the Zimbabwe Tri-Series was an oppurtunity to rest key players like Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Muralitharan, Malinga and the sitting Member for the Matera District, Sanath Jayasuriya. With an out of form Tillakaratne Dilshan as captain, Sri Lanka’s bench strength was tested with some fringe players getting a chance to show the selectors why they should be considered a permanant part of the first choice XI. Dilshan played himself back into form while Tharanga reminded everyone on the planet why he should one half of Sri Lanka’s opening pair, and even the bowlers had a successful tour. Come the 2011 World Cup against full strength competition might be a different matter altogether.

India
Pre Tri Series Form: LWWLW
Tri Series: Eliminated Group Stage
Most Runs: Rohit Sharma (260 at 86.66)
Most Wickets: Ravindra Jadeja (5 at 36.20)

Oh dear. Oh deary me. A disaster of a series for India with a solitary win against Sri Lanka highlighting their poor tour, which dropped them to #3 in the ICC One Day Rankings. India rested almost everyone in their first choice XI and sent a second string side that was mainly the XI from India A, which as Freemo pointed out in his Asia Cup preview makes you wonder who the hell was in England playing in the India A squad. The Zimbabwe tour was a good chance for players who haven’t been in form to get a good bit of match practice, build their confidence and play themselves back into form. Yuvraj Singh or Ishant Sharma would have benefited greatly from the tour but really, who knows what goes on in the mind of the BCCI.

THE CONCLUSION
The Tri-Series if anything was a quasi demonstration that Zimbabwe are ready to play meaningful real cricket again. At the end of the tour there’s already talk of them returning to playing Test matches as early as 2011 and at the time of writing it looks like New Zealand are eager (for lack of better word) to tour Zimbabwe. Yes it is encouraging signs that Zimbabwe are back but lets not get ahead of ourselves in the sense that they should return to the Test fold especially since Scotland and Ireland can still run circles round them in the First-Class Intercontinental Cup, plus just because Sri Lanka’s willing to tour there doesn’t mean that Harare is the ideal place to play cricket.

Luckily the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket Peter Chingoka seems to have a realistic plan in place, hoping for the national side to play lower ranked Test sides like Bangladesh, West Indies or New Zealand and the A sides of the heavyweights. At least the signs are looking positive for Zimbabwe to be welcomed back into the fold. Hell if Bangladesh can be treated like a proper cricket team and show no signs of improvement in five years why can’t Zimbabwe?

I see PAKISTAN have lifted its ban on Younus Khan. The former Pakistan captain and leading batsman was banned a few months back, following his heinous attack on Mohammad Yousuf, where Younus viciously thrust his back into the unsuspecting Mohammad Yousuf’s knife (The PCB also claimed that form was an issue, with Younus having gone two whole Test matches without a triple century).

When it comes to dishing out punishments to their players, the PCB don’t discriminate. Perpetrators, victims, innocent bystanders, it doesn’t matter. All are deemed equally guilty and all are brutally punished and cast off into exile… until the team starts losing they’re desperately needed back again.

Shaid Afridi, the man who currently holds the poison challis that is the Pakistan captaincy – though that’s being reviewed on an over-by-over basis – is keen to see Younus back in the Test side, but stressed that that keenness does not extend to the One Day side for the upcoming Asia Cup. Ah, Pakistan cricket. Always out of the frying pan and into a different frying pan.

Chapter 2
Fakepolitik

I see SRI LANKA are blocking John Howard’s nomination for Vice President of the ICC. Sri Lanka’s pretence, sorry, reason, is that the position should be given to a “cricket person”, rather than a politician. Yes, that’s right, Sri Lanka are advocating that cricket and politics should be kept separate. Now let’s see new chief selector Aravinda de Silva name the Asia Cup squad while the Minister of Sport drinks a glass of water.

Sanath Jayasuria won’t make the side on current form, but he might make the side on 1998 form, which is what is usually used in his case. In completely unrelated news, Jayasuria is now a member of parliament, having won a seat at the recent national election.

Chapter 3
The Private Hellatory of Jamie Siddions

I see BANGLADESH have been utterly annihilated, again, this time losing 10 wickets in a session to go down by two innings and 760 runs in the second Test of their series against England. And right after they’d looked so kind of, sort of, almost, nearly competitive in first game too. Needless to say, both the haters and the apologists were out in full force moments after the awards ceremony. “They should be stripped of Test status”,  “No, they’re getting better”, “You’re wrong, they suck”, “No, you’re wrong”, “Takes one to know one”, “That doesn’t make sense”, etc.

Poor Jamie Siddons. If the meal between breakfast and lunch is “brunch”, then the place between purgatory and hell must be “coach of the Bangladesh Cricket Team”. Not quite in the numb limbo of purgatory (aka the county circuit), not quite in the searing hot agony of hell (aka the associate scene), but lost in the deep, dark, dank void that lies between hell and puragtory: Hellatory, aka The Asia Cup. “Free me or let me die!” he begs, but do the Gods answer his pitiful pleas? You’d better believe they don’t.

Interlude
 ”Goodbye, Rudi Tuesday”

I see Rudi Koertzen is calling it a day. The 61-year-old South African umpire this week announced that he’ll be retiring after the upcoming Pakistan vs. Australia Test Series in England in July. After a career spanning 106 Tests, 209 ODIs, and 7 LBW decisions, he’s certainly earned a happy farewell, and many Sri Lankans are certainly happy to farewell him, still seething over the time he gave Kumar Sangakkara out for 192 in Hobart. Oh well. So long Slow Death, thanks for the memories. 

Chapter 4
The A- Team

I see INDIA were bundled out in the Tri Series in Zimbabwe, losing to Zimbabwe (of all teams) twice (of all amounts). When Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Dhoni and Harbajhan are all left out, one suspects that India were fielding a second-string side (and when Murli Vijay is in, one knows it for certain. God, is it any wonder that no one cares about ODIs anymore?), but still. Not good.

Of course, India sending what was virtually an ‘A’ side to the Zimbabwe Tri Series had other ramifications. It weakened the actual India A side, who were off on a tour of England at the time. India A? Pfft, more like India A minus.

Chapter 5
Showdown at Dambulla Stadium

So India are out of form, Pakistan have selection problems, Sri Lanka are out of form and have selection problems, and Bangladesh are, well, Bangladesh. Yuvraj Singh has been dropped, Tendulkar is being rested, the PCB are making decisions not of the “knee-jerk” variety, Dilshan is the new Daniel Vettori, Salman Butt is the new Pakistan vice captain, the new Sri Lanka Minister of Sport has declared war on the SLC, and just when you thought things couldn’t possible get any more explosive, Shoaib Aktar is back.

And it’s all coming to a head on June 15th, when the respective paths of these four neighbouring nations will cross, as they meet to do battle at the Asia Cup 2010. Four teams, with nothing to gain but everything to lose, with the eyes of a whole subsection of a continent on them. Dreams will be dashed, captains will be sacked, inquires will be held. But from the carnage one side will rise, to claim the hyperbolic praise and the extreme-but-very-temporary adulation that goes with being the Champions of Asia. 

