Leaderboard after NZ vs West Indies game

Barty 2396
Gary Walton 2387
Pat 2250
Fox 2210
Scotty 2078
Geoff Foley 2062
Gavin B 2001
Tissa 1978
Porpoise 1909
Shane 1801
Mitch & Darryl 1599
Martin 1573
Elliott 1569
DK 1172
Ross 1114
Foxy's Mum 1050
Peter 985
Liam 908
Ando 777

Leaderboard Sunday 25th March

Did I mention that anyone who has a player who is a suspect in a murder case automatically gets a 5000 point bonus? Maybe it slipped my mind! Oh well, bad luck to anyone who didn't pick a Pakistani in their squad. That should compensate for the fact that the Paki boys won't score another bloody point. Damn!

Leaderboard after the 1st round of matches is:

Fox 1954
Barty 1946
Gary Walton 1941
Tissa 1733
Pat Culpan 1675
Scotty 1650
Porpoise 1623
Gavin Brown 1587
Shane Hull 1479
Mitch 1306
Darryl 1239
Martin 1207
Elliott 1161
Fox's Mum 963
David Khan 910
Liam C 896
Ross 805
Ando 554
Peter English 543

Leaderboard 23 March

Barty 1574
Gary Walton 1514
Tissa 1452
Fox 1428
Scotty 1215
Pat Culpan 1147
Gavin Brown 1137
Geoff Foley 1070
Mitch 1031
Shane Hull 981
Porpoise 978
Martin Unicomb 850
Elliott 833
Darryl 715
Fox's Mum 691
David Khan 688
Liam 646
Ross Shaw 447
Ando 385
Peter English 279

The Dream Team as at Thurs 22 March

Based on the points accrued thus far, this would have been the perfect combination. Obviously you could not have picked Ponting and McGrath so either of those two would have missed out on selection.

Batsman - Ponting (next best Graeme Smith)
Bowler - McGrath (next best Bond)
All rounder - Sehwag (next best Styris)
Keeper - Sangakkara (next best Gilchrist)
Slogger - Collingwood (next best Kemp)
Dud - Jerome Taylor (next best Agarkar)

Bear in mind though that with Pakistan and India likely to be eliminated, players like Sehwag will not feature in any Dream Team listings later in the tournament.

If you had to pick a Nightmare Team, it would currently look like this:

Batsman - Vincent then Atapattu
Bowler - Ntini then Harbajhan
All rounder - Flintoff then Watson (no surprises with Watson!!!)
Keeper - Ramdin then McCullum
Slogger - Uthappa, Dilshan & Hussey
Dud - Styris then Kallis

Leaderboard will be updated again on Friday.

Leaderboard 21 March

Barty 1345
Gary Walton 1282
Pat Culpan 1012
Gavin Brown 1002
Scotty 986
Shane Hull 936
Geoff Foley 935
Mitch 896
Porpoise 843
Tissa 769
Fox 760
Martin Unicomb 715
Elliott Ryan 604
Darryl 580
Liam Campbell 552
Fox's Mum 493
David Khan 456
Ross Shaw 350
Richard Anderson 282
Peter English 185

Leaderboard

Please check your scores and let me know if you detect any obvious errors.

Barty 1366
Gary Walton 1238
Scotty 1011
Pat Culpan 996
Mitch 938
Gavin Brown 930
Geoff Foley 893
Shane Hull 791
Tissa 718
Martin Uni 644
Elliot Ryan 606
Porpoise 584
Darryl 527
Fox 518
Liam C 307
Fox's Mum 351
Ross Shaw 182
Ando 134
Peter E 55

Editorial comment

The Organising Committee have decided to suspend all trading in Ricky Ponting shares due to suspected 'dodgy' activities. Such activities include scoring runs against hapless minnows, not doing the decent thing by getting out after scoring a hundred (isn't that mandatory when you play against your little brother?) and worse still, acquiring too much talent at birth and not leaving enough for other cricketers in World Cup. Did I forget to mention that scoring runs against minnow teams actually attract a negative score? The skill lies in NOT scoring runs against gumbies. I've made an art form of not scoring runs throughout my distinguished career! Anyway, Ponting shares will resume trading in April sometime, after World Cup Final. My comiserations to anyone who was foolish enough to gloat about last night's performance.

