You know it's going to be a tough World Cup when...

Your night watchman is selected as an all-rounder.

England has selected their 30-man squad for the World cup. The BBC has an article here. When I looked at the bowlers I noticed that not a single one of the Ashes-winning bowlers was in that group. It makes a lot of sense that Flintoff is in the all-rounders group (though lately he seems to struggle a bit with either bat or ball in each match), but I was quite surprised to find Matthew Hoggard there with him. Hoggy's a lovable character and a devastating swing bowler in the right conditions, but with the bat he's mainly known for blocking. His batting average in ODI's is 4.25.

Otherwise, the squad includes 8 of the 12 MBE/OBE awardees from the 2005 Ashes. No Harmison, no Trescothick, no Joneses. The young and the restless will compete for the other 4 spots. At least they will have a few guys who are happy to be there even if they have to witness some batting collapses. If Pietersen's rib heals well they may even get to see some fireworks.

I think World Cup 2007 will be a lot of fun, but probably not for England. The Aussies have to be favored. They look as good now as they were in 2003. They always seem to have a tailender or unsung all-rounder who steps up if the batting or bowling stars have an off day. Other teams to watch include the hosts (you never know what the Windies will do), and South Asian batting powerhouses Sri Lanka and Pakistan. You can never completely count out New Zealand, 2003 semi-finalists India, South Africa and England. It would be a shocker if any of these 8 teams fails advance to the super 8 round - unless there's a lot of rain. The unfair thing about the World Cup is that matches are generally not replayed (please leave a comment if you know whether this rule has changed since 2003). Each of the favored teams has two matches against weaker teams, but if those matches are rained out, they lose half the points they could have gotten by winning. So it just takes ! upset win and a washout or two to produce a shock result in the standings. The shock story of 2003 was Kenya, but they'll be far from home in the Caribbean. Bermuda will be near home, but they've never played in the World Cup before. Other possible Cinderellas include Bangladesh and Canada.