ALL. HELL. IS. ABOUT. TO. BREAK. LOOSE.

A victim of the dreaded “One Day Specialist” tag that plagued the Test careers of Dean Jones and Michael Bevan, his Test match stats just don’t do justice to how good of a bowler Nathan Bracken is in the four day game. His First-class average is practically half his brief Test one at a very respectable 26.06. Despite his exclusion from Tests, Bracken was a consistent new ball bowler in Australia’s ODI and Twenty20 squads and was consistently the No. 1 ranked ODI bowler in the world. Sadly a knee injury before the 2009 Champions Trophy put him out of action and his spot was quickly filled by the emergence of speedsters like Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger and Ryan Harris. Regardless of the upcoming 2011 World Cup in the subcontinent, Nathan Bracken was left off from the 2010-11 CA Contracted Players.

THE FUTURE?
While he’s still got a home at New South Wales in all three forms of the game, I think it’s fair to say that we’ve seen the last of Nathan Bracken in the Green & Gold. Bracken was signed in 2008 to the Royal Challengers Bangalore but has yet to play a game for them due to National duty. Since that’s not an issue anymore perhaps a nice little IPL pay packet is in order for Bracken. If anything I’d be cool to see a Nathan Bracken/Dale Steyn new ball combo.

TEST MATCHES
Matches: 24, Wickets: 94, Avg: 23.86
Last Test: England v Australia at The Oval, Aug 20-23, 2009
ONE DAY INTERNATIONALS
Matches: 39, Wickets: 94, Avg: 27.86
Last ODI: Australia v Pakistan at Abu Dhabi, May 1, 2009
TWENTY20 INTERNATIONALS
Matches: 9, Wickets: 13, Econ: 6.58
Last T20I: India v Australia at Mumbai (BS), Oct 20, 2007

Unlike Bracken, Stuart Clark was never pigeonholed as a specialist for a certain format and had a relatively successful Test and ODI career. Much like Bracken, an ill timed injury put him out of action for Australia in all formats of the game at a time when all these young whippersnapper speedsters started appearing. A fairly sub par performance when he was recalled to the 2009 Ashes squad in the final two Tests where he took 4 wickets and had an Average of 44.00 probably signalled the end of Clark’s international aspirations. If Nathan Bracken couldn’t even get a CA Contract for 2010-11 then there’s no way in hell Clark was going to make that list. You gotta feel sorry for the way Clark’s international career ended with a whimper but not “Brad Hodge” kind of sorry.

THE FUTURE?
New South Wales has shown interest in making Stuart Clark it’s captain in the absence of Simon Katich, but why you’d want that I have no idea. Clark was approached to play for Kent in the 2010 English County season as it’s overseas player before they realised, at 34 with injuries robbing him of a couple of yards of pace, perhaps this wasnt the best idea. Much like Brad Hodge he’ll be destined to play Domestic cricket until he retires. Unlike Brad Hodge he’s played more Tests, more ODIs and more T20Is. That’s right Stuart Clark has played more T20I’s for Australia than Brad Hodge the all time leading run scorer in T20 history. Figure out that one.

TEST MATCHES
Matches: 11, Runs: 902, Avg: 47.47
Last Test: West Indies v Australia at Bridgetown, Jun 12-16, 2008
ONE DAY INTERNATIONALS
Matches: 6, Runs: 125, Avg: 20.83
Last ODI: New Zealand v Australia at Auckland, Feb 18, 2007
FIRST-CLASS MATCHES
Matches: 146, Runs: 12800, Avg: 51.40
Last FC: Worcestershire v Gloucestershire at Worcester, May 29-Jun 1, 2010
LIST-A MATCHES
Matches: 137, Runs: 5367, Avg: 42.93
Last List-A: Somerset v Worcestershire at Bath, May 23, 2010

You might be wondering just why Phil Jaques gets his non international career stats listed yet Bracken and Clark didn’t. Well thats because while his ODI career was abysmal, Jaques Test and First-Class record is impeccable. An average of 47.47 after only 11 Tests isn’t quite the qualification to have people “oooh and aaah” like they do over Bradman or Mike Hussey’s batting average, when you compare it to his FC average it shows that he can go out there and pile on the runs. A Jaques/Hayden opening combination was the norm after the retirement of Justin Langer and with Haydos’s retirement, a Katitch/Jaques opening pair looked to be on the cards until that fateful back injury took him out. Sadly for Jaques, Phil Hughes appeared and Shane Watson found his niche as a Test opener and all of a sudden Jaques was out of the picture. A shame really cause his domestic performaces were and still are excellent.

THE FUTURE?
Considering he’s an aspiring Test opener that plays for New South Wales (whose entire top order are freaking Test openers now that Watto’s swapped states) Jaques looks like he’ll be spending a lot of time wearing the NSW colours. At 31 years old it’ll just be a matter of time before NSW show him the door in order to groom young guys like Moises Henriques or Usman Khawaja for elevation. At which point poor Phil Jaques will go to the haven for Australian domestic rejects: the English Counties! Say “Hi” to Stuart Law and Michael DiVenuto while you’re there!

TEST MATCHES
Matches: 17, Wickets: 60, Avg: 31.53
Last Test: Australia v Pakistan at Hobart, Jan 14-18, 2010
ONE DAY INTERNATIONALS
Matches: 15, Wickets: 14, Avg: 35.64
Last ODI: Australia v Pakistan at Perth, Jan 29, 2010
TWENTY20 INTERNATIONALS
Matches: 1, Wickets: 2, Econ: 6.00
Last T20I: Australia v New Zealand at Sydney, Feb 15, 2009

Considering he’s the only man in this list that’s managed to secure a Cricket Australia contract for 2010-11, you’d think it would be safe to assume that Siddle would simply slot back into the Australian squad in time for the Ashes this summer. But hey, Brad Hodge has been holding a Cricket Australia contract from 2007-2010 and they did bugger all with him so I dunno about Siddle’s chances. In his absence, Ben Hilfenhaus has suffered a knee injury and he’s got Doug Bollinger, Ryan Harris and fellow Victorian Clint McKay vying for a permanant spot in the Test and ODI squads, while Austalia’s pretty much settled on using Dirk Nannes and Shaun Tait for T20s.

THE FUTURE?
Unlike the rest of the names on this list, Siddle probably has the best chance to return into the Australian squad be it at Test or ODI level. It’s unfortunate for him that his replacements just happenend to be such damn good bowlers, and because he doesn’t have the Brett Lee ability to simply slot back into the team regardless of form, it could be a while before we see him back. Especially with both of them having bowling averages under 24.00 in Tests and 22.00 in ODIs.

