The shambles at the end of the final typified what had gone on before © Getty Images

Tim de Lisle

For us fans, cricket is such a consuming passion that the end of a major series or tournament usually brings a feeling of emptiness. Not this time. The end of the World Cup has come as a relief. As an event, it committed the crime that sports administrators are apt to accuse players of: it brought the game into disrepute.

A World Cup is a showcase, and at different times over the past seven weeks, international cricket has been shown looking stupid, grasping, callous and boring. Finally, in the darkness of Bridgetown on Saturday night, it looked ridiculous. The man in charge of running the show, the man picked out to referee the most prestigious match, didn't know the rules.

Recently, the ICC top brass made a move to get match referees re-named. The new job title they had in mind was "chief executive". On Saturday, Jeff Crowe didn't have a clue what was going on, listened to the wrong person, failed to apply common sense, and made a big mess of a simple decision. Yes, "chief executive" will do nicely.

The business with the bad light was a new kind of blooper, and we shouldn't make too much of it. It should prove to be a one-off, and it may even turn out to have done the game a perverse favour. It made sure that there was no last-minute redemption, no danger of the mishaps being wiped from the folk memory by the brilliance of Adam Gilchrist's hitting. It's tough on Gilchrist, but perhaps better for the game that the last taste in the mouth was a sour one. Something may even be done about it.

The more worrying blunders in this World Cup were the ones that had been committed before. Which, when you think about it, was most of them.

Remember the failings of the 2003 World Cup? It went on far too long. It had a surfeit of minnows. It had two group stages, with points carried over from one to the other, which made the second of them more complicated and less dramatic than it need have been. It was blighted by petty regulations caused by kowtowing to sponsors. It suffered from a lack of atmosphere at many of the games. It didn't feel as special as it should have, as all the major teams had gathered for the Champions Trophy five months earlier. And it was overshadowed by politics, because the South African government decided to stage some games in Zimbabwe, which, then as now, was being run as a vicious tyranny.

Malcolm Speed laps up the carnival atmosphere © Getty Images

This time, there was nothing like Zimbabwe, if you ignored the fact that they were again allowed to compete. Politics didn't overshadow the tournament. That role fell to the death of Bob Woolmer, for which, as far as we know, nobody but an unknown murderer can be blamed. But the rest of that catalogue of failings recurred. The ICC failed to learn from history, so they were doomed to repeat it.

They deserve credit for being prepared to hold the World Cup in the West Indies, which was a bold choice. But that boldness was not carried through. They were prepared to let the tournament be held in the Caribbean, but not - until they came under fire from the media - to let it have a strong Caribbean flavour. They imposed their own mentality: that of the fusspot, the control freak, the dead hand of the western corporate world. It was tantamount to colonialism, in an age that should know better. And it was wrong for sport, which is a different beast from business.

Like most World Cups, this one has been a watershed. It has marked the end of an era for most of the leading international coaches, some of the captains, and at least two great players - Glenn McGrath and Brian Lara. You could argue that it is now bigger as a watershed than it is as an event.

The game is losing many good people, and not losing some less good ones. The hope that they will consider their positions is probably a forlorn one. But they absolutely must rethink their approach.

It was hardly Australia's fault they reached such heights that no team came within touching distance © AFP

Sambit Bal

It was entirely appropriate that a sorry tournament should have a sorry end, though it must be said that the embarrassment in the final moments far exceeded anything that preceded it. That the magnificent Australians were reduced to pleading for some positive coverage for themselves was a reflection of the pathetic depths this tournament had slumped to. But even they knew it was futile: even their towering, majestic and wholesome performance could not rise above the shambles.

In a sense they contributed, though in an entirely different and positive way, to the hollowness of this World Cup. But it was hardly their fault they reached such heights that no team came within touching distance. They dominated the tournament like no team has ever done in the history of cricket, and had it not been for the disgraceful finish, they would even have been entitled to two victory celebrations. They were almost twice as good as their opponents.

Sri Lanka, their closest competitors in the one-day arena, kept apace with them for about 20 overs in their first-round match, and for a few overs today, Kumar Sangakkara, and to a lesser extent, Sanath Jayasuriya were able to match them with their skills. But over the whole length of the tournament, they were overwhelmingly awesome. It could have been hardly imaginable that they could better their performance of 2003, when they didn't lose a game. But they have, and in doing so, they have set new limits for execution of cricket skills.

The organisers have done exactly the same. It was thought nothing could get worse than the World Cup in South Africa, which felt interminable, tiresome and stifling. The ICC has succeeded in dragging the level even lower. They have brought the World Cup to the most joyous and spontaneous part of the cricket world and squeezed every ounce of enjoyment out of it. Since they measure success in terms of cash, it has been bragged that the tournament has broken records in cash receipts, but in all other ways, it has been an abysmal failure.

Such has been the level of alienation among the passionate fans here that many locals have come to view the ICC's organisation of the tournament as occupation of their land. Cricket lover after cricket lover has lamented the pricing and the fact that "they have taken the party, the culture out of our stands".

It can be argued the tournament has been conducted in an efficient manner. The grounds have been spruced up, the players have been looked after well, and from a media point of view the facilities have been excellent. But they have failed to grasp the priorities. Perfection has been achieved in the most trivial things. Not a can of Coke has entered the stadiums, fans have been asked to turn their garments carrying offending logos inside out or face eviction, but they failed to feel the pulse of the cricket fan, a far more significant "stakeholder" in cricket than the sponsors.

Herschelle Gibbs' six sixes in an over were a highlight for South Africa, but they couldn't make it to the final © AFP

Percy Sonn and Malcolm Speed, the top-level ICC officials, were booed at the presentation ceremony. The contrast couldn't have been sharper because the same crowd gave a thumping ovation to Garry Sobers and Everton Weekes moments later. When hosts are booed at their own party, you know how much it has soured. Administrators who feel no kinship for sport will never find affection from its supporters. Entirely fittingly, it was Sonn who presented the trophy to the winner, for it was his prerogative as the president of the ICC. Sobers is merely the greatest cricketer that ever lived.

Of course, the players were not blameless. Many teams played soulless, spiritless cricket. And it didn't help that India and Pakistan, two of the tournament's biggest draws, combusted before the party began. Ironically, Bangladesh and Ireland, the teams that provided the most exciting days in the first round, also doomed the Super Eights to a series of meaningless matches.

But they could hardly be faulted when teams worthier than them featured in equal mismatches. England were an embarrassment before South Africa, who capitulated even more abysmally before Australia. West Indies lost horribly to South Africa and New Zealand even more horribly to Sri Lanka. Matches went from bad to worse at such pace that in the end no expectations remained. It was a tournament in which journalists spent more time focusing on the poor performances than celebrating stirring ones.

Good moments were scarce. There was Tamin Iqbal's sensational charge against India, Boyd Rankin's energetic bowling against Pakistan, Herschelle Gibbs' six sixes, Muttiah Muralitharan's magical spell against India, Lasith Malinga's sensational four-in-four, AB de Villier's turbo-charged hitting on one leg against West Indies, Mahela Jayawardene's sublime hundred against New Zealand in the semi-final, and ultimately, Adam Gilchrist's demolition of Sri Lanka in the final. Too few for a tournament lasting 46 days. One thing that might emerge from this is a shorter event, but it may be for the wrong reasons. Sponsors and television channels can't afford to lose India early. So expect the format to be tweaked to ensure India's presence at the business end.

In the end, it will be a tournament that will be remembered for the bad, ugly and terrible. A horrible death, under-performances, resignations, sackings, and retirements kept us busy. The legacy of this vast and meaningless World Cup will be despair and emptiness. It couldn't have ended sooner.

Ricky Ponting and Mahela Jayawardene speak to the umpires about the chaotic scenes at the end of the final © Getty Images

Andrew Miller

How many ICC officials does it take to change a lightbulb? At least a committee of five, none of whom will have read the instruction manual, but each of whom will have a louder and more forthright opinion than the other about how best to do it. If that reads like the start of a bad joke, then it is nothing compared to its ending. Somehow a team of four of the most experienced officials in the game, plus a former Test captain in Jeff Crowe, managed to grab hold of the most luminous event in the world cricket calendar, and fumble so hopelessly that they ended up fusing the entire building.

Time is a healer, and come daybreak (when lightbulbs are no longer needed), those who witnessed the conclusion to the 2007 World Cup final may be able to compartmentalise the incompetence and remember instead the stunning totality of both Adam Gilchrist's innings and Australia's surging campaign. But there are only so many embarrassments that a game and those who love it can forgive, and this latest cock-up could not have come at a worse time for the world sport.

The world of cricket is drowning in over-zealous officialdom. That has been a theme of this entire Caribbean experience, with the joie de vivre of the region gagged and bound in mountains of ICC-sanctioned red tape. The World Cup final, a match-up between the two best sides in the tournament, was an opportunity for last-minute redemption. Nobody, unfortunately, told the loudmouth officials who think that they (and not the players) are the star attraction, and instead the occasion became cause for further ridicule.

Ricky Ponting simply could not believe what he was hearing when umpire Aleem Dar strode up to him and his cavorting team-mates, after play had been suspended at the end of the 33rd over of Sri Lanka's run-chase, and tapped the huddle on the collective shoulder. "I thought he was having a joke to stop our celebrations," he said, having heard Dar declare - erroneously as it turned out - that the game still had three overs to go. "We stopped and looked at him and I said, 'Look mate, we've played the 20 overs, we've finished the game.'"

