Colchester and East Essex Cricket Club chairman and Shepherd Neame Essex Cricket League chairman Andrew Kennedy on the Cricket World Cup

I THINK we’ve seen already that this year’s Cricket World Cup will be one of those competitions where everyone beats each other.

I don’t think any team will win all of their nine group matches and the first few games in the tournament have certainly been exciting.

Even if you lose matches, you still have a chance of going through to the semi-final.

I think England are still favourites and I think they will be joined in the semi-finals by West Indies, Australia and India.

They would be my tips for the last four because they are the teams playing the best cricket, although I do think that New Zealand could also be there or thereabouts.

It’s Bangladesh next for England on Saturday and they had a very good win against South Africa, so it should be interesting.

After the defeat against Pakistan on Monday, England will know that they need to get back on it.

England had gone into the game on the back of a winning run and Pakistan had lost 11 in a row, so it was a big result.

From a Colchester and East Essex point of view, it would be great to see our former wicket-keeper Tom Blundell feature for New Zealand at some stage in the tournament.

Tom Latham is first choice wicket-keeper for them at the moment and realistically, Tom will probably only play if there’s an injury or if they get knocked out in the group stages.

He’s been a bit unlucky, especially as he scored a century in their warm-up game against West Indies.

Tom will want to play but it’s a great experience for him, to be involved in a World Cup squad.

I’m sure Essex-based cricket fans will also be looking out for Adam Zampa playing for Australia and Mohammad Amir, for Pakistan during the tournament.

They will both be arriving after the World Cup to play for Essex in the T20 Blast tournament.

Both players are in their respective first-choice teams so I’m sure they will be keeping a close eye on how they get on.

I have tickets for England v Australia and New Zealand v Pakistan along with the final at Lord’s through my MCC membership.

I’m really looking forward to taking in a few games, later in the tournament.