They were never going to do anything except provide a sort of feel good moment for the tournament. The story of the brazen side against the odds making it onto the big stage due to their hard work and determination. The Afhanistani cricket team, despite gaining ODI status in April 2009, had yet to face a Test nation for obvious reasons. But on May 1st 2010, the Afghanistan national cricket team took on India. The Indian bowling attack bombarded the Afghans with bouncers with five of the eight dismissals simple knicks back to Dhoni. Only Noor Ali and Asghar Stanikzai made double figures taking Afghanistan to 8/115 a total India chased down with five overs remaining. Afghanistan just looked happy to be there.

At the last World Twenty20 in England, West Indies uncovered India’s weakness against short pitched bowling. Something which the England team used to knock India out of the Super Eights. Flash forward to the World T20 this year and we had both teams meeting each other once more with Chris Gayle being a one man show blasting 98 off 88 and falling agonisingly short of becoming the first man to score two T20I hundreds. 170 runs was India’s target and Chris Gayle turned to Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach to send down a barrage of thunderbolts. While it’s acceptable for minnows like Afghanistan to have troubles against short balls, surely you’d have thought the inaugural World T20 champs could cope. West Indies chalked up a win and left India on the verge of another World T20 knockout. What added insult to injury was that Gayle was dropped on 46 in the 12th over when West Indies was 2/72.

Pakistan vs New Zealand should always have constant matchups against each other every year. No matter what the format, the medicre nature of both teams always ends up in close fought nail biting resolutions to their matches and their Super Eight encounter was no exception. With New Zealand falling over themselves as per usual it was up to Daniel Vettori to once again haul his side from the fires with a regulation 38. The game looked to be Pakistan’s until New Zealand had them on their knees at 5/58. Abdul Razzaq and a suprisingly composed Salman Butt took Pakistan to the brink of victory. But a fantastic bit of fielding from Ross Taylor on the boundaries edge dismissed Abdul Razzaq leaving Salman Butt to take it home for Pakistan. With 11 required off the last over and Salman Butt on strike it looked like a win. • 4 • 4 1 W was the final over from Ian Butler and for all intents and purposes it looked like Pakistan was knocked out…

Both teams were destroyed in their Super Eight encounter by Australia and this latest match in the constant India v Sri Lanka series of games was do or die. The in form Suresh Raina helped India charge along to 1/90 after ten overs and it looked like a massive run chase for the Lankans. Some excellent bowling from Thilan Thushara managed to reduce India’s total to a fairly par 163. Sri Lanka only needed to make 143 to knock India out and that total looked quite unreachable in the first two overs with the dismissals of the in form Jayawardene and the sitting Member for the Matara District, Sanath Jayasuriya. Luckily Dilshan finally found some form and along with Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews took Sri Lanka to the brink of victory. With three to win off the last ball Chamara Kapugedera launched a six into the stands Javed Miandad style to give India an exit of the tournament.

In Game One if it wasn’t for an bold 81 from Jayawardene and clinical bowling, New Zealand would have humiliated Sri Lanka so their next game against Zimbabwe, happy to be back in the fold and with a warm up victory over Australia under their belt, became a matter of survival. With Dilshan failing again, Sangakkara, Chandimal, Matthews, Kapugedera and the sitting Member for the Matara District Sanath Jayasuriya making a total score of 34 between them, it was up to the inform Jayawardene to build Sri Lanka’s innings all on his own. Without slogging, Jayawadene played an innings that would even make Gideon Haigh stand up an applaud and secured a victory for Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s 2010 World T20 campaign can be summed up in two words: Mahela Jayawardene. When the Member for the Matara District Sanath Jayasuriya was dismissed for 6 off 10 at the start of the third over, it looked like it was business as usual and Mahela would have to carry the Lankans on his back again. Suprisingly that was not the case as Sangakkara finally remembered he was Kumar Sangakkara and combined with Jayawardene to plunder runs from the Windies bowling line up falling for 68 in the 19th over. By that time Sri Lanka was well past the 160 run mark heading towards 200+ runs and it looked like Jayawardene would be the first man to score more than one T20I century and have back to back T20 tons. Both Mahela and Sri Lanka fell short with Sri Lanka putting 195 runs on the board and Jayawardene stranded on 98*.

Australia and the World Twenty20 have always had a rather horrible relationship with poor Australia getting the poor end of the stick. An unprecedented five wicket maiden in their opening game against Pakistan didn’t really matter  since they already put 191 runs on the board so victory was assured. In their next match Michael Clarke won the toss and chose to bat, something that around the 13th over he would have been regretting. Somehow Bangladesh had managed to reduce Australia to 6/65 and an easy chase looked on the cards for the Bangladeshi’s. Not on Mike hussey’s watch! A quickfire 47 off 37 combined with Steve Smith’s 27 off 29 took Australia to 7/141 a total that Bangladesh would NEVER reach regardless of what Jamie Siddons would have you believe.

England may have invented the Twenty20 format in 2003 but they were no way in hell the masters of it. Australia on the other hand have never treated it seriously as a format giving more attention to their Test and ODI dominance. Well in 2010 the oldest rivalry in Cricket was introduced in the newest format. Arguably the two in form teams of the tournament had met in the final (and in turn making this the first time an Asian team hasnt made the World T20 final) with Australia unbeaten and after the only trophy not in their cabinet and England just desperate not to be runners up yet again. Who would have guessed in the big match it was England that kept their cool and controlled the match resulting in England’s first ever ICC Trophy ever.

Pakistan had somehow managed to worm their way into the semi final largely due to the other teams falling over themselves and their title defence was on the line. In a highly suprising act of teamwork, the Pakistani’s set Australia the daunting task of chasing down 191 to make the final due to an impressive showing from the Akmal brothers. In reply, Australia was in trouble at 4/67 with Cameron White and David Hussey set the task of needing 12 runs an over. When Dave Hussey fell in the 13th over for 13 followed by Cameron White’s departure in the 17th over, Australia required 56 runs from 24 balls and the run rate getting steeper and steeper. With some fine glovework from Kamran Akmal (yes that Kamran Akmal), wickets falling around a dehydrating Mike Hussey, 18 runs needed off the last over and Mitchell Johnson on strike, it looked like it was going to be another England v Pakistan World Cup Final. The Pakistani’s thought so, their fans thought so and even Kamran Abbasi thought so.

Unfortuately, Mike Hussey didn’t think so. A quick single from Johnson put Mr. Cricket on strike with 17 required off 5. Saeed Ajmal gave Hussey a bouncer which was pulled over the boundary for six. The next delivery had Hussey drop to one knee Yuvraj Singh style and launching another six. Ajmal had started some bleeding with 5 off 3 balls needed. A cracking four from Hussey leveled the scored and Hussey sealed the win with a massive six to leave Pakistan shellshocked, Michael Bevan’s New Years in Sydney not so cool anymore and Saeed Ajmal joining Misbah-Ul-haq as yet another Pakistani final over casualty. Forget Yusuf Pathan’s 100 against Mumbai, Mike Hussey just played the greatest innings in Twenty20 to date!

