“The World’s Greatest Cricket Celebration”, declares the mammoth sign under the scoreboard and it all starts at 10.30am at the Oval on Thursday. We can forget all the fluff now: the injury scares that sometimes amount to little more than a broken fingernail; the agonising over which team will be the dark horses, which players the unlikely heroes (perhaps they will be Jon Behrendorff, Liam Dawson, Tabraiz Shamsi, Fabian Allen or Isuru Udana, but I doubt it).
It is more likely that one or two of the great players of the era will claim and name the tournament: it will be the one in which Virat Kohli or Kane Williamson, Mitchell Starc or Jasprit Bumrah leaves his mark. Or from the teams who set the ball rolling on Thursday it might be Eoin Morgan or Jos Buttler, Faf du Plessis or Kagiso Rabada.
Written by Vic Marks
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/may/29/england-south-africa-cricket-world-cup-2019-opener under the title “England open World Cup with a tasty starter, with a feast of cricket ahead | Vic Marks”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
