2009 ICC WORLD TWENTY20 BETTING TIPS

The big tournament gets underway tomorrow and William Hill has pulled out all the stops to make this one of the most rewarding betting opportunities of the entire summer cricket season. How's this for value? If you put a £20 wager on the outright winner of the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 you get a FREE £5 bet on England's top tournament batsman! Drop that on Ravi Bopara or Luke Wright and you're laughing! Currently, India have taken a drop in price and can be backed for the outright win at 11/4. South Africa have also taken a drop and carry a 3/1 price. The Aussies have lengthened from their previous listing of 9/2 and are now just a step behind at 5/1. England's price dropped dramatically with a previous listing of 13/1 after the Scotland game now switched to 8/1 alongside Pakistan, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. West Indies were hammered yesterday and are available at 12/1- the last semi-plausible team to win. Bangladesh are listed at 40/1 with Ireland at 300/1, Netherlands and Scotland share a 500/1 price. William Hill is also running each-way betting with 1/3 odds on places 1 and 2. You can bet on Group winners with India being the biggest tip at 1/10 ahead of Bangladesh (7/1) and Ireland (14/1). Pakistan and England are both odds on to take their group over Holland, each carrying a 5/6 price against Holland's gargantuan 28/1. Group C has some value there with the Aussies at 5/4 to win against Sri Lanka's 7/4 and West Indies 5/2. This is the most competitive group. South Africa comes up trumps in Group D with a 1/2 price compared to New Zealand's 6/4 and Scotland's 33/1. If you're looking for the most profitable market in the whole tournament, you've got to check out the Top Tournament Batsman betting. Graeme Smith is the current favourite with a whopping 14/1 pricetag. There aren't many chances in life to back a favourite at 14/1 so I say get in there while the getting's good if you're going to back the G-Unit. Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag are both listed at 16/1 for top batsman while Saffer AB De Villiers sits alongside a lengthy cluster of players listed at 20/1. They include Shane Watson, Kevin Pietersen, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Ravi Bopara, Kumar Sangakkara and Rohit Sharma who had an impressive outing yesterday. Brendon McCullum is always worth a look and at 22/1 is solid value alongside Ricky Ponting, Suresh Raina and Ross Taylor. Herschelle Gibbs, Yuvraj Singh, Jacques Kallis, Salman Butt and Chris Gayle are all sitting at 25/1 odds. Other notables include Brad Haddin and Jesse Ryder at 28/1, Mahendra Singh Dhoni at 33/1, Luke Wright at 33/1, Shivnarine Chanderpaul at 40/1, Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood both sit at 50/1. William Hill is offering up 1/4 odds on places 1, 2, 3 and 4.