After Virender Sehwag plundered 74 off 38 to take Delhi to 6/185, a Chennai squad that was missing MS Dhoni looked in trouble when Patel was run out by AB de Villiers in the second over. All looked lost for the Super Kings until Matthew Hayden brought out the highly publicised Mongoose bat. The bat with a longer handled who’s use was pioneered by Stuart Law in the county scene was brought out by Hayden and the results spoke for themselves. Blasting his way to a career best 93 off 43, Chennai chased down the total and won by five wickets.

With the fall of Sehwag, Gambhir and Karthik inside the first three overs it would be easy to write off the Daredevils especially since KKR was actually performing a lot better this year. Would this be a sweet Kolkata victory? Not if Paul Collingwood and David Warner had anything to say about it. Collingwood does what he does best and dropped anchor scoring a modest 53 off 45 while Warner let fly and punished the KKR bowling attack making 107 off 69. Kolkata was never in the chase and Delhi won by 40 runs.

Much like the Melbourne Storm, the incredibly horrible Kings XI Punjab were playing for nothing but pride while Chennai had only one option. A win gets them into the semi finals and a loss means they don’t make it. With finally finding form at the wrong end of the tournament an 88* from Shaun Marsh took KXP to 3/192, a more than daunting task for Chennai especially since Matthew Hayden had turned into Sanath Jayasuriya circa 2009. With the loss of Suresh Raina it would be safe to assume the Kings were out but MS Dhoni refused to go down without a fight and powered Chennai into the Semi Finals with a six scoring 54* off 29 with 2 balls to spare.

When only five bowlers need to be used in a Twenty20 match by the fielding team its extremely safe to assume that the batting side has made a mess of things. Well things were in shambles for the Rajasthan Royals in what was Damien Martyn’s return and subsequent farewell to officialy sanctioned cricket as the Bangalore bowling attack dominated and bowled them out for 92 runs. It only took 10.4 overs for Manish Pandey and the leaner and meaner Jaques Kallis to reach the total.

In our IPL 3 preview I mentioned how Kumar Sangakkara should watch out for his team considering what happened last time a foreign wicketkeeper batsman took over as head of the team. Well the losing run of KXP looked to continue as Chris Gayle became his old swashbuckling self and launched himself to 88 off 42 to set up the highly competetive 200 as a target for Punjab. Since everything else had failed KXP promoted Jayawardene to open in the absence of Shaun Marsh and they were rewarded with a magnificent 110* to take Punjab to victory and a rather large slice of humble pie served directly to Ryan Campbell.

Rajasthan seemed to have remained consistant carrying over their 2009 form when they really needed to get back to their game winning 2008 performance and Match 36 looked like they would continue their so-so run. Poor Shane Watson once again had to build the entire innings with his 58 an integral part of giving the Royals 159 to defend. With Rohit Sharma blasting 73 of 44 it looked like the Chargers would steamroll the poor Royals but once Warne took the wicket of Anirudh Singh for 9, Deccan unravelled with Warnie taking another three wickets to finish up with 4/21 and despite Deccan taking 13 runs off Morne Morkel in the second last over, the Royals dipped into their 2008 playbook and won by 2 runs.

This was the match that should have made Murali Vijay a household name as his explosive 127 off 56 took Chennai to 5/246, the highest total in IPL history. Rajasthan’s bowlers were ransacked with only Freemo’s favourite IPL player Abishek Jhunjhunwala going at an economy rate of less than 10 an over. Rajasthan, never a stranger to a challenge, looked to have the chase in their sights with Ojha scoring 94 off 55 and Shane Watson making his IPL return adding 60 to the total. But it was an extraordinary catch to dissmiss Yusuf Pathan that added to an amazing debut for Doug Bollinger. Taking the vital wicket of Shane Watson, Bollinger put the nail in the coffin of the Royals finishing up his four overs with 2/15. Doug Bollinger had arrived and the Super Kings had (in my opinion) the world’s best strike bowler in their arsenal.

After 56 matches it had come down to this. Arguably the two biggest active names in Indian cricket were coming head to head. On one side you had Tendulkar, one of the greatest batsmen of all time in the best form of his career and captain of the IPL’s ‘minor premiers’ battling a hand injury to lead his team into the final. On the other side you have MS Dhoni, the new cooler youthful (by comparison) representative of the new Indian cricket age in the IPL final once more trying to secure victory. The marquee had it all and in the end it was youth that prevailed with the Super Kings claiming the title and becoming the first Indian captain to raise the IPL trophy.

We had high hopes for Bangalore before the start of IPL 3, but they were dashed at the hands of Mumbai in the first semi. Surely we couldn’t be wrong could we? After copping a rough deal due to Net Run Rate in last years Champions League and a heartbreaking loss in the 2009 final, Bangalore looked to right the wrongs of missing out on the IPL title and had Deccan in their crosshairs for revenge. They may not have claimed the IPL title but they made their way into the Champions League with authority as they crushed the Deccan batting lineup that could only put 82 runs on the board. This was the Bangalore that we were hoping to see in IPL 3 and we got to see it… in the third place playoff. Mark my words though, come the Champions League, Bangalore will be ready and will be the force to be reckoned with!

GROUP A

Pakistan
Form Guide: WLLWW
Last World T20: Champions
Squad:
Shahid Afridi (capt), Salman Butt, Mohammad Hafeez, Khalid Latif, Misbah-ul-Haq, Fawad Alam, Umar Akmal, Abdul Razzaq, Yasir Arafat, Hammad Azam, Kamran Akmal, Umar Gul, Mohammad Asif, Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal.

Nims Predicts:
Backbiting, infighting, cliques and match fixing suspicion would normally tear apart other teams. But this is Pakistan we’re talking about where it’s all par for the course. Sure they might be the reigning champions but Pakistan’s ability to spontaneously destroy itself and their incredibly horrendous fielding will be their downfall, especially in a format where every run and dot ball is vital.

Freemo Predicts
Shahid Afridi’s ascension to the captaincy should restore some bite to this Pakistan side, figuratively and literally, if you know what I mean (if you don’t, I’m referring to Afridi gnawing at the ball in Perth last season). With a second and a first from the two World Twenty20s so far, they’re not to be underestimated. Early wins will see them band together, early losses will see they come apart. Could go either way.

Australia
Form Guide (Last 12 months, most recent first): LWWWW
Last World T20: Eliminated Group Stage
Squad:
Michael Clarke (capt), Cameron White (vice-capt), David Warner, Shane Watson, David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Tim Paine, Steven Smith, Daniel Christian, Brad Haddin (wk), Brett Lee, Dirk Nannes, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Shaun Tait.

Nims Predicts
After their embarrassing exit in the group stage at the last World T20, Cricket Australia has knuckled down and actually chosen a squad of Twenty20 specialists. Some of the young stars of the Big Bash like Steven Smith and Daniel Christian are thrown into the mix with the T20I veterans like Cameron White and Shane Watson. With this squad Australia should be disappointed to not bring home the title.