There once was a time when the agreement of two on-field captains would have been quite sufficient to allow common sense to prevail in a game of cricket. Mahela Jayawardene, Ponting's opposite number, also believed that the game was up but, as a gesture of goodwill, he agreed to play pat-ball with Australia's spinners in near-darkness, just so as to avoid having to return the following morning. "Before we went back out to the middle, I tried to explain to the third umpire, but he had already made his decision," said Jayawardene, accurately spelling out the provisions of the Duckworth-Lewis method, which requires the chasing team to have batted 20 overs before a result can be declared.

That third umpire, incidentally, was Rudi Koertzen, onto whom the buck was subtly but unequivocally passed by Crowe. "He's the one who has the rule-book and makes the calculations and allowances, and was talking about tomorrow. But it's not Rudi's mistake, it was a collective mistake. The fact that Rudi suggested it doesn't mean the others couldn't have overruled him."

	Sri Lanka had to contend with rain and bad light interruptions © Getty Images

How do you over-rule an over-bearing umpire, however? This is the third high-profile occasion in the last two years when the thrill of a cricketing contest has been secondary to the demands of the rule-book. The last two occasions both occurred at The Oval in London - in 2006 when Darrell Hair's ego ran amok amid the ball-tampering fiasco, and in 2005, when the greatest Ashes series in modern times ended with a similarly daft delay for bad light and, ultimately, the symbolic (but excessively showy) removal of the bails by Billy Bowden and, you guessed it, Koertzen.

"Sometimes you get a stronger voice which says 'I know the rules - this is how it works'," added Crowe, giving a candid insight into the sort of high-level squabbling that goes on behind closed doors in the umpire's room. "Then you get a bit of confusion in the group itself, and no-one wants to overrule the other. But the match referee should have known and said 'that's not right - the game should be completed now'."

But the match referee did not know, and to those who have watched them in action over the past few years will not be remotely surprised. Mike Procter was the man who singularly failed to calm the chaos during the Darrell Hair crisis last year, as the stand-off escalated to boardroom level almost before anyone had worked out what had happened. This time Crowe, despite being the manager of the loftily titled "Playing Control Team", proved himself to be equally useless. Asked if this was a resignation issue, he replied: "I'll have to ask my superiors". Does the buck ever stop anywhere in the ICC's maze of power?

The sad truth is that the increasing corporatisation of the game has robbed it of spontaneity at every level, so much so that even the game's oldest foe, the weather, is no longer capable of making an appearance without tying the administrators in knots. After a three-hour delay in the morning, the hustle to ensure that the contest was both completed in one day and was of a length that befitted such a showpiece occasion meant that too many overs were shoehorned into too short a timespan.

But the most idiotic utterance of the day came from Crowe, as he tried to explain the difference between a rain-delay and a bad-light delay. "When light is used in the calculations of a day's play, it doesn't necessarily mean it is the end of a day's play," he declared, a statement that was Canute-esque in its defiance of the laws of nature. Every cricketer on the planet, from the kids on the Mumbai maidans to the captains in the World Cup final, knows that when it is too dark to see, it is too late to hope that the moon might suddenly provide some extra wattage.

How many ICC officials does it take to change a lightbulb? Don't ask. The answer's not actually very funny.

Leading man: Ramnaresh Sarwan's first task as captain should be to pick the squad for the tour of England © Getty Images

Vaneisa Baksh

The unsurprising news that Ramnaresh Sarwan will captain West Indies and lead the team to England has come out of a West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) meeting. If all goes as the WICB stated, Sarwan's first task will be to join the selectors on Tuesday to pick the team. It may be his easiest duty as the once coveted role has become so embroiled in intrigue and muck that its holder is now seen as a suicide cricketer.

The tour to England may seem to be on tenuous grounds given the fact that contract negotiations between the WICB and the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA) have again been placed in the hands of an arbitration panel, led by the chief justice of Barbados, Sir David Simmons. But for jaded onlookers, the situation is such a familiar one with such a familiar outcome that nobody seriously doubts the tour will be scrapped. Uncertainty prevails, however, about whether there will be a new coach or even a physical trainer in that time.

A major problem within the team has been its internal relations, its indiscipline and its unwillingness to train and maintain fitness programmes. Granted, it is not an easy problem to uproot, but it requires an intervention that explicitly communicates intent.

When Brian Lara announced his retirement, two names were immediately tossed out as his successor: Sarwan and Daren Ganga. Both have led their national teams with success, both are good cricketers, though one has a better record, and both have completely different approaches to the game.

Ganga's leadership has been about instilling discipline and nurturing a good work ethic. Sarwan considers himself a gambler who is willing to take risks. But Sarwan has become a senior member of this team of skylarkers, has been obviously part of the embedded culture, and despite his best intentions, cannot impose a new and unwelcome ethic. He may have the most attractive playing record at this stage, but Lara's was more impressive and that didn't do the trick.

In selecting the squad for the World Cup, the WICB omitted Ganga, despite his recent good form, and it struck me then as it does now. What a complete and utter rejection it was of all the qualities of leadership that Ganga represented. It was probably just as well that they left him out, because he might just have been seen as a party pooper.

Batsmen and rivals: Sarwan beat Daren Ganga in the race to replace Brian Lara © AFP

Ganga, at 28, brings a decidedly more mature approach than Sarwan, who will turn 27 in June. Not that age is the decider, but their temperaments and experiences have been starkly different. Ganga has been bumped in and out of the West Indies team, sometimes inexplicably, but he has been stoic and resilient and has always tried to work out his problems, though it has affected his confidence.

Sarwan has breezed through his career based on his obvious talent. When he shines, he is dazzling, but he is belligerent towards criticism and stubbornly refuses to amend flaws in his technique. He is supercharged with confidence, which can be a good thing, and he will probably be a forthright captain (though that might be a contractual no-no).

In 2002, I interviewed him and one of the elements of the conversation that has returned to me several times during the intervening years was that he repeatedly insisted that nothing had changed in him since he was 15 or 16. "I've been the same way," he said, more than once, and watching him since I could see the truth of the statement.

I also asked him what he thought were the qualities of a good captain. His response was immediate, suggesting he'd already worked it out. "One, he should know how to speak," he said. "He should be cool in situations, he should know when to make a decision, and he must be a gambler. He should be a gambler. And he must have cricket knowledge as well."

They were all qualities he felt he had then, and if now, under these oppressive and complex circumstances he thinks he is up for the challenge, one hopes that he understands it takes other things as well.

Osman Samiuddin looks at the coaching clearout which has followed the World Cup and examines the prospects for the old, the new and the unknown

Greg Chappell: the first coach to stand down after India's exit © Getty Images

India

Inbox: The new man will have to gel with skipper Rahul Dravid, yet take the other players who had distanced themselves from captain and coach along as well. A number of senior stars will near a natural end under the new coach and handling that will require the touch of a diplomat. Dealing with strong-minded underperformers like Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh will not be easy either. The most difficult assignment it may not be (see across the border, or below) but none brings greater pressure.

Contenders: That Dav Whatmore is keen on the job is no secret. He is also the likeliest contender and subcontinent experience is a handy advantage. A John Wright return won't be ruled out until he says no: have feelers been sent out? Locals such as Mohinder Amarnath, Sandeep Patil and even Sunil Gavaskar will also be in the running.

Pakistan

Inbox: The new coach has a new young captain to work with and much on his plate: senior players will need soothing, the issue of religion will have to be tread around delicately and WADA may still have something to say about two key players. Factor in the general madness of Pakistan cricket and it is the most difficult, and least desirable, job in world cricket at the moment.

Contenders: John Wright was contacted last year but nothing concrete emerged from it. Though he hasn't ruled out a coaching job, sources close to Wright told Cricinfo that no offer had been made. Tim Boon, of Leicestershire, has also been mentioned but if the PCB go local, then Aaqib Javed is first choice. Wasim Akram, about to help out local fast bowlers in Lahore, is the wildest wildcard.

Bangladesh

Inbox: The new man walks into one of the more exciting jobs. Underpinned by an Australian blueprint for success, Bangladesh cricket is currently abuzz, an academy delivering talent proper to the national team in a country in which the game's popularity is growing still.

Contenders: Few official noises have been made as Whatmore will stay till the India series in May to give the board time to find a replacement. Somewhere, the name of Allan Donald has cropped up though. And even, believe it or not, Nasser Hussain.

Sri Lanka:

Inbox: Walking into the most exciting job in world cricket. There is a lovely balance between the old legs and new ones, the captain himself is beautifully poised in between and the team appears on the verge of big things. The board, though, is as crazy as they come in the subcontinent.

Contenders: Moody's departure is not inked in just yet, but a move to Western Australia, according to some, is all but settled. And he was a frontrunner for India two years ago and Australia recently.

West Indies

Inbox: Given that King wasn't a popular choice among locals, a foreign appointment would have that to deal with that resentment first. There is also the small matter of answering the toughest question in cricket: How on earth do you reverse Caribbean cricketing fortunes? A legend light and a new captain to work with may or may not help.

Contenders: Likely to be a local this time round and Roger Harper, currently with Kenya, might be lured away by the lustre of a big job at home.