Leaderboard

OK, here are the points after the first three matches.

Player	Score
Scotty	708
Barty	708
Gary Walton	708
Elliott Ryan	356
Tissa	354
Darryl Pather	354
Martin Unicomb	233
Pat Culpan	149
Geoff Foley	147
Mitch	128
Gavin Brown	128
Fox	112
Shane Hull	109
Porpoise	88
Peter English	65
Ross Shaw	45
Liam Campbell	4
Fox's Mum	4
David Khan	4
Richard Anderson	2

Ricky Ponting leads the way

A full summary of the three matches so far will follow, as well as a first calculation of the scoreboard. For now, here are the people who've chosen Ricky Ponting as their batsman, and as such have started well.

Scotty

Barty

Foxy's Dad

Gary Walton

Elliot Ryan

Darryl Pather

Geoff Foley's Team

GIBBS*
Muralidaran
Flintoff
Gilchrist
Oram
Jerome Taylor

Peter English's Team

Lara
Bond
FLINTOFF*
Sangakkara
Hussey
Kallis

Mitch's Team

Pietersen
Harbajhan Singh
KALLIS*
Gilchrist
Oram
Rana Naved

Scotty's Team

PONTING*
Ntini
Flintoff
Sangakkara
Oram
Bradshaw

Barty's Team

PONTING*
Harbajhan
Kallis
Sangakkara
Oram
Plunkett

Tissa's Team

Ponting
Bond
JAYASURIYA*
Boucher
Uthappa
Sami

Foxy's Mum's Team

Fleming
Pollock
GAYLE *
Sangakkara
Hussey
Azhar Mahmood

Gary Walton's Team

PONTING *
Vettori
Kallis
Sangakkara
Afridi
Jimmy Anderson

Liam Campbell's Team

Tendulkar
Pollock
GAYLE *
Sangakkara
Hussey
Panesar

Pat Culpan's Team

Lara
Muralitharan
KALLIS *
Gilchrist
Oram
Panesar

Martin Unicomb's Team

Lara
Ntini
Flintoff
GILCHRIST *
Oram
Agarkar

Porpoise's Team

Youhana
Muralidaran
GAYLE *
Gilchrist
Oram
Agarkar

Elliott Ryan's Team

Ponting
Ntini
Gayle
SANGAKKARA *
Afridi
Styris

Darryl Pather's Team

Ponting
Muralidaran
FLINTOFF *
Dhoni
Oram
Styris

Shane Hull's Team

Tendulkar
Muralidaran
KALLIS *
Gilchrist
Afridi
Samuels

Gavin Brown's Team

Tendulkar
Muralidaran
KALLIS *
Gilchrist
Oram
Rana Naved

Ando's Team

Ganguly
Ntini
Gayle
McCullum
HUSSEY *
Malinga

Ross Shaw's Team

Yousuf
Bond
GAYLE*
Sangakkara
Hussey
Kallis

Foxy's Team

Chanderpaul
Bond
JAYASURIYA *
Gilchrist
Kemp
Agarkar

David Khan's Team

Tendulkar
Vettori
GAYLE *
Sangakkara
Afridi
Plunkett

The Dud

• Choose any player from the main countries so long as he is not from a country already chosen
• Every run he concedes (whilst bowling) is worth +1 point
• Every time he is dismissed for a duck, it is worth +50 points
• Every innings in which that player records a strike rate less than 100 (must have faced at least one ball), it is worth +25 points
• Every time that player is run out, it is worth +50 points
• Every catch taken by that player is worth minus –5 points
• Every innings in which that player records a strike rate of 100 or more, it is worth minus –25 points
• Every time he scores a century, takes 5 wickets in an innings or wins a Man of the Match Award, it is worth minus -100 points