Freemo Predicts
Late to catch on to Twenty20, as losses against the West Indies last year, and Zimbabwe in 2007 will attest, but have now finally realised that a T20 match isn’t just a shortened 50 over match, and there’s no mid-inning consolidation period where you can hide your crappy part-time bowlers, and they’ve added some actual T20 players to the mix. They should be good to go now. They’re also taking four quicks so let’s hope there’s something in the pitches. Likely Champions.

Bangladesh
Form Guide: LLLL
Last World T20: Eliminated Group Stage
Squad:
Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mushfiqur Rahim (vice-capt/wk), Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes, Mohammad Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Mahmudullah, Naeem Islam, Mashrafe Mortaza, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Syed Rasel, Suhrawadi Shuvo, Jahurul Islam (wk)

Nims Predicts:
By definition, Group A is the “Group Of Death” as there’s no associates in it but really, Australia should count themselves lucky they bowed out in 2009 and landed here cause lets face it, Bangladesh have no hope of making it into the Super Eights. Sorry Jamie Siddons but T20 or not, your team is rubbish.

Freemo Predicts:
Bit unlucky to be drawn in a group with last year’s champs and this year’s (probable) champs, quite frankly. They might have given themselves half a chance in, say, Group D (though they’d have probably been the only ones to do so). With this side, nothing can happen, and it usually does. Early causalities.

GROUP B

Sri Lanka
Form Guide: LWLLL
Last World T20: Runner Up
Squad:
Kumar Sangakkara (capt), Muttiah Muralitharan (vice-capt), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Thissara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekera, Suraj Randiv, Ajantha Mendis, Lasith Malinga, Chanaka Welagedara, Chamara Kapugedara, Sanath Jayasuriya, Chinthaka Jayasinghe.

Nims Predicts
Since losing to Pakistan in the World Twenty20 final last year Sri Lanka’s fortunes have taken a sharp nose dive. Commonplace amongst all explosive Sri Lankan openers, Tillakaratne Dilshan seems to have been extensively schooled by Sanath Jayasuriya in how to lose form and aside from Malinga the bowling stocks are made up of more containers than a Tupperware party. Hopeful Semi Finalists.

Freemo Predicts
Unlike Nims, I like this bowling attack. In ODI cricket, taking wickets is the best way to keep the runs down, but in T20 cricket, keeping the runs down is the best way to take wickets. A few dot balls and the batsmen get antsy. Expect to see the entire bag of M&M – Malinga, Matthews, Murli and Mendis – at the top of the wickets tally this season. True, the batting line-up somehow manages to look both very impressive and very unimpressive at the same time, but if Dishan finds some touch they should make the semis.

New Zealand
Form Guide: WLWLL
Last T20 World Cup: Eliminated Super Eight Stage
Squad:
Daniel Vettori (capt), Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill, Scott Styris, Aaron Redmond, Jacob Oram, Gareth Hopkins (wk), Rob Nicol, Nathan McCullum, Kyle Mills, Tim Southee, Shane Bond, Ian Butler.

Nims Predicts
if everyone can stay in form and not get injured New Zealand might just have a chance. Tim Southee’s T20 performances against Australia earlier in the year show that he’s a bowler that can take wickets as well as keeping the run rate down. If Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor can build on their IPL form New Zealand might be in it with a chance. A crappy start though could undo everything.

Freemo Predicts
Vettori’s the best T20 bowler in the world for mine, though the captain still remains the team’s only consistent performer. True, they have some genuine hitters in Taylor, McCullum and Oram, but they tend to either all succeed together, or all fail together. A team that will either make 6/210 (Taylor 88, McCullum 42, Vettori 35*) or be All Out for 86 (Vettori 35*). This band of scrappers will forever be one or two players short of being a top side, but they’ll always be in the hunt. The New Zealand v Sri Lanka group match will be very telling, for both sides.

Zimbabwe
Form Guide: W
Last T20 World Cup: 2007
Squad:
Prosper Utseya (capt), Brendan Taylor, Charles Coventry, Andy Blignaut, Hamilton Masakadza, Tatenda Taibu (wk), Greg Lamb, Elton Chigumbura, Vusi Sibanda, Ray Price, Graeme Cremer, Chamu Chibhabha, Chris Mpofu, Timycen Maruma, Craig Ervine

Nims Predicts
Yes that’s a win in their form guide and it was against a “full strength” West Indies so take that Bangladesh. Look for them to upset Sri Lanka in Match 7.

Freemo Predicts
Nice to see Zimbabwe getting some regular non-Bangladesh cricket again. They even have a have an ODI Tri Series against (yes, you guessed it) India and (yes, you guessed it) Sri Lanka after this. As such, they’ve been combing the entire country in search of some quick bowlers, looking under every rock and in every burnt-down farm, and have managed to unearth two time discard Andy Blignaut for their efforts. Are things finally looking up?

GROUP C

South Africa
Form Guide: WLLWW
Last T20 World Cup: Semi-Finalist
Squad:
Graeme Smith (capt), Jacques Kallis (vice-capt), Loots Bosman, Johan Botha, Mark Boucher (wk), AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Herschelle Gibbs, Rory Kleinveldt, Charl Langeveldt, Albie Morkel, Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Juan Theron, Roelof van der Merwe.

Nims Predicts
Oh South Africa. Always a invited guest, never a bridesmaid. Last years T20 World Cup should have been a Sri Lanka v South Africa in a clash of unbeaten titans that leaves me very happy despite the outcome. I’ve said it numerous times but on paper South Africa are the best team going round. However post 2008 South Africa is a completely different team. They’ll make it to the Super Eights before choking once again.

Freemo Predicts
Impressive squad, but most of them are either out of touch or haven’t been playing at all, with only Steyn and Kallis boasting any kind of form coming in. Light on T20 specialists, this is mostly a Test and ODI line-up. In theory, a Smith/Gibbs opening combo is a better idea in theory than in practice, but in practice, maybe it could work. Give Gibbs room to go for it and let Smith hang back and hold the innings together. How long they’ll progress in the tournament depends on how long it is until they have to play Australia.

India
Form Guide: WLLLL
Last T20 World Cup: Elimated Super Eight Stage
Squad:
MS Dhoni (capt & wk), Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Zaheer Khan, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Rohit Sharma

Nims Predicts
Viru’s out of the tournament with an injury so Gambhir will be like a lost child at the top of the order. Some relatively new faces in the lineup with Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma not making it into the lineup. Dhoni is a proven leader though and if he leads from the front then India will do well. Plus with their abysmal performance last year they’ll be keen to make sure that they at least reach the semis.