New men at the helm

Australia

Inbox: Tim Nielsen is a system pick through and through, safe and credible. More skills-based and hands-on than his predecessor, but Buchanan remains a mentor. Has played more first-class cricket too, which will probably earn him some more respect.

Prospects: After the West Indies, this must be the toughest question: How does one of the greatest teams of all time get better? He will have to deal quickly with the retirements of a number of geniuses, though as the World Cup has revealed, they appear to have a replacement ready in every position.

Peter Moores: another safe, system pick, © Getty Images

England

Inbox: Peter Moores's was a swift appointment, though David Morgan calling it an 'emergency' choice seems plain rude. Another safe, system pick, though in nearly all of his previous appointments and incarnations, he has produced results.

Prospects: Following on from arguably the best coach England has ever had is every bit as difficult as it sounds. He has some work on his hands, with an ODI overhaul and a major Test rekindling for starters. And helping Steve Harmison and Marcus Trescothick get their groove back might not be a bad idea either.

Netherlands

Inbox: Paul-Jan Bakker's appointment carries on that trend, as Netherlands cannot afford to pay a higher-profile coach. The team is in transition and the next two years will show which way they are going.

Prospects: Like all Associates, Netherlands are battling with being amateurs in a professional world. A small player base and finite commercial opportunities means that Bakker will do well to tread water.

Steady as she goes

Mickey Arthur: could end 2007 as the senior coach in world cricket © Getty Images

New Zealand

South Africa

Zimbabwe

Kenya

Glenn McGrath collected 3 for 14 in his opening spell and dropped South Africa to 27 for 5 © Getty Images

Rahul Bhattacharya

St Lucia is a delightful island of Caribbean vibes. At night the liming strip in Rodney Bay has come alive for comers from all over the world. Beres Hammond, Sean Paul and David Rudder have performed. Shaggy and Maxi Priest will tonight. But Lucians don't much talk about cricket - or listen to it, as Tuesday's Jamaica semi-final did not come over the radio. There has never been a Test cricketer out of here and the few locals who were at Beausejour will not have been bowled over by what they saw.

This was a less than rousing affair. The trouble with Australian professionalism is that it has become such a cliché that even watching it at its calibrated best can be numbing. Glory be flaws.

Yet, with a little filter of nostalgia even these hours of unremitting lopsided excellence are able to take on some warmth. To watch the chuntering maestro Glenn McGrath at work was to see an entire era of wicket-to-wicket back-of-length menace flash before the eyes, the eternal hypnotic torture of it. We will get to see it once more on Saturday. Once more only.

Few cricketers have been at once so level as McGrath and yet able to find another one. In an over, in a spell, in a day, in a series, in a season, he seems always to be operating at his peak. Still he is continually rising to occasions. Remember his ball to Sachin at the '99 World Cup? The one to Lara?

Admittedly Ashwell Prince played the stroke of a paralysed man and Jacques Kallis' foolishness brought the best out of a fine yorker. The touch of the master was in the Mark Boucher dismissal. It was the classic McGrath incision, Halal if you will. Off stump and just outside, a bit of wobble and bounce, caught first slip. Equally McGrathian was the impact: big semi-final, opening spell, six overs, 3 for 14, South Africa 27 for 5. The man is two months after 37. He looks it too. Australians were asking for him to be put to pasture before the World Cup. There you go.

"The fact that I'm going to retire is probably one of the reasons I'm bowling so well," he said, "because I'm just going out there, trying to enjoy it, make the most of it, make the most of every game I play. There's no pressure, no fear, no anything.

"I've probably bowled a little differently this tournament. Probably bowled a little more aggressively than I have done in the past. That's the reason I've got a few more wickets, I've probably gone for a few more runs than I normally do. It's worked out with 25 wickets; Tait has 23 wickets, Brad Hogg has 20 and Bracks [Nathan Bracken] is doing well too. The fact that we've bowled every team out is a huge lift for us, bar Bangladesh who we only got 20 overs with."

Those last two sentences draw out an essence of the McGrath personality. To observe him at a press conference is to appreciate that his renowned trick of knowing each one of his dismissals cannot be idle exaggeration.

Mark Boucher's dismissal was classic McGrath: off stump and just outside, a bit of wobble and bounce, caught first slip © Getty Images

There was something like the Dustin Hoffman character in Rain Man about the scene at the dais. Every time Ponting needed a figure, he'd look to McGrath, who would oblige.
Sometimes he did not need to ask. When Ponting said Australia had done well to restrict Sri Lanka to 226 in 50 overs the other day, McGrath intervened to say that they had in fact bowled them out (they had, in 49.4 overs). When Ponting mentioned Shaun Tait had done very well to get 22 wickets in the tournament, McGrath interrupted to say that it was in fact 23. When a journalist asked him about his four Man-of-the-Match awards in the tournament, he quipped: "Hopefully if it's four it will mean we've won the final. I've only really got three."

"They talk about batsmen batting in partnerships," McGrath said, "I think it's even more so with bowlers. With Nathan Bracken and Shaun Tait bowling the way they are, Punter asks me to come on generally with one or two wickets down. Bracks always keeps it tight, puts batsmen under pressure, and the way Taity's been bowling they just want to get down to the other end and face me!

"We're all different bowlers but complement each other. You've got an old bloke running in and hitting the deck top of off, Bracks swinging it up front and then he's back with old ball at the end, Taity who can come in and just blast guys out, and Hoggy has had an exceptional tour, he played a big part in 2003 and is again now. And you've got guys like Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson dying to get out for a game, and Brett Lee is at home."

There was pride in the words of the oldie. With the departure of McGrath, shortly after Shane Warne, an epoch in cricket will have been completed. Expertly, precisely, and more humorously than given credit, the job has been done. McGrath leaves Australian cricket in a better shape than he found it in and Australia, as ever, are ready to make the most of it.

by Andrew Miller

Sri Lanka failed to build on the excellent recovery of Mahela Jayawardene and Chamara Silva © AFP

Only an ambush will be able to stop Australia. That's the consensus after a bizarre and deliberately staged mismatch between the team most tipped to win the World Cup and their nearest - yet still distant - challenger. After Stephen Fleming last week managed the pace of New Zealand's defeat against Sri Lanka in a bid to enhance their longevity in the competition, this time it was the Sri Lankans who indulged in a bit of by-play. Knock-out time is nearing, but the pretenders to Australia's title are still wheeling around the favourite, ducking and bobbing and striving for the merest hint of an opening.

Sri Lanka's captain, Mahela Jayawardene, tried to deny that his key bowlers, Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas, (and the injured Lasith Malinga) had been rested for tactical reasons, but nobody truly believed his protestations. When you set a trap for a beast as big, powerful and terrifying as the Australians, timing is everything. To have sprung a major surprise in a game as meaningless as this encounter had become would have been a criminal waste of their energies.

Forget all the talk of victories building momentum and other such clichéd interpretations. Ricky Ponting's Australians are so crushingly focused that a defeat would have been like a ricochet off a rhino's hide. Australia would have stored up the indignity, redirected their fury, and doubtless entered the semi-finals even more determined to crush all resistance. One look at Ponting's thousand-yard stare tells you that much.

"To tell you the truth it doesn't worry me one little bit," he said, having long since dispensed with the platitudes in press conferences. "They obviously had some you-beaut plan going into the game, to rest a couple of the best players, but that's fine with us. We'll take a comprehensive win against Sri Lanka this close to the finals.

"I don't know their reasons and I don't care. It's out of our control. We put our best team on the park to win the game and we clearly finished on top which is great. If they want to make it through and win the World Cup they are more than likely going to have to play us again at some stage. They've got to bounce back from what we've done to them, but that's for them to worry about, not us."

Sri Lanka will face all sorts of accusations in the coming days of bringing the game into disrepute and of devaluing the World Cup with their tactics. But if the shielding of their star bowlers pays any sort of dividends come the business end of the competition, then hindsight will not only forgive them but thank them as well. Australia, for the eighth match running, learned little of relevance about their opponents, and once again, their former world No. 1 batsman, Michael Hussey, was left to fester in the pavilion. His event has stalled at a mere 50 runs from 72 balls faced.

They managed to get our score pretty easily and our bowlers didn't look that penetrative, but I don't think they bowled particularly well either Mahela Jayawardene

"It must have been a fairly frustrating tournament for him," Ponting said in a statement that contained the only glimmer of compassion he was willing to emit all day. "The top-order guys have done the job, but there is going to be a time in this tournament when Andrew Symonds, Hussey and maybe Brad Hodge are going to have to do some very important batting for us." Sri Lanka are determined that that moment should come in the final in 12 days.

For that to happen, however, they will need to raise their game to levels higher than their second-string managed, and it was a serious concern for Jayawardene that his batsmen folded quite as readily as they did on a fairly blameless pitch. Ponting would have batted first had he won the toss, and so for Sri Lanka to be all out for 226, with a collapse of 5 for 17 undermining their recovery from early setbacks, was not the message that Jayawardene had hoped to send out.

"We know we can compete but we are disappointed with the way we played today," Jayawardene said. "We made a lot of mistakes and when you do that against a quality side they will definitely punish you. Yes, they managed to get our score pretty easily and our bowlers didn't look that penetrative, but I don't think they bowled particularly well either, given the conditions."

