Sri Lanka is one of the tournament favourites on their home soil and in familiar conditions. Especially if they get to contest the semi final scheduled for Colombo at their fortress of R Premadasa Stadium at Kettarama.

Pakistan have a talented and young squad of players with recent form and promise. They are well led by the mercurial Shahid Afridi and coached by the respected Waqar Younis. Younis

New Zealand have gone through a recent horror run in ODIs after losing successive series in Bangladesh and then at home to the erratic Pakistani’s recently.

Kenya stunned the world when they reached the semifinals in the 2003 world cup. In 2011, they are led by skipper Jimmy Kamande and coached by former West Indies allrounder Eldine Baptiste.

Canada has never proceeded past Round 1 despite having appeared in 1979, 2003 and 2007. They are led by Ashish Bagai and coached by former Sri Lanka wicket keeper Pubudu Dassanayake.

Australia is the current holders of the ICC World Cup. They have now won the cup a record 4 times (1987, 1999, 2003 and 2007) and still pose a threat to other teams in 2011 despite showing signs of a team in gradual decline. Ricky Ponting returns from injury after missing the 5th Ashes test and the entire 7 ODI series against England.

Ricky Ponting and James Sutherland, take note. This story is representative of a growing phenomenon in Australian cricket. It was penned by a typical Australian fan who hits out hard at its current team’s lack of sportsmanship and the resulting drop in interest to follow cricket.