Freemo Predicts
I still think this India side lacks flexibility. Where are the all-rounders? Where’s the “safety-net” middle order? What are they going to do when things go wrong? There’s no Plan B here. Hell, now with Virender Sehwag out, there’s not much of a Plan A either. One of either Yuvaj Signh or Yusuf Pathan is going to have to fire. Explosive players on their day, both of them, just a shame that it doesn’t seem to be their day very often.

Afghanistan
Form Guide: LLWWW
Global Tournament Debut
Squad:
Nawroz Mangal (captain), Mohammad Nabi, Karim Sadiq, Mirwais Ashraf, Rais Ahmadzai, Dawlat Ahmadzai, Mohammad Shahzad, Hamid Hassan, Samiullah Shinwari, Noor Ali, Asghar Stanikzai, Shahpoor Zadran, Shabir Noori, Sayed Nasrat, Shafiq Shafaq.

Nims Predicts
It seems like the Afghans can do no wrong (cricket wise at least). It’s a nice feelgood moment but really the only talking point about Afghanistan is that they’re from Afghanistan and don’t fight against everything we believe in.

Freemo Predicts
The Next Big Thing to come out from the cesspool of Associates Nations. Will they stick around and become a regular fixture, or will they drop back down like so many before them, never to be seen again? Time will tell.

GROUP D

West Indies
Form Guide: LLLWL
Last T20 World Cup: Semi-Finalist
Squad:
Chris Gayle (capt), Sulieman Benn, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Narsingh Deonarine, Andre Fletcher, Wavell Hinds, Nikita Miller, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Jerome Taylor

Nims Predicts
Since their World T20 semi final exit last year at the hands of Sri Lanka things have not gone well for the West Indies. Maybe you can say that their poor form was due to injuries taking out stars like Bravo and Chanderpaul. Sharing a group with England and Ireland gives them a 50/50 chance of making the Super Eights.

Freemo Predicts
Since the tournament is at home, most of the Windies’ top players have actually decided to show up for once. Dwayne “Take a Bow” Bravo? Check. Chris “Epic Fayle” Gayle? Check. Kemar “Cock” Roach? Check. There’s actually some talent in this side and if they start well they could be the surprise of the tournament. Potential Semi-Finalists.

England
Form Guide: LWLWNR
Last T20 World Cup: Eliminated Super Eights
Squad:
Paul Collingwood (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Craig Kieswetter, Michael Lumb, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Ajmal Shahzad, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy.

Nims Predicts
I have no idea how England will fare this year. Just looking at their form guide sums up how hard it is to predict, with a convincing victory in one game followed by a humiliating defeat in the next time after time just makes you wonder where in the cycle the next match will be. Either they’ll exit the tourney in the first round or be runners up to Australia in the final.

Freemo Predicts
If cricket teams were films, England would go Direct to Video. Very few big names, low production values, short on thrills, by-the-numbers plotting, predictable outcome, and Kevin Pietersen as Christopher Walken. Being in the Group of Life will give them brief delusions of adequacy, but they’ll struggle to win a game when they come up against the better sides. Super Eight Casualties.

Ireland
Form Guide: LWWLL
Last T20 World Cup: Eliminated Super Eights
Squad:
William Porterfield (capt), Peter Connell, Alex Cusack, George Dockrell, Trent Johnston, Nigel Jones, Gary Kidd, John Mooney, Kevin O’Brien, Niall O’Brien, Boyd Rankin, Paul Stirling, Andrew White, Gary Wilson

Nims Predicts
Once the pride of the associate nations, these days Ireland play second fiddle to Afghanistan in all three forms of the game and sadly for them, a first round exit is pretty much the only thing on the cards especially after they were skittled for 90 in a recent warm up game against Trinidad & Tobago.

Freemo Predicts
Arrived in the West Indies a couple of weeks early and seem keen for a big tournament. Looking to strengthen their claim for Test Status and some competitive performances and another Super Eights berth won’t hurt. A victory against either England or the West Indies will be an upset, but not a fluke.

Squad:
Adam Gilchrist*†, Azhar Bilakhia, Andrew Symonds, Arjun Yadav, Bodapati Sumanth, Chaminda Vaas, D Ravi Teja, Dwayne Smith, Harmeet Singh, Ashish Reddy, Herschelle Gibbs, Kemar Roach, VVS Laxman, Mohnish Mishra, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, RP Singh, Ryan Harris, T Suman, Venugopal Rao, Anirudh Singh, Rahul Sharma, Mitchell Marsh.

Nims Predictions:
After a whirlwind 2009 in South Africa during Season 2 it’d be understandable to pin them as favourites for the title in 2010. That’s only if you didn’t happen to see their performance in the Champions League. Luckily for Deccan, national duty won’t rob them of anyone that can’t be replaced which gives them some time at least to gel together as a team and iron out some of the kinks. Deccan’s success will rely mainly on the established names like Andrew Symonds and ‘Commercial’ Herschelle Gibbs actually finding form otherwise it looks like it’ll be Adam Gilchrist carrying the Chargers on his back. At the very least Deccan will qualify for the Champions League.

Freemo Predicts:
Last year they went from chumps to champs. This year, they’re hitting the road again, with their home ground in Hydrabad relieved of it’s hosting duties for security reasons. Since they lost all seven of their home games in IPL1, you’d think they’d be grateful, but no, apparently not the case. But I agree with Nims. Andrew Symonds needs to fire a little more often than sporadically, and Advertisement Herchille needs to fire a little more often than never. Though RP Singh and WPUJC Vass can be relied on to be solid, one suspects that their bowling is light on. When Symonds regularly bowls out his four overs, one knows it for certain. Gilchrist will drag them into the semi-finals, but that’s about it.

Squad:
Anil Kumble*, Jacques Kallis, Shrivats Goswami, Bhuvanesh Kumar, Eoin Morgan, Abhimanyu Mithun, Virat Kohli, Robin Uthappa, Dale Steyn, Cameron White, Kevin Pietersen, Rahul Dravid, S Sriram, Manish Pandey, R Vinay Kumar, KP Appanna, B Akhil, Steven Smith, Praveen Kumar, Mark Boucher†, Dillon du Preez, Ross Taylor, Roelof van der Merwe.

Nims Predicts:
Once Challengers In Name Only, the CINOs have shed that title with a vengeance and Kevin Pietersen. Under Anil Kumble’s leadership the Challengers really became a force to be reckoned with in IPL 2 and the Champions League. The Challengers seem to have all the boxes ticked with a proven batting lineup lead by the leaner and meaner Jacques Kallis with Ross Taylor bringing on the slogfests, a strike bowling attack in Steyn and Praveen Kumar and some of the best slow bowlers in Kumble and Van der Merwe. Unlike the other IPL franchises Bangalore actually seem to have formed themselves a cricket team and not a collection of names in a fantasy World XI. I’m predicting this is the year Bangalore takes the IPL title.