A total of 250 might have turned this into a contest, but Nathan Bracken pulled Sri Lanka's strings in an exemplary four-wicket stint, and Shaun Tait bounced back from a scattergun first spell to take two crucial wickets with his out-and-out hostility. "Every game we've tried to make a bit of a statement and we've done it again," Ponting said. "The only team we haven't bowled out is Bangladesh and that was over 22 overs."

Time to retire for Sachin Tendulkar? Ian Chappell thinks so © Getty Images

Ian Chappell

In the fallout from India's early demise at the World Cup one of the major decisions will concern the future of Sachin Tendulkar.

Before anybody else makes a decision on what will happen to Tendulkar the player himself has to have a good long look in the mirror and decide what he's trying to achieve in the game. At the moment he looks like a player trying to eke out a career; build on a glittering array of statistics. If he really is playing for that reason and not to help win as many matches as he can for India then he is wasting his time and should retire immediately.

When you think that for a decade Brian Lara and Tendulkar went head to head in a wonderful battle of stroke play to establish who was the best batsman in the world, they are now worlds apart in effectiveness.

Lara's quick-footed tip toe through a terrific innings against a good Australian bowling attack when the rest of the West Indies top order succumbed easily was in direct contrast to Tendulkar's stumbling effort in the crucial Sri Lanka match. The amazing thing about Lara's brilliant career is the fact that he hasn't changed his style at all over seventeen years. This is a credit to his technique and mental strength, as the aging process generally makes a player more progressively conservative.

Tendulkar hasn't worn as well; his last three or four years have been a shadow of his former self. His double century at the SCG in January 2004 was a classic case of a great player really struggling. He came to the crease out of form and despite amassing all those runs and batting for in excess of ten hours he was no closer to recapturing his best touch than he was when he started out. It was a tribute to his determination but it was a sad sight to see; there are enough average players around that you don't won't to see a class one reduced to that level.

Tendulkar hasn't been as lucky as Lara; the Indian batsman has suffered a lot of injuries in this period where his play has deteriorated and there is nothing that melts your mental approach quicker than physical handicaps. Lara has been relatively free from injury and he certainly doesn't have the weight of numbers riding on his shoulders that Tendulkar does.

However, the population of the Caribbean might be small but they are extremely demanding. Despite all the fuss and the odd controversy that has surrounded Lara's career he has remained himself; this is my game and that is how I play. For whatever reason Tendulkar hasn't been able to maintain his extremely high standards for the last few years and unless he can find a way to recapture this mental approach he's not doing his team or himself any favours.

If Tendulkar had found an honest mirror three years ago and asked the question; "Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the best batsman of all?" It would've answered; "Brian Charles Lara." If he asked that same mirror right now; "Mirror, mirror on the wall should I retire?" The answer would be; "Yes."

	'Sri Lanka's 11 men came in with a plan an executed it efficiently. They had already made it to the Super 8's but, going by their attitude one would have thought they were on the brink of elimination' © AFP

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan

The magnitude of this match, it was said, could have rivalled a World Cup final. The tournament could ill afford India, cricket's cash cow, to crash out so early. Some reckoned there was so much at stake that India, which contributes close to two thirds of the game's revenues, would remain in the competition, even if it involved arm-twisting behind the scenes.

Where these arguments come apart is that they go against the unique power of sport, in embracing passion and fervour, to transcend such petty issues as money power. The advertisement hoardings at the Queen's Park Oval, or for that matter any ground in the world, may have endorsed Indian brands but it was always the effort of the 11 men that would ultimately count. Sri Lanka's 11 men came in with a plan and, crucially, executed it efficiently. They had already made it to the Super 8's but, going by their attitude, energy and desire, one would have thought they were on the brink of elimination.

India weren't outclassed for two-thirds of the match, as they were on this day four years ago when Ricky Ponting trampled them with sheer class in what was a World Cup final. For a clear understanding of the rhythm of this match, one will have to probably rewind a little earlier to the never-to-be-forgotten India-Pakistan clash at
Centurion. The first innings was played out on an elastic band and every time one team nudged ahead, the other came back to restore parity. For a steady hundred from Saeed Anwar, you had plucky half-centuries from Upul Tharanga and Chamara Silva; for Younis Khan's urgent 32, you had a busy 38 from Tillakaratne Dilshan; for Pakistan's 273, you had Sri Lanka's 254.

There the similarities end. Such games need an enforcer, someone who can overcome the strong forces of tension, impose himself on the big stage and steer the match in one direction. At Centurion, that man was Sachin Tendulkar; on Friday, it was Muttiah Muralitharan. It's one of the hardest roles to play, one that requires a touch of genius, but it's for that reason alone that these players are special. Today Tendulkar couldn't play that role - one can argue that he received a very good ball but the fact is he couldn't. Sourav Ganguly couldn't, Rahul Dravid couldn't. They weren't allowed to.

Sri Lanka's recent record against India is nothing short of woeful (winning just two of the last ten completed games) but on the day it mattered, they were on the ball. Chaminda Vaas taunted - his reflex caught-and-bowled off Robin Uthappa was exactly the early inspiration that Sri Lanka needed - before Dilhara Fernando, a late replacement, and Lasith Malinga hustled. Sri Lanka possess the most varied attack in the tournament - the hard graft from Vaas and Sanath Jayasuriya combining explosively with the exotic offerings from Malinga and Murali. India were
bogged down by Vaas and pegged back by Fernando before Murali arrived, went round the wicket, unveiled offspinners, topspinners and doosras, made them spin at vicious angles, and took centrestage.

For Dravid, a nightmare was played out in front of him. Yuvraj Singh's run-out encapsulated India's panicky state and Mahendra Singh Dhoni's attempted slash simply left him pale-faced. Sehwag's dismissal was probably the most crucial - he was batting more confidently than he's done in recent memory and should have made the start count - but he too was mired by the Murali menace.

Dravid watched in shock as partners came and left before deciding, with the run-rate soaring, to go for broke. The four successive fours he crashed off Malinga stemmed from frustration, anger and hopelessness. He'd taken over a side and harboured hopes of turning them into hard-as-nails professionals; he'd ended with a most ignominious World Cup elimination.

Several questions need to be asked, including serious ones of Dravid and coach Greg Chappell, but the most galling aspect is that there doesn't seem to be any long-term vision, any honest appraisals. Indian cricket needs a massive overhaul (if a first-round exit doesn't instigate it,
nothing will) but the fact that it's unlikely to happen is even more disturbing. It's not the Indian board's motto yet, but as someone once famously said, "Money can't buy happiness but it can give you the kind of misery with which you can live comfortably."

by Sambit Bal

'If a game starts taking lives, there is something sickeningly wrong with it' © Getty Images

We don't yet know for sure why or how Bob Woolmer died. We shouldn't rush to judgment; it is still possible that it was an accident. It is equally possible he was murdered. And, while conspiracy theorists are working overtime on the motives, it is also quite possible that we will never know the full truth.

And in the event of this not being an accident, it is quite likely that Woolmer was a victim of cricket's seamier side. Either it was the stress, induced by the most obscene and blind expectations of cricket fans who brook no failure, or he was killed by people who felt let down or had something to fear.

Either way, it should serve as a wake-up call to those who run cricket, and those who profess passion for it. If a game starts taking lives, there is something sickeningly wrong with it. But this is not really about Woolmer. We didn't need someone to die to awaken us to a problem. The signs have always been there, it's just that most of us have found it expedient to ignore them. Commodification has been chipping away at the soul of cricket for years, and now the game is the danger of losing its head.

Take the current predicament of this World Cup as an example. The major stake-holders in the tournament - the television channels and major sponsors - risk losing millions, either in cash or kind, if India go out in the first round. They are not the number one team in the world by a mile. Not even number two. They are ranked sixth in the ICC team ratings and, while that might not always be the best indicator of a team's worth, they have not won a competition of note outside the subcontinent since 1985. Yet the fate of the World Cup rides on them. It's a disaster waiting to happen.

Cricket has acquired a dangerous obsession with money, to the extent where it is not a question of a game needing the money to survive or grow but making as much as possible at any cost.

The reason for this is not hard to comprehend. Cricket has acquired a dangerous obsession with money, to the extent where it is not a question of a game needing the money to survive or grow but making as much as possible at any cost. Players have been ground to dust and cricket, the one-day variety in particular, has been divested of any meaning and consequence. It would seem that the administrators have learnt very little from the match-fixing scandal, which was as much a result of greed as of a surfeit of matches that meant little to the players.

Meanwhile, the Indian administrators have managed to market a massive captive television audience to acquire financial muscle that relies little on the capabilities of the national team. As a result the cricket economy has gone ahead of the game, which is struggling to catch up.

It's an economy that relies more on projection and hype than reality. SetMax, the entertainment channel owned by Sony, paid nearly 40 % of the total cost of the ICC rights in the hope of recouping it from advertisers. Luckily for them, India made it to the final of the last World Cup and one Champions Trophy. But that was clearly not enough and Sony didn't even bother to bid for the next set of rights, which have been won by ESPN-Star for US $1.1 billion.

ESPN-Star is a joint venture between Disney and NewsCorp, but there is little doubt which television audience they are banking on. It is an unhealthy dependence. So much should never depend on the performance of one team. Apart from putting unfair pressure on the players, it leaves the cricket economy dangerously imbalanced and prone to huge risks.

The passion of the fans is the biggest strength of cricket in the sub-continent - but it is also its weakness, particularly in case of India and Pakistan. Sri Lankan fans are far more stoic about their team's fortunes and far more accepting of failure, whereas in Bangladesh they are grateful for every little or big victory, be that of the team or individual. But in India and Pakistan, the passion borders on frenzy.

