I don't really know enough about cricket to say anything clever or meaningful about the World Cup. Fortunately, I've found someone who is able to be very funny about it
If pushed to identify one problem with Pundit, it would be that Wayne Mapp doesn't post here nearly often enough. If pushed to identify a second, it would be the dearth of high quality sports commentary on the site.
It's a problem we share with our primary competitor in the information delivery and dispersal business – National Radio. For as David Farrar so astutely notes "New Zealand does love its sports, and National Radio could increase its coverage of sports in a way that would complement its brand." Because obviously it makes complete sense that a putative free-market libertarian is calling on a state-funded enterprise to try and pull listeners away from the privately run radio stations that currently inhabit that broadcasting niche. I mean, he can't be castigating museum directors for not randomly displaying pictures of Mohammed all the time, can he?
Of course, we'd love to follow DPF's advice here at Pundit. The main impediment that I can see to us doing so is that ... most of the contributors seem not to care about sport all that much, and certainly have shown a very limited capacity for analysis when they do talk about it. Which seem to be fairly fundamental flaws in the plan.
Fortunately, there is a quick and simple remedy. We can steal other people's work and pass it off as our own ... .
[Ed: No. You can't. You just can't.]
Oh – OK then. We can share other people's much better and funnier work when we stumble across it, making sure to appropriately acknowledge the source and encourage our readers to visit their site. So, without further ado, can I suggest you all immediately go to theroar.com.au and read Ben Pobjie's excellent analysis of "Who will definately win the World Cup."
His thoughts on New Zealand are excerpted below as a teaser ...
New Zealand
World Cups won: pffft, right.
Mood: subdued and reflective
National sundae: rocky roadHome advantage, oodles of batting firepower, and a skilful battalion of pacemen: these are the reasons for New Zealand’s inevitable victory in this World Cup.
Led by Brendon McCullum, one of the few batsmen in world cricket who goes out every innings nominating specific spectators he hopes to hit, the Black Caps, so named because of their support of the death penalty, are a big threat to all teams, particularly the ones they’re playing against.
Filled with colourful characters like Trent ‘Lightning’ Boult, Kane ‘And Abel’ Williamson, and Ross ‘Bespoke gentlemen’s hose’ Taylor, this is a team sure to entertain even while it crushes opposition beneath its strong, hobbit-scented boots.
Don’t be surprised if McCullum follows the example of Martin Crowe’s famously innovative captaincy at the 1992 Cup by opening the batting with Mark Greatbatch. Well, be a bit surprised, obviously.