No clear favorites as World cup gets ready for gala opening

Montego Bay, Mar 10 (UNI) Perhaps for the first time there are no clear favorites as the ninth edition of the Cricket World Cup gets ready for the gala opening here tomorrow.

One-day cricket is now being played with a daring that is way beyond imagination. Grand totals are being posted that were never thought possible.

But, by its very nature, the one-day game is a huge game of chance.

The current edition of the World Cup - richest in terms of prize money with Montego Bay, Mar 10 (UNI) Perhaps for the first time there are no clear favorites as the ninth edition of the Cricket World Cup gets ready for the gala opening here tomorrow.

One-day cricket is now being played with a daring that is way beyond imagination. Grand totals are being posted that were never thought possible.

But, by its very nature, the one-day game is a huge game of chance.

The current edition of the World Cup - richest in terms of prize money with $2.4 million of a full prize pot of $5 million going to the winner - will be a kind of jumbo lottery never held before in the cricket world.

The gap between the defending champion Australia, on the hunt for an unprecedented hat-trick of titles, has narrowed so much in recent events that this World Cup can also be considered to be the most open ever.

No Test-playing nation will be going into the showpiece event without some hope that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is attainable now.

Pitch conditions determine much of cricket. The playing surfaces that teams have come across in warm up games last week suggest that a tough, boiling contest to fray the nerves is on the cards.

Australia won the Champions Trophy in India last year on similar sluggish pitches that allowed batsmen very few comforts. It was one prize that had eluded the Aussies for so long and they kept their nerve to triumph in knock-out situations in every game after dropping a league match to the West Indies.

Since then, the world champion has hit such a low in five successive defeats at the hands of England and New Zealand in the one-day game, that too after a memorable 5-0 Ashes Test victory, that their chances are being written off even by such knowledgable observers as Sir Viv Richards, a cricket icon from this part of the world.

From the warm up games has also emerged the forceast that teams with quality spinners can expcet to go all the way while the heavy weight sides like Australia and South Africa, which do not have a spinner of note in their ranks, are likely to find the going tough.

As if the doubts over the pitches are not enough to jangle the nerves of the favoured teams, comes the slightly under prepared nature of the Caribbean.

Construction to get things ready never seems to end. Traffic can be chaotic, hotels and watering holes can be too busy and ships in the harbours are chock-a-block with cricket tourists.

The modern media hyperbole is such that pressures on teams are immense even in the holiday paradise that the Caribbean prides itself on being and on which plank it sells itself to the world of tourism.

MORE UNI HSB SAM BST1232 .4 million of a full prize pot of million going to the winner - will be a kind of jumbo lottery never held before in the cricket world.

The gap between the defending champion Australia, on the hunt for an unprecedented hat-trick of titles, has narrowed so much in recent events that this World Cup can also be considered to be the most open ever.

No Test-playing nation will be going into the showpiece event without some hope that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is attainable now.

Pitch conditions determine much of cricket. The playing surfaces that teams have come across in warm up games last week suggest that a tough, boiling contest to fray the nerves is on the cards.

Australia won the Champions Trophy in India last year on similar sluggish pitches that allowed batsmen very few comforts. It was one prize that had eluded the Aussies for so long and they kept their nerve to triumph in knock-out situations in every game after dropping a league match to the West Indies.

Since then, the world champion has hit such a low in five successive defeats at the hands of England and New Zealand in the one-day game, that too after a memorable 5-0 Ashes Test victory, that their chances are being written off even by such knowledgable observers as Sir Viv Richards, a cricket icon from this part of the world.

From the warm up games has also emerged the forceast that teams with quality spinners can expcet to go all the way while the heavy weight sides like Australia and South Africa, which do not have a spinner of note in their ranks, are likely to find the going tough.

As if the doubts over the pitches are not enough to jangle the nerves of the favoured teams, comes the slightly under prepared nature of the Caribbean.

Construction to get things ready never seems to end. Traffic can be chaotic, hotels and watering holes can be too busy and ships in the harbours are chock-a-block with cricket tourists.

The modern media hyperbole is such that pressures on teams are immense even in the holiday paradise that the Caribbean prides itself on being and on which plank it sells itself to the world of tourism.

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