As an Indian, I would like India to win the World Cup. But it might not be such a bad thing for cricket if they were to be knocked out in the first round

In India it is brazenly and cynically fueled by an increasingly sensationalist and populist mass media, which treats cricket as one of the biggest baits to attract advertisers. Instead of providing perspective and being the voice of reason, the media feeds the frenzy and cashes in on it. Stars are built up and decimated. Exaggerated glorification is matched by proportionate vilification. So cricketers are either to be worshipped or denigrated. There isn't a middle ground, a measure of reality, or a sense of proportion.

The reality is that India reaching the World Cup final would be an overachievement. Australia and South Africa possess superior teams, New Zealand have more balance and depth and Sri Lanka are the most improved team in world cricket. India have proven, but ageing, batsmen, a bowling attack that's susceptible to pressure and poor fielders. To be a fan is to dream. But to many Indian fans the dream is the reality.

Nationalism is the bedrock of cricket. But you can't call yourself a true fan if the sight of 17-year old Tamim Iqbal charging down pitch to belt Indian quick bowlers brought you no thrill. Yes, India played below themselves, but every cricket match has a winner. To be unable to comprehend, and appreciate, this runs against the spirit of the game.

Yes, India not making past the first round would be a huge setback. But it would be accorded the status of a national calamity. It will be discussed in Parliament. Television channels will conduct inquests. Effigies will be burnt, cricketers' homes will be attacked, and these will be gleefully publicised. A couple of months ago, Greg Chappell was slapped on the back by a man in Bhubaneswar seeking his fifteen seconds of fame. He was obliged. It could get worse. Someone could get killed. Perhaps someone has already been killed.

As an Indian, I would like India to win the World Cup. But it might not be such a bad thing for cricket if they were to be knocked out in the first round. Cricket needs a reality check. It has an unhealthy, and unsustainable, business model that relies primarily on an increasingly delusional and one-dimensional fan-base. The bubble has to burst for a semblance of sanity to be restored. We must learn to once again enjoy cricket as a game.

Woolmer didn't just embrace innovation, he made it the norm © Cricinfo Ltd

Tim de Lisle

The last time the cricket world saw Bob Woolmer was in the closing minutes of Pakistan's game with Ireland on Saturday. Triumph and disaster, Kipling's twin impostors, were hovering over Sabina Park like a pair of blimps. One set of supporters was already having a ball, dancing and hooting and laughing. Some members of the other set were shortly to go out on the streets back home, chanting murderous slogans. The camera kept going to Bob, watching as Ireland inched to their target. His face was glum, motionless, quite unlike him. Then the game ended, the Irish jigs reached the middle, and the camera found Bob again. He was packing away his laptop. That was more like him.

These days, you often see players and coaches sitting at computers but the idea is relatively new and it was Bob Woolmer who pioneered it. He was the first laptop coach. He didn't just embrace innovation, he made it the norm. After his creativity turned South Africa into the world's second-best team in 1994-99, Australia and England both hired coaches who were thinkers rather than ex-doers. Later, West Indies and of course Pakistan followed suit. Coaching is now recognised as a skill in its own right, quite separate from playing.

Bob's laptop was used to enlighten fans as well as players. He leapt onto the web, launching his own website and blogging on Cricinfo
, and he used email to keep in touch with his many friends. If you mailed him, you always got an answer, however busy he was, and it always ended "kind regards, Bob". He was both a citizen of the cricket world and an English gentleman.

In fact, he was the only major international coach English cricket has produced. As England has more teams and professionals than any other cricket country, it should produce the most coaching talent. But it doesn't. What did Bob have that many fine ex-players didn't?

Bob combined the precision of Ray Illingworth with the warmth of David Lloyd

The first key is in his playing career. In the obits, his playing years got rather crunched and a point was missed. He was a player who reinvented himself. He started with Kent as a swing-bowling allrounder, batting at nine. He saw potential in his own batting, but Kent didn't: they kept him down the order, often below Alan Knott, a gifted improviser but was never going to be a frontline batsman. To prove himself in the top five, Woolmer had to winter in Natal. His Test career followed the same pattern: first picked in July 1975 as a bowling allrounder, batting at eight, he was number five by August, when he made his epic 149 against Australia. By 1977, he was an Ashes-winning number three. Things went awry after that, but he had shown the ability to turn raw material into achievement.

The second key was his personality. If you ever saw him interviewed on television, you will have noticed his cheerful demeanour. Some cricket people are like that on screen and not off. Bob was just like that. It is said of the best players that they have more time. Offstage, they often don't: they are much in demand and can get spoilt by it. Bob always had time for people.

The third key was his attitude. He was tremendously open. "My philosophy," he used to say, "is that your mind is like a parachute - if it doesn't open, it won't work." For someone who had grown up in a county dressing-room in the 1970s, that was a radical point of view. If he sometimes erred on the side of novelty, as with the notorious earpieces, it was a refreshing change from all those leaning the other way.

The final key lay in his handling of people. He was gentle - Allan Donald even used the word "soft". Even when it emerged that Hansie Cronje had betrayed his own team, Bob was sympathetic. The man with "What Would Jesus Do" on his bracelet had done a Judas; the man who could have felt most betrayed managed to be forgiving, if not totally convincing to the more detached onlooker.

Bob combined the precision of Ray Illingworth with the warmth of David Lloyd. His cuddly silhouette was not misleading. In the Seventies, he was one of my favourite players, which can lead to disappointment if you eventually meet, but Bob simply became one of my favourite ex-players. At Wisden Cricket Monthly, I signed him up as an agony uncle for readers who were having trouble with their game. It never felt like talking to an old-timer. He didn't harp on about what happened in his day. As he said in the mantra on his homepage, 'Yesterday is history / Tomorrow is a mystery / Today is the present / A gift to make the most of'.

With a CV that encompassed Kent, Natal, England, Packer, Avondale, Boland, Kent again, Warwickshire, South Africa, several minnow nations and Pakistan, he was the most cosmopolitan of coaches. But, paradoxically, the World Cup was cruel to him. Picked for the England squad for the inaugural tournament in 1975, he broke a finger the day before it began. In 1999, his South African team endured the most agonising of near-misses, losing a tied semi-final to Australia on the strength of a 0.1 difference in run-rate. This time, in a World Cup designed to keep all the good teams in, Pakistan somehow stampeded for the exit. And then came the greatest cruelty of all. Woolmer himself, amenable as ever, said he would "sleep on" his future, and never woke up.

Whether the game did for Bob, we may never know. What Bob did for the game, happily, is not in doubt.

Doing it with style: Trent Johnston hit a six to dump Pakistan out of the World Cup © Getty Images

Dileep Premachandran

The son of James Joyce was instrumental in Ireland qualifying for this World Cup, with two centuries and two fifties in the 2005 ICC Trophy. And before the more literary among you get apoplectic, yes we do know that the man who wrote Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake passed away in January 1941. But by a happy quirk of fate, Edmund Christopher Joyce, Ed to his Irish and English team-mates, was also born to a James, and his 399 runs from five games were the focal point of a campaign in which the next highest scorer for Ireland was Trent Johnston with 183.

Joyce's heroics were proof that Ireland weren't just a team of journeyman pros imported from countries like Australia and South Africa. While the likes of Johnston, opener Jeremy Bray and South African allrounder Andrè Botha have all contributed to Irish cricket's dramatic rise through the associate ranks, Adrian Birrell, the coach, is keen to emphasise that 11 of the 15-man squad were born and bred in Ireland. "Ed was our best
player," he says. "And he now opens for England. So we don't just import talent, we're also exporting it (smiles)."

Under Birrell, who spent 16 years with Eastern Province in South Africa, the different elements have combined together quite beautifully. "When I took over, we were probably ranked 18th or 20th in the world," he says. "Now, we're arguably the strongest associate [nation]. And along the way, we've picked up some major scalps."

Victories over Zimbabwe in 2003 and a Surrey team with eight internationals in 2004 were followed by a defeat of West Indies (2005), their opponents in the final Group D game on Friday. And the disappointment of losing to Scotland in that 2005 ICC Trophy final was offset to some extent by their triumph in the Intercontinental Trophy, a competition in which they have reached the final again this year.

And it's not only the national side that's doing well. At the European Championships in 2006, Ireland were champions at all six age groups from Under-13 to seniors, and according to Birrell, "some of the young boys waiting in the wings are exceptionally good."

Irish cricket has history too. The old-timers still wax eloquent about Dougie Goodwin (5-6) and Alec O'Riordan (4-18), who routed a West Indian team for 25 on a damp pitch at the Sion Mills Ground, south of Londonderry. Over the years, the feat has lent itself to urban legend and the name of Sir Garfield Sobers crops up, but though he was captain on
that ill-fated tour in 1969, injury prevented him from crossing the Irish Sea. It was Basil Butcher that led a side which could also boast of a young Clive Lloyd and the 43-year-old Clyde Walcott.

Ed Joyce was instrumental in Ireland qualifying for this World Cup before England imported him © International Cricket Council

With that history of giant-killings in Irish cricket's past, Pakistan would have been wary last Saturday. But again, the conditions were to play a vital part in bridging the gulf in ability between the two sides. Though the pitch wasn't Sion Mills-damp, there was enough life in it to encourage the seam bowlers. And while both Dave Langford-Smith and the strapping Boyd Rankin were erratic, they produced the odd unplayable delivery.