The Slogger

• Choose any one of the following players so long as he is not from a country already chosen
  Hussey, Collingwood, Oram, Bravo, Kemp, Dilshan, Uthappa, Afridi
• Every six hit by that player is worth +20 points
• Every innings in which that player records a strike rate of 100 or more is worth +25 points
• Every time that player is not out (must have faced at least one ball), it is worth +50 points
• Every century scored by that player is worth +50 points
• Every time that player is dismissed for a duck, it is worth -50 points
• Any Man of the Match Award that player gets is worth +100 points
  

The Wicket Keeper

• Choose any wicketkeeper from a country not already selected
  Haddin/Gilchrist, Nixon, McCullum, Ramdin, Sangakkara, Dhoni, Akmal
  *(If you choose Haddin/Gilchrist, Haddin’s statistics will count until Gilchrist returns to the side. If both players play in same game, only Gilchrist’s stats will count)
• Every catch taken by that player is worth +10 points
• Every stumping effected by that player is worth +50 points
• Every bye conceded is worth minus -5 points
• Every run scored by that player is worth +1 point
• Every boundary that player hits is worth an additional +4 points
• Every six that player hits is worth an additional +6 points
• Every century scored by that player is worth +50 points
• Every time that player is dismissed for a duck, it is worth minus -50 points
• Any Man of the Match Award that player gets is worth +100 points

The All-Rounder

• Choose any one of the following players so long as he is not from a country already chosen
  Watson, Flintoff, Styris, Gayle, Kallis, Jayasuriya, Sehwag, Razzaq
• Every run that player scores is worth +1 point
• Every boundary that player hits is worth an additional +4 points
• Every six that player hits is worth an additional +6 points
• Every century scored by that player is worth +50 points
• Every time that player is dismissed for a duck, it is worth minus -50 points
• Every catch that player takes is worth +5 points
• Any Man of the Match Award that player gets is worth +100 points
• Every run conceded by that player is worth minus -1 point
• Every wicket taken by that player is worth +25 points
• Every maiden over bowled by that player is worth +10 points
• Every time that player takes 5 wickets in an innings, it is worth +100 points
  

The Wicket Machine

• Choose any one of the following players so long as he is not from a country already chosen
  McGrath, Bracken, Tait, Panesar, Plunkett, Anderson, Bond, Gillespie, Vettori, Jerome Taylor, Bradshaw, Colleymore, Ntini, Pollock, Nel, Muralidaran, Vaas, Malinga, Harbhajan, Sreesanth, Zaheer Khan, Mohammad Asif, Shoaib Akhtar, Umar Gul
• Every run conceded by that player is worth minus -1 point
• Every wicket taken by that player is worth +50 points
• Every catch that player takes is worth +5 points
• Every maiden over bowled by that player is worth +10 points
• Every time that player takes 5 wickets in an innings, it is worth +100 points
• Any Man of the Match Award that player gets is worth +100 points

The Run Machine

• Choose any one of the following players
  Ponting, Clarke, Hayden, Pietersen, Vaughan, Bell, Fleming, Vincent, Ross Taylor, Chanderpaul, Lara, Samuels, Graeme Smith, Gibbs, Prince, Jayawardene, Tharanga, Atapattu, Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Inzamam, Younis Khan, Yousuf
• Every run that player scores is worth +1 point
• Every boundary that player hits is worth an additional +4 points
• Every six that player hits is worth an additional +6 points
• Every time that player is dismissed for a duck, he will be deducted 50 points (minus 50 points)
• Every catch that player takes is worth +5 points
• Every innings in which that player records a strike rate of 100 or more is worth +25 points
• Every century scored by that player is worth +50 points
• Any Man of the Match Award that player gets is worth +100 points

The rules

• All entry forms and monies must be in by Friday 9 March
• Only one player from each country can be selected
• Players must be chosen from Test playing countries except Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
• No substitutions allowed (unless chosen player gets officially removed from squad before tournament commences)
• Nominate which of your 6 chosen players is your ‘STAR’ player. That player is worth double points to you.
• Competition closes after semi-finals (Final does not count)

Welcome to the World Cup

A fun competition between friends to maintain interest, rivalry and bragging rights throughout the 2007 Cricket World Cup. There is a $50 entry fee, with the prize split based on percentage of total kitty.

• 1st place – 50%
• 2nd place - 25%
• 3rd place - 15%
• 4th place - 10%