For once, thanks

England have done the right thing for the cricketing world by taking out Australia in the finals of the CB series - in more ways than one. They've highlighted the ludicrous nature of the triangular competition (and the equally insane Duckworth-Lewis rules); shocked Australia into all sorts of introspection (thus perhaps ensuring that Australia might be really, really brutal on all opposition in the coming World Cup); boosted their own confidence (thus ensuring that they will not show up at the WC as complete no-hopers); given heart to upstarts all over the cricketing community that all they need to do is play rope-a-dope for a while with the Aussies before getting off the canvas to wallop them with a crushing right hook; and of course, they've given bloggers like me a juicy little topic to sinky my teeth into.

England, especially, will take heart; no team with Collingwood, Flintoff and Pietersen in its ranks can be counted out the reckoning in a lottery like the World Cup. They will still be lesser contenders than some other teams I could name (like, for instance, Sri Lanka, Australia and the West Indies, my three favorites for the comp), but still, other teams will take them a little more seriously now.