Botha, with his experience of South African domestic cricket, did even better, exhibiting the mastery over line and length that was such a feature of South Africa's bowling in the Bob Woolmer-Hansie Cronje years. It was like watching Craig Matthews or Fanie de Villiers bowl, and even someone of the quality of Inzamam-ul-Haq was clueless as Botha bowled his eight overs for five runs and two wickets.

Over the course of an unforgettable St Patrick's Day, what we saw was a team where every individual appeared to raise his game, whether it was Johnston with that sensational catch to dismiss Kamran Akmal or Eoin Morgan with superb slip catches. William Porterfield rode his luck for a valuable 13, blocking up one end while the pint-sized Niall O'Brien went for his shots, and after a late wobble, Kevin O'Brien helped Johnston see
it home with a fighting knock.

The bald and affable Jeremy Bray had played his part in the tie against Zimbabwe, scoring a brilliant 115, while Kyle McCallan, the teacher who might now need to take some extra days off, got the fortunate touch that changed the course of a game that Zimbabwe seemed to be have in their grasp.

They may come unstuck against West Indies, but unless things go drastically wrong, there's a Super Eight date with England to look forward to in Guyana a week on Saturday. For James Joyce's son, there will certainly be mixed emotions.

What they say

"But for me the weekend - the whole winter, come to that - was lit up by the brothers O'Brien, that nerveless brace of freckled Celtic redheads who with such serenity and staunch skill at the crease dispatched Pakistan from cricket's World Cup. - Nobody tells it quite like Frank Keating in The Guardian

What the Irish say

"Our fielding is excellent, we have a long batting line-up and the bowling's very good when we get it right. But if you ask me what our greatest strength is, it's the team spirit." - Adrian Birrell talks about his side, and no, he wasn't referring to Guinness or Bushmills. At least, we think not.

Bob Woolmer lived by the theme 'Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, so concentrate on the now' © Getty Images

Osman Samiuddin

There are occasions when words, or anything else, are not enough. This is one of those occasions.

The last time I met Bob Woolmer was shortly before the team left for South Africa, over a seaside dinner, where, with a few other cricket tragics, we dissected the West Indies series, Pakistan openers, slip catching and South Africa. A dodgy stomach apart, he was much as I have known him over a couple of years.

Our first real interaction had been on Pakistan's tour to India at the beginning of 2005 where, in a Vishakapatnam hotel, we talked, with John Wright, about how to deal with erratic players like Shahid Afridi and Abdul Razzaq (the gist being it was more in the mind than in the body).

In October of that year, a rare bubbly time just before the England series that was to be the highlight of his tenure as Pakistan coach, we had our first prolonged interview. In a lengthy, frank chat in the afternoon Ramadan heat at the National Stadium in Karachi, he said as much on the record as he did off it and a rapport was immediately established. He had been a Wisden columnist and written regularly, which helped.

By then, a year into his job - a year of relative calm - he appeared keenly aware of the country's traditional volatility. He used one of his more prominent catchphrases then: 'Yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, so concentrate on the now,' and few axioms apply so aptly to Pakistan. He also chirped Inshallah (god willing) to Pakistan's prospects in forthcoming encounters, having quickly picked up on the time-honoured Pakistani response to uncertainty.

For a journalist he was a dream: genial, a dry wit and rarely flustered. Above all, he was always accessible, in person, on the phone, via SMS and e-mail. He didn't tire of talking cricket on and off the field, ready with a quote or three. Beyond cricket I knew little, but I always felt after he left the Pakistan job, I probably would, over time, continents, countries, e-mails and text messages, uncover more.

What made Bob special: innovative training sessions and a willingness to think beyond the field © Getty Images

People have noted he was media-savvy and, in light of his own coaching website and a regular stream of articles for various publications, it is difficult to argue. Certainly, he read cricket. He always made sure to tell me I was a crap writer and didn't know what I was writing about; very occasionally, he pointed out that I might indeed have made a valid point.

Signs of what made him one of cricket's early super-coaches in the mid-90s were still present, in innovative training sessions and a willingness to think beyond the field. He spoke, in our first interview, of how difficult it was to work around the hierarchical structure of cricket in Pakistan, where the oldest player is often captain and difficult to approach for younger players. Touch football, which Pakistan played in most training sessions, was his way of getting youngsters more comfortable in interacting with Inzamam-ul-Haq and thus eventually to working with him on the field.

Though it wasn't remembered recently, he did make a difference, for a time, to Pakistan and that is achievement enough. Younger and temperamentally fragile players responded initially to his openness, his shunning of dressing downs and embracing instead of a more open, talk-it-out atmosphere. For a phase, Pakistan bubbled; no factionalism, binding forces aplenty, victories on the field and a captain and coach in sync.

Sadly, it fell away after the Oval Test, one of the more significant fall-outs from the dressing room fiasco that day being a cooling in relations between Inzamam and Woolmer. Shoaib Akhtar was a more prominent personnel challenge, though Woolmer wasn't the first and won't be the last to have discovered that.

Outwardly, the sheer madness of the last six months didn't appear to have worried him - c'est la vie he once reasoned merrily - but underneath that surface who knows. He had thought of resigning in August after the Oval Test, since when matters in Pakistan cricket became only more volatile. His future after the World Cup, he said privately and publicly, was undecided but the prospect of finishing a book on his coaching life, from experiences in South African townships to Lahore via much else, was one priority.

No matter now, for what has gone previously, what he did as player or coach, whatever has happened, all of it is irrelevant at this moment. In time, after sorrow and regret, it will become clear that he had done enough with Pakistan, with South Africa, with Warwickshire, with the ICC and with the game to be remembered as an innovative, successful coach and not for a last-game defeat to Ireland. My last interaction with him was through e-mail. He wished me a speedy recovery from illness. I can no longer do the same to him and none of this is nearly enough. God bless your soul Bob.

It's only when players of Associate countries start playing regular top-class cricket that they will make inroads into the Full Member nations © Getty Images

Bob Woolmer

For years the second tier of cricket, known as the Associates, had been languishing in amateur status unable even to beat the county cricket teams in England. However in 2000 the ICC introduced the high-performance programme, which took four nations - Kenya, Namibia, United Arab Emirates and Canada - that had qualified for the 2003 World Cup in South Africa and gave them funding and expert coaching to help and aid their development. Seven years down the line,
the next group of associate nations have now improved beyond all recognition. Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Bermuda, Canada and Kenya make up the high performance nations for the 2007 World Cup.

My view is that the World Cup is a wonderful incentive for these countries to improve their cricket internally and help grow the game worldwide. It is a long-term project that needs all the help it can get. Ultimately, it's only when the players in those countries are playing regular top-class cricket and are paid professionally that they will start to make inroads into the Full Member nations.

In addition, players who were born in the high-performance countries but moved overseas with their parents when they were young are now returning to the land of their birth to help with their experience and to try and gain a place in the team with the World Cup as their incentive. In fact
the ICC has increased the funding 10-fold in order to narrow the gap between the full member countries and the Associates.

The associate countries have been prepared better for this World Cup than ever before and it has started to show in their performances. Ireland, in particular, have shown a rapid improvement, captained by an Australian, Trent Johnston, a medium-fast seamer and, with a number of players who have county experience in England, they have a very good team. Any side underestimating them will be doing themselves few favours.

Ireland recently had South Africa 98 for 8, which means that their bowling is very disciplined. The Irish have six out of seven lefthanders in the upper order and they are young and fit on the field. They are, in other words, a serious banana skin fixture.

All things being equal, international and full time professionals should beat their amateur counterparts 99% of the time. It is that nagging 1% that keeps teams honest and in fact the odds are greater in the six associate member nations because of the time and money spent on them. They now have a full-time four-day competition and at least three to four one-day tournaments in the lead-up to the World Cup.

They are now looked after by full-time trainers and coaches and in order to make the most of this some players have had to take nine months unpaid leave to play. They certainly have the motivation to want to do well.

The acid test, of course, is whether they can maintain their form and are able to deal with the professional cricketers. I find the golf analogy useful when trying to assess the difference (though there are no handicaps to assist). Professional golfers have been known to hit 2000 balls a day each while their amateur counterparts only have an eighth of the time to practice and consequently hit about 250 balls a day - and some of us on average about 1 extra ball a day per annum.

A professional golfer may hit up to 2000 balls a day, an amateur will have time only for 250 while the rest average just one extra ball a day © Getty Images

Practice is relative; it helps as long as it is constructive but the bottom line is that the professional sportsman generally hits far more balls, bowls far more balls and catches far more than his amateur counterpart and therefore should be better skills wise. The Pakistan v Ireland contest therefore should go the way of Pakistan, though it will, without doubt, be a real contest and Pakistan will not be treating this game lightly especially in view of the first game loss to the West Indies.

Strategically, Ireland will try and bowl tight lines and lengths with the keeper standing up to stifle the free-flowing style of the Pakistan batting line up and Pakistan too will try and bring a game plan that will apply pressure on the Irish bowling. The fielding should be of even standard and the bowling of Pakistan, with its variety, should cause the Irish batting some problems.

