Forget the psychic octopus, say hello to Cricket Cricket who'll predict World Cup winners

Chirpy oracle quickly warms to the task of predicting winners in World Cup cricket matches

A six-legged critter who knows a thing or two about cricket has predicted New Zealand will win against Sri Lanka today.

An oracle in an unlikely form, Cricket Cricket has signalled the Black Caps will be victorious in their first outing.

But he hasn't stopped there. He's also indicated that Australia will beat England at Melbourne.

The black field cricket lives at Butterfly Creek in Auckland, and announced this week via his media handlers that he was eager to call the big games - following in the footsteps of Paul the German Octopus, who shot to fame in the 2010 Fifa World Cup, and the Herald's own Richie McCow, who pronounced on the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Butterfly Creek animal keeper Roberto Lapinski said Cricket had been kept with dry grass to eat, so was keen for a drink. Because the insects could drown in water easily, they preferred to drink from oranges.

He placed two orange segments in front of Cricket sporting the flags for the competing countries on toothpicks.

The flag in the orange that Cricket went to drink from would be the victorious team.

Cricket spent a while deliberating when the New Zealand flag and the Sri Lankan flag were on show in front of him.

In a decisive move, he drank from the orange then hopped to the top of the New Zealand flag. The Black Caps will surely come out on top.

Cricket was more hesitant over the England and Australia flags. He went to the orange with the Australia flag, stopping to lick his feet along the way. He could have been trying to tell us the match would be a close call.

Butterfly Creek spokeswoman Katie Cameron said Cricket would be making his picks for all New Zealand and Australia games, and some of the more exciting match-ups from Pool B.

Black field crickets

• Black field crickets are normally 15mm to 25mm in size.
• Females can be identified by a spike on the end of the abdomen.
• Only males can chirp or 'sing'.
• Field crickets die in winter, another reason why they love the summer sport of cricket.

For more coverage of the Cricket World Cup from nzherald.co.nz and NZME. check out #CricketFever.