The World Cup, the contenders, and the WI

Tony Becca, Contributing Editor

The 10th ICC World Cup gets under way today with 14 teams in the hunt, and before it comes to an end on April 2 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, before the winners are crowned, 49 matches will be played over 43 days on the slow pitches in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and India in what promises to be a lovely and exciting contest.

With Sachin Tendulkar as the ambassador of the tournament, all of the world's leading players will be present, and they include the likes of India's own Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh, South Africa's Jacques Kallis and Dale Steyn. England's Kevin Pietersen and Stuart Broad, Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Mulitheran, and Australia's Ricky Ponting and Brett Lee.

And, of course, there will be others, unknown at this time but, probably, destined to become household names by the time is over.

The question, as India takes on Bangladesh in the opening match in Mirpur, Bangladesh, is who will win, will it be India, will it be South Africa or England, will it be Pakistan or Sri Lanka, or will be it Australia, the winners on four previous occasions and the two-time defending champions?

India, playing mostly at home, head the list of favourites to win it, and although some people has already written them off as "has beens", Australia, by their record, are accustomed to winning, they are good enough to win, and they can win.

The truth is that it is expected to be so close that any one of the six teams, probably even seven, can win the Cup.

Star-studded line-up

England and South Africa are listed among the early favourites, but after winning the Cup in India in 1987, Australia won it again in 1999, in 2003, and in 2007, and although they are not as powerful as they were, even though they lost the Ashes recently to England almost without a fight, they recovered to easily defeat them in the subsequent one-day series and they must be one of the favourites of many to win it four times in a row.

To do so, however, will not be easy, not with India, surprise winners in 1983, playing at home, not with the star-studded batting line-up headed by Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, captain Mahendra Dhoni, Suresh Raina, and Virat Kohli, plus the off-spin of Harbhajan, not with South Africa and England and their balanced sides of Graeme Smith, Hasim Amla, Kallis, de Villers J. P Duminy, Steyn, Monnie Morkel, Tsobe, and Johan Botha on one side and the likes of Andrew Strauss, Jonathon Trott, Pietersen, Ian Bell, James Anderson, Broad, and Swann on the other also in the hunt, and not with the tournament being played on the slow, spinners-friendly pitches of Asia.

They will also have to contend with Sri Lanka, the champions in 1996.

Blessed with players such as Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Tilakaratne Dilshan, Thilan Samarawera, Upal Tharanga as batsmen, Angelo Matthews and Thisara Perera as all-rounders, and Lasinth Malinga, Nuwan Kulasekara, Dilhara Fernando, Ajanatha Mendis, Rangana Herath, and Muralitheran as bowlers, Sri Lanka are dangerous.

They will have to conquer Pakistan, winners in 1992, losing finalists in 1999, and parading a good squad of Younis Khan, Ahmed Shehzad, Misbah-ul-haq, Kamal Akmal, Umar Akmal, and Mohamma Hafeez as batsmen, Abdul Razzaq, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz as bowlers, and the hard-hitting, right-arm leg-spinner Shahid Afridi as an all-rounder.

In fact, if Australia win the Cup this time around to make it five victories in total, they would have to be forgiven if they then beat their chests and loudly proclaim that they are the best.

Right now, they must be still having nightmares after falling for 176 against Indian after easing along at 118 for one before the spin of India swept them aside in a practice match - especially when they remember that, apart from India's Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla, if they are to win the Cup they will have to conquer some quality spin bowlers.

From England, there is Swann, from Sri Lanka there are Muralitharan, Mendis, and Herath, from Pakistan there are Afridi and Saeed Ajmal; and from New Zealand, there is Daniel Vettori.

One-day cricket is as unpredictable as cricket gets, the action favours those teams who are willing to take a chance while batting, those teams who can consistently bowl accurately, those teams who can field brilliantly, and these six teams, Australia, South Africa, England, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, possess all the credentials to have a crack at the title.

Of the six, Pakistan should drop out after the first round of six matches each, and it is a toss up, for me, between Sri Lanka and England as the other.

Of the remaining four, it is difficult to pick the last two.

South Africa, it must be remembered, failed to reach the final in 1999 after surprisingly and astonishingly tieing their semi-final match with Australia and going out of the tournament, after rain interrupted their match against Sri Lanka in 2003 they miscalculated the score they needed to win by Duckworth/ Lewis system and failed by one run, and after their miserable start against Australia, 27 for five in the 10th over, they dropped out at the semi-final stage in 2007.

India, on the other, have suffered so many batting collapses against hostile pace on fast, bouncy pitches that even their best friends would think twice before backing them to reach the final.

Showdown

The tournament is being played in Asia, however, the pitches are expected to be slow, and it would be nice to see Sehwag, Tendulkar, and company up against Steyn, Morkel, and company, and Kallis, de Villers, and company up against Harbhajan, Chawla and their friends in a showdown for a title.

There is one team, which no one, but from among their own, has given them a chance but which because of the unpredictable nature of the one-day game, because of the potential of some of the players, and because, much more so than the longer version of the game, one-day cricket is a batsman's game, has a chance, if not to go all the way, to take few scalps along the way.

That team is the West Indies, winners of the title at the first two tournaments in 1975 and in 1979, runners-up in the third, and although their supporters are West Indians, even though they include captain Darren Sammy, coach Otis Gibson, manager Richie Richardson, former captains Viv Richards and Courtney Walsh, as well as former captains and current top batsmen, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, and Chris Gayle, they should be taken seriously.

They all say the West Indies team is good, they all say the players are in fine spirit, they all say it is a one-day tournament and on any day any team can win, and they all say, almost to man, if the players play to their best they can win the World Cup.

It was interesting, however, to hear what Gayle had to say.

"I'm looking forward to the tournament and the dream is to see the West Indies come out on top. It can't get any bigger than this. The West Indies have a legacy of winning and I want to give my best to win matches for us.

"Whenever I cross that boundary rope I won't leave anything on the field. I'm going to give it my all, give it my best shot. I am looking to try and dominate the World Cup."

Those are big words, those are good words, and those are words that every West Indian wants to hear.

Gayle is probably the hardest and longest hitter of the ball the world has ever seen. He has played some of the finest innings in Test cricket, in one-day cricket, and in Twenty20 cricket the world has ever seen, and yet sometimes, too often at that, he gets out cheaply to an indescribable shot very early in the innings.

If Gayle can control himself, not enough to rob himself of his God-given way of batting over the next few weeks, with a little luck, with plenty of luck, he could realise his dream and he could dominate the World Cup to a point where he could help the West Indies win the World Cup.

The West Indies bowling is weak, no doubt about that. The batting, however, the combination of Gayle, Daren Bravo, Shivnarine Chander-paul, and Sarwan, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, and Carlton Baugh Jnr has possibilities, and if Gayle fires, even though Bangladesh is ranked one above the West Indies at number eight, even though they have defeated only Zimbabwe and Ireland in the last 18 months, they have as good a chance as most of the teams, especially when it comes down to the knock-out rounds, to the matches of the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, and the finals.

The important thing is to finish in the first four in the preliminary round, and that means, barring a surprise, in the company of India, South Africa, and England and not among the bottom three, in the company of any two from Bangladesh, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

Chanderpaul may be right. In response to a question that it has been a long, long time since the West Indies last won, Chanderpaul replied, "I know what we have done and what we haven't done and now is the time to do it.