Despite the efforts of the high-performance programme the result should favour the Full Member nation. Inzamam-ul-Haq alone has played 350-plus matches; add the caps won by the whole Irish eleven, multiply by 10 and they do not have his experience! However all the conjecture and words mean nothing and it will be the intensity of competition that will eventually decide the outcome of this contest.

by Kumar Sangakkara

The Caribbean flavour and passion was on display at the opening ceremony © Getty Images

The much anticipated World Cup got underway with a wonderful opening ceremony in Jamaica featuring a host of West Indian and international stars performing in front of an enthusiastic crowd. It was launched with true Caribbean flavour and passion. The players from all nations could sense the immense pride with which the West Indians have accepted the challenge of hosting the tournament.

For us, the World Cup began with a somewhat tiring 21 hours of flying, from Colombo via Dubai and London, but the sight of beautiful Barbados with its wonderful people and scenic beaches soon had our players rejuvenated. Barbados is an idyllic place - so much so that sometimes you almost had to kick yourself to be reminded that you are here to win the most coveted prize in cricket and not on an exotic holiday.

Our preparation in Barbados involved two practice games along with a few dedicated nets sessions. The practices were held at different venues to the ones that will host the main World Cup games so there was no opportunity to get a first-hand look-in at how the newly re-laid pitches will play. However, the pitches prepared for our two practice games turned out to be very fair - although slower than expected - and were similar to Asian pitches. We will have to wait till our first game to see how the wickets in Trinidad will play.

We lost the final warm-up game against New Zealand but, to be honest, that was not a major concern. The bottom line is that it was practice and we were trying out things rather than just focusing on winning the game. There were some positives and we finished the preparatory stage of the tournament in a confident mood.

We have been preparing with focus and intensive purpose during the build-up to the World Cup. Now that the tournament has begun we see no reason to change the way we train as the attitude of all the players in their approach to practice has been exemplary. Our focus is now to continue and maintain the intensity and purpose with which we train and to leave no avenues unexplored in our quest to win the cup.

This World Cup holds a lot of promise, not only in the sense of a magnificent sporting spectacle, but also performances of some brilliant individual players. First and foremost, as captain and leading batsman, Brian Lara will be carrying the hopes of the entire Caribbean. He will be looking to leave his personal stamp of genius on this his last World Cup.

Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya too will be keen to put in memorable performances. As two of the most influential players that have ever played the one-day game, this is the ideal stage for them to achieve cricketing immortality.

Upul Tharanga will be one of the players to watch for this World Cup © Getty Images

The Australian side, smarting from their defeats in the Commonwealth Bank and Chappell-Hadlee series, will be looking out for strong batting performances led by Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist. Ponting's consistency and form over the past few years have put him right at the top of the list of the world's best batsmen - rivalled only by Mohammad Yousuf with the form he has shown over the past year.

There are some young players to watch in this tournament too and in this regard Sri Lanka is blessed with three of the brightest new stars. Watch out for the likes of Upul Tharanga, Chamara Silva and Lasith Malinga. They are extremely talented and ready to make their own mark on the international stage.

Their first outing comes with our opener against Bermuda, one of the so-called 'minnows'. Personally, I think it is good for more teams to be involved, but as a team it is not for us to question whether or not the smaller developing nations should be playing. Our job is to concentrate on our cricket.

So against the Bermudians we will be taking it very seriously indeed. We are approaching the game with the same intensity that we'd prepare for Australia. We must be fully prepared to execute our game-plans and play the brand of cricket that we want to play in this tournament. We can't wait to start.

by Bob Woolmer

Ramnaresh Sarwan came in to bat as if he had a train to catch © Getty Images

During a game I keep my 'game notes' as it helps me remember the details - the good as well as the not so good moments - of the proceedings. I attach a small example of how they look for your interest.

* Hot morning, cloudless sky, Inzamam [ul-Haq] wins the toss and elects to field first. It is the general consensus that is what we should do. "The pitch is drier than the ones we have been playing on but it is reasonable to think that it will do something," he said hopefully.

* The stadium looks terrific and the warm-ups go well.

* Gul to Gayle, "off we go"

* Very hot conditions. We need towels for the sweat.

* Gul strikes in his second over with Gayle edging to Kamran. Short ball swinging after it pitched and getting big on Gayle.

* Sarwan replaces Gayle and was dropped (very tough chance at second slip climbing and going away from Younis Khan).

* Danny [Danish Kaneria] throws four overthrows while returning it to the keeper - very funny! Except for the bowler.

The opening match of the World Cup was the type of game we can expect from all the sides here. It was a tough, no-holds-barred game. In the end West Indies deserved to win. I had wondered, before the game, if the pressure of the occasion might get to them. I had also wondered if the occasion would spur them on to greater deeds. The wondering is now over.

There were a number of turning points in the game. The first was when Sarwan came in as though he had a train to catch. His aggression might have taken the game away from us but the bowlers held their nerve and a good ball from [Iftikhar] Rao dismissed him. [Marlon] Samuels, after a circumspect start, decided it was time to accelerate and played a gem of an innings in the context of the game a gem. He is a sweet timer of the ball and can also hit it very hard.

West Indies bowlers bowled a good line and length to defend their moderate total of 241 © Getty Images

West Indies eventually totalled 241 on what looked like an excellent track but we thought that they might be 20 to 30 runs short. We needed a solid start, something like 40 for 0 off ten overs would have been great but West Indies were dynamic in the field. They exuded energy as they dived, stopped and caught everything. Their bowlers bowled a superb length and line. Despite having two of the best batsmen in world cricket today the Windies bowlers bowled with consummate discipline and as the run rate went from 4.7 to 7.3 I knew that it was going to be very hard for the lower order to score at such a high rate.

West Indies rose to the occasion and played with pride, passion and steel. Pakistan's effort was good for they worked hard all the time but in the end it wasn't enough. To sum up I will add some more from my notes.

* It is easy to point fingers and I really thought that 241 was a good effort in the field but if you add up all the little things then you can see that scoring 242 to win needed a good start and wickets in hand. Danish's throw and Rao's last over - all these little things add up. Our running between the wickets leaves a lot to be desired and we hardly turned a single into two runs. West Indies bowled with great discipline and two early wickets has not helped our cause.

* Statistically West Indies ran seven more twos, hit seven more sixes, and scored 10 more fours than Pakistan. It quietly highlights why we are behind the eight ball.

Our game against Ireland will be a tough one as they have proved that they are one of the best equipped of the Associate sides and are very keen and well-organised. There will be no easy games in this World Cup.

Andrew Miller

They are the holy grail of cricket selection. Men who can bat and bowl to international standard are the most sought-after accessory of all. The list of all-time great allrounders can more or less be counted on the fingers of two hands, but at one-day international level, ten tidy
overs allied to a half-century equals a potentially matchwinning performance. And that's where these key figures come in.

Andrew Symonds can do it all - batting...bowling...fielding...AFL? © Getty Images

In Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson, Australia have, potentially, two of the most pivotal performers of all. Symonds is a one-day superstar, a batsman of breathtaking power whose heavy-limbed medium-pace and offspin is tailormade for those sluggish middle overs.
Recently though, he suffered a torn bicep which leaves his participation and effectiveness in some doubt, and in his absence, it'll be Watson, a more classical alternative, who'll have to step up. He is better suited to the opener's role, while his seam bowling is brisk without being express, and ever so slightly unproven. Oh, and talking of Australian allrounders, it would be rude to exclude Adam Gilchrist, the wicketkeeper-batsman.

At the 1992 World Cup, England had - at a pinch - eight or nine genuine one-day allrounders in their starting eleven. This time they have just two, although one of them is a leviathan among his peers. Andrew Flintoff was the most economical seamer at the 2003 World Cup, and that was before his game had matured to the extent it now has. Injury permitting, he has it in him to rule this competition, providing genuine pace and relentless accuracy with the ball, and game-breaking strokeplay with the bat. Toiling alongside him will be Paul Collingwood, the star of the show in the recent CB Series. In the form of his life with the bat, it could be his nagging medium pace that comes to the fore on some sluggish Caribbean tracks.

If Flintoff's coming-of-age got Englishmen a bit excited, then the same and more could be said of India's young superstar, Irfan Pathan. Still only 22 years old, his derring-do at the top of both the batting and bowling orders has drawn comparison with the great Kapil Dev, although fears were raised about his form in South Africa before Christmas when he was sent home to cool off in domestic cricket. As a prodigious swinger of the new ball, all of India hopes that the break will have done him good come the start of their campaign against Bangladesh next Saturday.

Flippin' underrated: Shahid Afridi's leg-spin © Getty Images

Though his current form is unproven, at least Pathan is in the squad. Pakistan, on the other hand, have lost so many of their star players, including their most potent allround talent, Abdul Razzaq, to an untimely knee injury. Step forward Shahid Afridi, one of the most
natural talents the game of cricket has ever seen. His ballistic batting has to be seen to be believed - his most recent onslaught was an absurdly belligerent 77 not out from 35 balls at Durban. But it is his under-rated wrist-spin that is arguably his most consistent weapon. Brisk, accurate and fizzing, they leap disconcertingly from a good length, and will undoubtedly be a big asset as the tournament progresses.

