JBNBlog: Sri Lanka to win World Cup - London Free Press (blog)

Here'a a fearless prediction JBNBlog has no business making (other than a belief in the power of friendship) " Sri Lanka will win the 2011 cricket World Cup. Sri Lanka is already in the final. Along with our happy & excited friends in London's small but mighty Sri Lankan community, it awaits the winner of the epic India-Pakistan semifinal.

Most of what I know about Sri Lanka's magnificent side is from this QMI Agency story on lfpress.com http://www.lfpress.com/sports/othersports/2011/03/29/17797316.html.

Other sports? Well! For our Sri Lankan friends & many other South Asians around London, cricket is The Sport. The World Cup is as huge for our friends as Sidney Crosby scoring for Team Canada was for me.

JBNBlog's cricketmania was strongly influenced by a stay in Mumbai at the same hotel where India's team was sequestered in 2007 before departing for a disastrous World Cup in the West Indies. (The same hotel was later attacked by terrorists). The Beatlemania scenes outside were the crest of the "Blue Billion" wave that swept India at the time.

It is a joy to see the intense Pakistan-India rivalry in cricket helping bring those great nations closer. Perhaps sport can truly lead to greater understanding. JBNBlog salutes both teams in the semifinal for showing the way.

Cricket can also lead to heartbreak as we witnessed over Christmas in Melbourne. Our gracious hosts were tormented each day as England humiliated Australia at the MCG on its way to winning The Ashes on Aussie soil for the first time in decades.

In looking for a more joyful result, JBNBlog is inspired by a Sri Lankan friend who was delighted to see his homeland defeat England on the way to the semis. England taught Sri Lanka cricket " & now we are showing what we've learned, the friend said.

So despite JBNBlog's great admiration for both India & Pakistan, the prediction here is Sri Lanka.

In making this prediction, JBNBlog is also inspired by our Feb. 2010 public statement that Spain would win the World Cup. That actually happened many months later " even if I had to check quickly to see if Spain had qualified for soccer's greatest prize in South Africa.