The 2011 Cricket World Cup is unique as it will be held in three different sub-continent country’s rather than one country that is normally the case,There will be matches in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh during the World Cup with games spread across the three nations. We would have had Pakistan as well had they not been stripped of their host status due to security issues, as it is we are left with the three countries and a number of excellent venues across the nations.
India are the market leaders with the majority of games being played there across eight venues, Sri Lanka will host a number of games across three games and Bangladesh will host eight games across their two allocated stadiums. Bangladesh will host the opening ceremony and the first game while the World Cup Final will be played in India in Mumbai.
The prices on India and Sri Lanka reflect the fact that they are the hosts and the price on India is rather poor value at 3/1 best and I would rather take the 5/1 on offer for Sri Lanka who I believe have the same sort of chance in the sub continent conditions.
The Cricket World Cup betting will also be the biggest Cricket betting medium ever with ball by ball coverage of all the fixtures transmitted throughout the world. The 14 teams are split into two groups for the first round with 7 teams in each group with each team playing the other once with the top 4 going through to the quarter finals.
The opening game see’s India heading to Dhaka to meet Bangladesh; this will be a vital game for both sides as two of the host nations meet on the 19th February. The pitch will be a slow low one so the spinners will play an important part in this match and right throughout the whole tournament. India will be short for this one but don’t write Bangladesh off this is world cup cricket and upset’s do happen.
Tthis is one of the most open tournaments in recent years with punters unable to split the top 6 nations,  Australia, England, South Africa, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka I believe come the 2nd April that one of the sub continent teams will prevail .The favourites at this point are India and I can’t see this changing before the tournament gets under way.
India will surely go close on home soil while England are full of confidence after winning the World T20 in the West indies recently. England are coming off of a memorable win in the Ashes but as the Group B betting suggests they are in for a few tough matches on the sub-continent in the early stages after being soundly beaten in the ODI Series against Australia.
I don’t fancy Australia either, they beat an England side that plainly didn’t want to be there after winning the ashes and I wouldn’t be averse to laying both England and Australia on the exchanges.
One of the more popular Cricket bets is predicting who will be the leading batman in the Tournament. When assessing who will emerge as the leading runs scorer it is usual to consider players from the leading countries who will adapt to the conditions best such as India and also those who shall be batting at the top of the order as these players will have the most over’s to bat and therefore best opportunity to win Cricket World Cup top batsman award.
There are a number of top batsmen who are sure to feature in the betting for this at the World Cup, the first man to look at is the incomparable Sachin Tendulkar who continues to set the world alight despite his advancing years. Playing for India on home soil, Sachin is sure to be eager to impress so will be well backed at 16/1 with Sportingbet to have a good tournament.
Another of the very popular 2011 Cricket World Cup bets will be the Cricket World Cup top bowler award. The winner of the top bowler award is much more difficult to work out than the top batsman award as it is much more open with any of the leading teams bowlers having the chance to take this award and a lot will depend at what point in the innings each of the bowlers bowl. Another factor will be how the wickets will play and one will need to factor this into the equation, the likelihood is that we will encounter slow low wickets on the sub-continent which will harm the chances of the fast bowlers.
The two bowlers to watch out for this tournament in my humble opinion are Muttiah Muralitharan 20/1 general who will as always be a huge threat on these pitches for Sri Lanka. Harbhajan Singh can be backed also at 22/1 with Sportingbet as will be affective also on these type of tracks.
I will be getting involved in certain markets that offer extreme value during the tournament and can’t wait to do battle with the dastardly bookies who I was once one.
This tournament will be the biggest betting event in cricket history and I will be burning the midnight oil to provide my clients on www.thecrickettipster.co.uk the best value bets throughout the tournament.
Yours in Sport
Anth Raine