Freemo Predicts:
This time last year I predicted that IPL 2 would be the year of Herchille Gibbs. Sadly, it didn’t quite work out that way. This year, I’m putting what little is left of my tattered reputation on the line once more, and declaring this year the year of Jacques Kallis. Oh, how we once mocked Bangalore. The “Challengers In Name Only”, we called them. “The Royal Clippers Bangalore”, we called them. Let’s be honest, that Brendon McCullum innings in Season One, Game One left them shell-shocked, and it took them about a season and a half to recover. But then Kumble took the reins, Kallis did a Stella and reacquired his groove, Ross Taylor realized “hey, I’m in a batting line-up that doesn’t collapse faster than a poorly thought out simile. Better make the most of it”, and slowly but surely it all came together. This year, they’ll be ready from Game One. Another final beckons.

Squad:
Gautam Gambhir*, AB de Villiers, Umesh Yadav, Kedar Jadhav, Wayne Parnell, Shashi Ranjan, Ashish Nehra, Mithun Manhas, Andrew McDonald, Farveez Maharoof, Virender Sehwag, Dinesh Karthik†, Joginder Singh, Pradeep Sangwan, Amit Mishra, Moises Henriques, Sarandeep Singh, Sarabjit Ladda, Aavishkar Salvi, David Warner, Dirk Nannes, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Rajat Bhatia.

Nims Predicts:
Delhi dominated IPL 2 winning 10 of their 14 league games and sat comfortably on the top of the points table for a good portion of the tournament and only due to Adam Gilchrist’s superb knock for Deccan in the semi that halted their rapid march to the Final. Delhi’s lineup reminds me a bit of Bangalore’s in the sense that they have tried to tick all the boxes you need for Twenty20 (big hitters, strike bowlers, ‘all rounder’) but seem to have taken it to a bit of an extreme. Aside from AB de Villiers, the Delhi top order consists of nothing but sloggers in Sehwag, Gambhir, Dilshan and Warner all of who either hit the ball out of the park or sky one to cover. Delhi’s “score 250 every match” philosophy will be their downfall. They’ll definitely make it to the semi final stage.

Freemo Predicts:
So far, Delhi have been the team to beat, and so far, they’ve been beaten. This is a side loaded with stars: The destructive batting line-up of Sewhag, Warner, Dilshan and de Villiers, plus two of the best T20 bowlers in the history of T20 bowling in Dirk Nannes (who arrived early) and Daniel Vettori (who’ll be arriving late). But they play a high risk / high return batting line up, and while it will usually pays off handsomely, you know it’s going to completely implode at least once during the tournament, and it could be at the worst possible time. Also, I think they lack a bit when it comes to leadership. I’m not sure Gambhir is captaincy material, especially as he’s yet to truly fire in the shorter forms of the game. Why Batman handed Robin the keys to the Batmobile I have no idea, but they should make the final. Hell, they should win it, but then they should have won last year as well.

Squad:
MS Dhoni*†, Muttiah Muralitharan, Manpreet Gony, Shadab Jakati, Arun Karthik, Thissara Perera, L Balaji, Suresh Raina, Michael Hussey, Makhaya Ntini, Thilan Thushara, C Ganapathy, M Vijay, Sudeep Tyagi, R Ashwin, Justin Kemp, Hemang Badani, S Badrinath, Matthew Hayden, Albie Morkel, Jacob Oram, George Bailey, Parthiv Patel.

Nims Predicts:
On prior performance alone it’s safe to assume that Chennai will hover around the top of the points table and make it to the semi finals, and with the form that Matthew Hayden was in during IPL 2 it seems like a safe bet that Chennai will be a top four side in 2010. The key word there is “seems” since Matthew Hayden is the only one scoring runs and without him who knows where Chennai would be on the table. Hayden (54.35) and MS Dhoni (41.44) seem to be the only two players who step up and do anything, and unless Mike Hussey plays I can’t see anyone breaking out with a match winning performance. Bat the opposition out of the game looks to be the winning formula for the Superkings cause I sure as hell don’t see any of their bowlers doing anything threatening. I do hope that Hemang Badani gets a game only because he’s a former ICL Chennai Superstar.

Freemo Predicts:
Like Delhi, they rely on their star players. Unlike Delhi, they don’t have that many of them. them. It’s Hayden and Dhoni with quick cameos from everyone else. But for the most part it seems to be working for them. If Hayden has another year like last year, they’ll be competitive. If he doesn’t, they won’t be. Simple as that.

Squad:
Kumar Sangakkara*†, Brett Lee, Adrian Barath, Vikramjeet Malik, Bipul Sharma, Manvinder Bisla, Yusuf Abdullah, Karan Goel, Ravi Bopara, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Shalabh Srivastava, Mohammad Kaif, Love Ablish, Amanpreet Singh, James Hopes, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Yash Gandhi, Shaun Marsh, Mahela Jayawardene, Yuvraj Singh, Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla.

Nims Predicts:
It’s a damn crime that Ravi Below-par-a gets into the Kings XI squad yet Simon Katich, the man who captained New South Wales to the inaugural Champions League Twenty20 title, isn’t even on a plane to India. Yuvraj stepping down as captain and handing the reigns over to Sangakkara doesn’t really fill me with much hope really, especially considering the fate of the last IPL franchise that had a wicket keeper batsmen replace its Indian captain. Shaun Marsh is injured as well so that’s another tick in the “Going to have a crappy season” column for the Kings XI. Jayawardene has been in top T20 form leading Wayamba to a back to back title in Sri Lanka’s T20 comp. Tom Moody has his work cut out for him… as usual.

Freemo Predicts:
While Rajasthan chose to put together a “champion team”, and Delhi opted for the “team of champions” route, the Kings XI Punjab have, well, I can’t really work out what they’ve done. If the IPL were a Poker game, Punjab would be holding a two-seven off-suit. Who’s opening the batting for Pete sake? How many Sangakkara / Jayawardene middle order patch-up jobs am I going to have to sit through this season for Heaven sake? Please tell me Irfan Pathan isn’t leading the bowling attack for Chirst sake! But they did win more games in 2009 than I thought they would. I can’t remember how many, but they did win some, which was more than I thought they would, so maybe they can be the new Rajasthan this year and take everyone by surprise. Doubt it though.

Squad:
Shane Warne*, Damien Martyn, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Abhishek Raut, Faiz Fazal, Amit Paunikar†, Amit Singh, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shaun Tait, Yusuf Pathan, Swapnil Asnodkar, Naman Ojha, Johan Botha, Michael Lumb, Shrikant Wagh, Sumit Narwal, Syed Quadri, Kamran Khan, Graeme Smith, Morne Morkel, Siddharth Trivedi, Mahesh Rawat, Munaf Patel.

Nims Predicts:
Rajasthan’s fairytale first season was very quickly forgotten by their performance in IPL 2 but to be fair to them they were dealt a couple of blows that hindered their performance. Their leading wicket taker Sohail Tanvir was banned from taking part, Shane Watson, the leading run scorer and Player Of The Tournament was out injured and their spearhead signing Shaun Tait was forbidden to play by Cricket Australia. Poor Warnie tried his best to pull a rabbit out of a hat each time but sadly couldn’t repeat the heroics of 2008. The Royals do have the talent under their belt so there’s no reason they can’t be a force to be reckoned with but they wont reach the heights of 2008. Ever.

