How did they come up with the atrocious grouping?

MBTM, I don't frequent this place, but I do know a little about what goes on here between the aussies and Indians which is why I stated right at the end "I'm Indian btw". You obviously don't read too well. So, yes I'm Indian and I just hate BCCI...they are absolutely disgusting and have ruined cricket with their clout.

oh yeah and regarding your comment about not being able to clear the initial rounds and hence not being able to do anything later on, did you see the 1999 WC? Go check it out again...Australia struggled throughout... they had to win all their 3 Super six matches to make it to the semi's, they struggled in the semi's also but creamed Pak in the finals. So, struggling in the initial rounds means nothing. It's about making it to the next somehow or the other because everything can change.

Sadia, yes the minnows do produce the odd upset here and there, but when I see a minnow taking on a biggie my mindset is like wow, a crap game coming up (I'm sure lots of other people also think like this) whereas when it's a biggie vs a biggie atleast I feel much happier pre match. Quite sometime ago you had a triangular between SA, Ind and Kenya in SA. Each team played the other 3 times before the finals. Since Kenya was there, they ruined like 6 games. Yes, I do remember that Kenya did defeat India in one of those games but the mindset before such a match is quite negative since it's a minnow vs a biggie.

ok, so WI didn't do too well last time, why make Aus and SL also suffer? The ICC should have had 2 big countries in each group and distributed the minnows based on a lucky draw or last times performance.

I'd much rather have cricket being limited to the 8 big nations than see new countries join in. It's a pain to see a minnow struggle for so many years to get the odd win here

and there.