England vs West Indies Cricket Betting Preview - 05-16-07
May 16 - English cricket may have finally found a solution to stop the rot in the international arena - invite an opposing team that is even more dismal than your own. The test series with the West Indies begins tomorrow and betting on the hosts to win convincingly seems logical enough.
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The odds for the first test at Lords provide an eloquent summary of the West Indies' chances this Summer:
England 4/7 to win
West Indies 15/2 to win
The Draw 21/10
If you want to bet on the outcome of the test series then England's odds are a prohibitive 1/4. The only reason you can can get 4/7 on the home nation winning the first test is due to concerns about the weather.
The West Indies arrive short of match fitness, which may be a blessing for their confidence since they might not realize how poor they are at the fundamentals of batting and bowling (their fielding is actually above average).
England hardly emerged from their test series in Australia (0-5 in that one) with any credibility, and their efforts at the World Cup were on a par with their application shown in trying to hang on to the Ashes. But the West Indies are not the same team that they once were, with the once now stretching back nearly twenty years.
Here is their road record in the six most recent test series that they have played on foreign soil:
0-2 in Pakistan
0-3 in New Zealand
0-3 in Australia
0-2 in Sri Lanka
0-4 in England
0-3 in South Africa
They were a terrible team with Lara as captain, and without him their morale will probably improve but they now have even less ability. The smart bet has to be on England to win the first test in this series, and a whitewash cannot be out of the question either.
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