Freemo Predicts:
Straw into Gold. Water into Wine. Straw into Wine. Loaves into fishes. Nothing into Something. The insides of a stone into blood. Watch wizard Warne wave his wand as he tries to turn each of the former into each of the latter and lead his ragtag band of randoms, misfits and village nobodies to glory. He did it once, in IPL1, and he would have done it again in IPL2 except everything that he was saddled with a top six who couldn’t make seven between them. But their young Indian players will be better for being back on home turf, and Graeme Smith won’t have two dud seasons in a row. Plus, they have Damien Martyn now, so, you know, case closed. Should make the top four.

Squad:
Sachin Tendulkar*, Lasith Malinga, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Chandan Madan, Syed Sahabuddin, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shikhar Dhawan, Graham Napier, Dilhara Fernando, Dwayne Bravo, Zaheer Khan, Ali Murtaza, Saurabh Tiwary, R Sathish, Aditya Tare†, Ishan Malhotra, Rahul Shukla, Abhishek Nayar, JP Duminy, Sanath Jayasuriya, Harbhajan Singh, Ryan McLaren.

Nims Predicts:
I really don’t know what to think about Mumbai this year. Their performances in the previous two seasons of the IPL have been nothing short of indifferent with them either playing really well and dominating opponents, or collapsing like a house of cards and self destructing. The big signing of IPL 3 is of course Trinidad & Tobago’s Kieron Pollard who was won in a silent auction, but will he be available considering the state of Windies cricket. Does the BCCI care? Hell do the West Indies care? Mumbai will have some good games and some bad games but they’ll always be in the bottom four of the IPL table.

Freemo Predicts:
For two years we’ve been waiting for Mumbai to do something, anything, to give us a reason as to why we should give a damn about them. Well, the signing of Kieran Pollard might just be that anything. Nims clearly hasn’t given Mumbai a second thought, but then, I haven’t even given them a first thought. Mumbai have always been just sort of there, hanging around, making up the numbers. Good for a few Sanath Jayasuria 29 off 20 specials, maybe a Duminy salvage operation or two, some Harbhajan stupidity, and the novelty act that is Lasith Malinga, but not much else, certainly not in terms of threatening to do something. Pollard will make a big difference, no doubt about it, but will it be enough?

Squad:
Sourav Ganguly*, Cheteshwar Pujara, Charl Langeveldt, Chirag Pathak, Iqbal Abdulla, G Vignesh, Brendon McCullum†, Angelo Mathews, Wriddhiman Saha, Ajit Agarkar, Chris Gayle, Manoj Tiwary, Rohan Gavaskar, Harshad Khadiwale, Varun Aaron, Eklak Ahmed, Owais Shah, Murali Kartik, Brad Hodge, Ajantha Mendis, Laxmi Shukla, Ashok Dinda, Ishant Sharma.

Nims Predicts:
Well we all know how KKR fared in the IPL 2009 so its no surprise that the franchise has cleaned house a bit. Ganguly’s back as captain, John Buchanan’s been replaced by the much more competent Dav Whatmore and they have the world’s best Twenty20 batsman Brad Hodge with them for the entire season. I’m not sure why Shane Bond hasn’t been named in their preliminary squad especially considering McCullum is listed, but he’ll hopefully be throwing on the black and gold of KKR at some point in the tournament. After their abysmal performances in IPL 2008 and 2009, KKR will be keen to try and finish with a respectable standing in this years season. That’s right KKR are the IPL’s Bangladesh.

Freemo Predicts:
Congratulations to Kolkata for finally doing what they should have done all along and backing Sourav Ganguly over John Buchanan. It took them a whole year and an abysmal last place finish for them to come to their senses, but hey, some folk just got to learn the hard way. The big name, big money, big hype, big event, big name team has so far been a big disappointment, but could this be the season they turn it all around? Unburdened of the captaincy, hopefully Brendon McCullum and exorcise the demons of last season and return to his 2008 form. Brad Hodge will be opening the batting apparently, and when and if and for how long Chris Gayle decides to show up we could see some 200+ scores. But Kolkata are one of those sides who spend all their budget on their International stars and forgot that you actually have to play 7 Indians in a starting XI. Will win a few games, but won’t make the top four.

History
Nimsworth
Once a frequent visitor to our shores, the West Indies these days aren’t even living off past glories. Their record against Australia in ODI’s are abysmal with a 5-0 whitewash in the Caribbean in 2008. In fact the last time Australia lost a ODI to the West Indies was at the 2006 Champions Trophy in India and the last time the Windies even sniffed a victory against Australia in Australia was 1997. To say “how the mighty have fallen” is a gross under statement.

Freemo
Between 1979 and 1996, the West Indies completed in nine Benson and Hedges World Series Cups. They won six titles, and didn’t lose any of their five finals serieses against Australia. Between 1997 and 2008 however, the Windies competed in just three Carlton and United / VB / Commonwealth Bank / Hank’s Tool and Dye Serieses, and never looked like threatening in any of them. The master has become the apprentice, and what was once a blackwash is now a whitewash. But could this be the year that the wash turns?

Squads
Australia
Shane Watson, Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Cameron White, Michael Hussey, James Hopes, Brad Haddin (wk), Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Nathan Hauritz, Clint McKay, Doug Bollinger.
West Indies
Chris Gayle (capt), Travis Dowlin, Runako Morton, Dwayne Bravo, Narsingh Deonarine, Brendan Nash, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Smith, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Darren Sammy, Lendl Simmons, Nikita Miller, Ravi Rampaul, Kemar Roach, Gavin Tonge.

Predictions
Nimsworth
Chris Gayle reckons that the Windies will win the series 4-1. Not impossible but pretty damn close to it. Despite the thrashing in Game One I’m fairly certain we will be seeing a 4-1 scoreline although the four wins are chalked up to Australia. The Windies had some good signs with Kieron Pollard showing he’s not just a T20 smash and bash but the injury hit squad doesn’t have the depth that Australia does. 4-1 win for the Aussies.

Freemo
No Shivnarine Chanderpaul. No Ramnaresh Sarwan. No Adrian Barath. No Darren Bravo. No Jerome Taylor. No Fidel Edwards. No Sulieman Benn. No, it’s not another player strike; everyone’s just back home with their feet up on the couch, nursing various injuries, and poor Chris Gayle has been left with the ineviable task of trying to weave the left over scraps into some sort of team until capable of winning a cricket match. Water into wine, straw into gold, etc, etc. At least he has up-and-comer Kieron Pollard, as well as himself, Bravo I and a couple of decent quicks to work with. Pity about the rest though. A half decent side, capable of a half decent performance. 4-1 Australia.