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Archives for March 2011

My team of the World Cup

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Adam Mountford | 10:20 UK time, Thursday, 31 March 2011

Here is my team of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Many thanks for all your suggestions on Twitter - I have tried to take all your suggestions into consideration and I welcome any further thoughts .

Although my selections are mainly based on performances during the competition, if a decision was a tight one I have taken into account past achievements as well as the balance a player brings to the side. And I have to admit to the odd selection being influenced by just a little romance and the desire for my side to entertain.

Please feel free to disagree with my dream team - and I would love to read which 11 you would have picked.

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Thrillers, weddings and Boycott the umpire

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Adam Mountford | 16:21 UK time, Tuesday, 22 March 2011

The last week has taken me from Chennai to Colombo, included yet and excitement at a royal appointment.

Wednesday 15 March

arrives in Chennai to join us for the remainder of the tournament.

Vaughan is scheduled to be the TV guest, alongside Rishi Persad, at the end of England's match here on Thursday. Rishi is also a member of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ racing team and Vaughan is very keen to garner some tips ahead of the .

Vaughan tweets Rishi later: "All the best presenting the highlights on your own. After the tips you've been giving out don't expect any help from me."

Vaughan is not the only reinforcement. I get a call from Christopher Martin-Jenkins who is on his way to Colombo. I have decided that there must be an outside chance of CMJ turning up at the right place and at roughly the correct time if he is positioned in the same city for a while and, as there are three matches taking place in the Sri Lankan capital, he is to be based there for a week.

I put these fears behind me and settle down for what I hope is a good nights sleep but am woken by a call from the Times newspaper who are looking to write a story about Aggers commentating on the next month.

I hope its more successful than when he was part of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ radio team covering another major state occasion, the funeral of Princess Diana in 1997. Aggers had to be strapped into a safety harness to take his place on the roof of a hotel close to Lord's. He had to be in place hours before the funeral began because of tight security and had plenty of time to craft his words. But the funeral cortege went past his position much faster than anyone expected - and Jonathan never got to say a word on air!

I manage to get back to sleep but wake up in a cold sweat. I remember that in Colombo there are at least three international grounds. CMJ will never turn up at the right one. Remember this is a man who once arrived at Lord's when a one-day international he was supposed to be working on was getting underway at The Oval.

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Chittagong chaos and CMJ airlines

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Adam Mountford | 15:39 UK time, Tuesday, 15 March 2011

It's been another eventful week and in my latest World Cup diary we experience a mixture of excitement and chaos in Chittagong, before a journey to Chennai involving an unscheduled stop-over in Kolkata.

Thursday 9 March

I join Jonathan Agnew at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium for the usual pre-match interviews with the captains ahead of the Bangladesh v England on Friday. manages to look fairly calm even though he knows the hopes of millions of cricket-mad Bangladesh fans are resting on his shoulders.

Then it is our chance to quiz England captain Andrew Strauss. What all the journalists want to know is who is going to open the batting - Matt Prior, Ravi Bopara or Ian Bell - following and who is going to replace the injured Stuart Broad, but we all know Strauss is not going to reveal the answer to either question.

Aggers decides not to be too Jeremy Paxman-like and says to Strauss: "You're not going to tell me who's opening or coming in for Broad ... but I might as well hear you say it."

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Insect bites and missing luggage

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Adam Mountford | 17:19 UK time, Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Into my third week at the and from Bangalore to Chennai to Chittagong... sometimes with luggage!

Thursday 3 March

The morning after the night before! Producer Steve Houghton makes his way to the Ireland team hotel in Bangalore to try to coax hungover Irish heroes onto the radio after Record-breaking Kevin O'Brien agrees to appear on 5 live Breakfast and . Although he says he has no intention of following the likes of Eoin Morgan in trying to play for England, he does

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Boycott's sandwiches and an Irishman's tears

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Adam Mountford | 03:02 UK time, Thursday, 3 March 2011

After last week's musings on my first seven days at the Cricket World Cup, here are my thoughts on a second week which took me from Nagpur to Bangalore, eventually - but boy was it worth it!

Thursday 24 February

Back to the to attend the pre-match press conferences ahead of Friday's Australia v New Zealand match at the ground. I bumped into two of our commentators for the game who had just arrived in town, and .

Throughout the tournament our ball-by-ball commentary is also being broadcast to radio stations in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa so we have assembled an international team and it is always good fun to catch up with friends from around the world.

Glen was keen to remind me of the score in the recent one-day series down under, stating: "The Ashes don't really matter to us, we are just pleased we stuffed your blokes 6-1 in the series that really mattered."

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