Cricket World Cup 2011: home nations put a new spin on squad selection
When the World Cup squads were finalised last week, the three host nations stole a march on their 11 other rivals by using local knowledge.
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They stuffed their squads with spinners — and not just specialist spinners but batsmen who can bowl spin part-time.
The10th World Cup, when it finishes its initial month of meandering and approaches a climax, will do so in late March — the end of the cricket season in the Asian subcontinent, when the days are becoming intolerably hot.
By then the pitches will be wearing and tearing in the midday sun, and spin will be the best way to counter big-hitting batsmen for whom limited-overs cricket is designed.
But not all of the World Cup matches are going to be staged in the midday sun: only 12 of the 49 games in fact. The vast majority are going to be day/nighters, with the first half played in the afternoon, the second under floodlights.
(England’s one qualifying game in daylight will be an absolute roaster, against South Africa in Madras, the old steamy Madras: it is just as well the qualifying stage is virtually irrelevant and it won’t matter who wins.)
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