Talking of under-rated legspinners, here's another. Sri Lanka's old stager, Sanath Jayasuriya, is embarking on his fifth World Cup, and at the age of 37, is arguably a more rounded cricketer than ever before. His pinch-hitting batting remains as explosive as it was in
1996, but his bowling has undergone a revival, seeing as he is now Sri Lanka's No. 1 spinning foil to the undisputed master, Muttiah Muralitharan. Sri Lankan cricketers have long been
jacks-of-all-trades, but at the other end of the age spectrum is their next big allround prospect, Farvez Maharoof - only 22 years old, but brisk enough to have taken 6 for 14 in the recent Champions Trophy against West Indies.

South Africa is another nation that grows allrounders as if on
trees, and the present crop is an enviable one, to say the least. Men
such as Andrew Hall and Justin Kemp would grace any side, but in Shaun
Pollock and Jacques Kallis, South Africa have two men who have been at
the top of their game for a decade and more. In Pollock's case, he is
back where he belongs after an 18-month slump that left several
pundits casting nervous glances towards the retirement home. He has
been revived by responsibility, pushed up the batting order to win two
Tests against India and Pakistan, and bowling his wicket-to-wicket
seamers with the waspishness of old. Kallis, meanwhile, recently
enjoyed a typically prolific home season, scoring 119 not out and
taking 3 for 3 in one remarkable win against India at Durban.

New Zealanders are used to being belittled by Australians, so
when Jacob Oram was recently dismissed as a "poor man's Chris Cairns"
he took it upon himself to shove those words straight back down the
nearest available Green-and-Gold throat. Standing at six-foot-plenty,
Oram bowls his lively medium-pacers from a cloud-snaggingly high arm,
and when batting he turns the midwicket boundary into his personal
fiefdom with a firm swing of his strong bottom hand. He walloped the
Aussies for 101 not out from 72 balls at Perth in the CB Series,
before a broken finger ruled him out of the subsequent triumph in the
Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. He vowed to have it amputated if needs be, but
his 88 against Bangladesh last week showed he'll be able to battle
through the pain.

Chris Gayle exhibits some of his usual flamboyance © Getty Images

Another tall left-handed strokeplayer with a high bowling action is set to be a star for the host nation, West Indies. Chris Gayle has inherited Curtly Ambrose's role as the Daddy Cool of the Caribbean team, but like Ambrose he has a competitive streak that belies his
languid demeanour. He was the star player at the last ICC event, the Champions Trophy in India before Christmas, where he thumped three centuries including a matchwinning 133 not out in the semi-final against South Africa, and took eight wickets with his deceptively
innocuous offbreaks. Scarcely less effective was his team-mate, Dwayne Bravo, the possessor of the best slower ball in the game today, who also chimed in with the first of what should be many ODI hundreds. He has it in him to be the star of the tournament.

Bangladesh's two-wicket win against New Zealand last week was
ample proof that they will be no pushover at this World Cup. Their
recent success has been based on a more traditional division of
labour, with batsmen such as Habibul Bashar and Mohammad Ashraful
making the runs, and bowlers such as Mashrafe Mortaza and Syed Rasel
taking the wickets, but one player with a foot in both camps is their
veteran left-armer, Mohammad Rafique. Predominantly a spinner, he does
however have an eye for the ball that is the preserve of few, and an
axeman's delight in wild and woolly strokeplay. On Bangladesh's last
trip to the Caribbean, this approach was good enough to score him an
astonishing Test century from No. 9. Don't be surprised to see more of
the same.

The best of the rest is Holland's Ryan ten Doeschate.
One of the rising stars in the Essex side that won the Pro40 League in
2006, his huge hitting and skiddy bowling has been making several
headlines in recent times. In the ICC Intercontinental Cup he smashed
an unbeaten 259 and finished with the extraordinary average of 228.66
including four successive centuries, while Holland's warm-up against
India last week was notable for his impressive haul of 5 for 57. "Ryan
is a world-class performer when he's playing well," said his coach,
Ian Pont. "He's a real contender as one of the stars of the
tournament."

Once Hussey is in, forget the score; just put your money on Australia © Getty Images

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan

They're the bunch that thrives in the death, stepping up the accelerator, booming the sixes and applying the finishing touches. Unlike their colleagues at the top of the order, the finishers rarely have the luxury of getting set, having to pick up the pace from the tie they enter. Sometimes they can only survey the debris, entering after a top-order crumble and needing to pull off the minor miracles. They're either vilified for their recklessness or deified for their bravado but always remembered at the end of the day.

Australia are blessed. It took Michael Hussey 29 matches for his average to drop below 100 and he's not only replaced Michael Bevan as a finisher extraordinaire but actually bettered him. He can control the middle overs - maneuvering the spinners, scurrying between wickets, lofting aerial strokes, gliding cheekily - and possesses an enviable composure during the pivotal stages. Basically with Hussey at the crease forget the score; just put your money on Australia.

India have heavily relied on Yuvraj Singh and Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the final stages. When the mood catches him, Yuvraj doesn't just finish games, he kills them. Of the 16 half-centuries that Yuvraj has managed while chasing, India have won on 14 occasions (In 21 games between November 2005 and May 2006 he reeled off six half-centuries and three hundreds). In Dhoni, India possess a finisher imbued with the X-factor. His destructive qualities are well documented but he's recently shown that he can temper his approach, shepherding the tail during the tense stages.

South Africa's Mark Boucher has mastered the art of shifting gears over the years. His only one-day hundred was a 44-ball massacre and his matchwinning 98-ball 69 on a juicy trampoline at Mohali showed his versatility. Justin Kemp has been his partner in many a rescue act and teams will beware of his ability to clear the ropes, stands and even stadiums.

Brendon McCullum can be counted on to provide some tail-end dynamite for New Zealand © Getty Images

New Zealand's Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram promise to be equally destructive. Their contrasting styles make them a combustible pair - one's a nuggety accumulator, who's well capable of the big shots, the other's a palm-tree hitter, who's adept at shifting gear. New Zealand, who enter the tournament on the back of a couple of sensational run-chases against Australia, often make up for their top-order failings through tail-end dynamite and can be counted to pull off the close chases.

England have banked on Paul Collingwood to provide them with the impetus towards the end. Though he was more of a playmaker during the recent CB Series, when he propelled England to the title, he's often been influential at the end, as five fifties and two hundreds in the last 25 games testify.

Sri Lanka may not have an accomplished finisher (Chamara Silva promises much but is only 14 ODIs old) but enjoy the aggressive talents of Chaminda Vaas and Farveez Maharoof lower down. Both have the ability to boost first-innings totals but it's in the second innings, with the tension mounting, that their talents will be tested.

The two major teams that might have a problem finishing are West Indies and Pakistan. Abdul Razzaq's absence leaves a big void and its now upto Shoaib Malik to steer the bottom half of the line-up. He's got the technique to move it around and is very capable of taking bowlers on. It may boil down to how much support he receives from the erratic but explosive Shahid Afridi and the tail.

Dwayne Bravo often carries the responsibility in the dying stages but West Indies' penchant for the collapse has left them vulnerable too many times. Dwayne Smith is more miss than hit while Denesh Ramdin has lost his cool more often than not. They'll hope to stay calm when it matters. A few million Caribbean cricket crazies will wish for the same.

Dwayne Leverock looked completely out of place in the World Cup environment until he rippled up to the crease and removed Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen © Getty Images

Fazeer Mohammad

If only we were always this helpful, courteous and efficient in dealing with each other. Monday morning around the UWI St Augustine Campus was like being in a whole different country.

Police everywhere, not buffing you up, but politely moving the traffic along. World Cup volunteers, bedecked in brightly-coloured uniforms befitting a Caribbean event, positioned every 50 metres or so, on the route to UWI SPEC to guide motorists and pedestrians alike in the right direction.

My direction was towards the Accreditation Centre in the main building, and despite the trouble-free journey thus far, I was still anticipating some sort of hiccup, in keeping with decades of being conditioned by a don't-care-damn culture that makes almost any interaction with any public service department an exercise in frustration.

Yet less than five minutes after walking into the office (open since 5.30 am), I was back outside with the precious pass and a lovely bag containing a press kit (we media types really enjoy any kind of freeness). The experience left me with a hollow, anti-climactic feeling for I had prepared myself mentally to deal with at least some form of administrative bungling, or officious hostility, or both.

On the way back out, there were no vehicles parked indiscriminately on either side of the road, no litter strewn across the lawns and no one stopping just so to pick up passengers. In fact, it was reassuring in a strange sort of way to see normal life resumed as I hit the Eastern Main Road: horns blaring, drivers cussing and doubles vendors serving a sizeable clientele, some of whom didn't seem to care that they were standing directly in the path of oncoming road hogs.

On this week of warm-up matches before the real business begins, we are seeing just what our citizens are capable of when properly motivated. Money is what usually prompts the required change, but remember, these are volunteers, who just want to be involved in the once-in-a-lifetime experience of a World Cup in the West Indies.

For most of the players among the small fry of this tournament, this event is also more than likely their one and only chance to sample life in cricket's Big Yard. The manner in which the predominantly amateur players of Ireland pushed South Africa all the way, at the same time that the much more experienced Kenyans were giving the West Indies a bit of a scare up in Trelawny, suggests that there is a real desire to make the most of this opportunity.

Who knows how much the stinging criticism about too many sub-standard teams in the sport's premier event might be turned into a motivating factor? It is still more than likely that the Irish and Kenyans will be joining the Bangladeshis, Zimbabweans, Dutch, Scots, Canadians and Bermudians on flights back home in three weeks' time, but it's entirely within the realms of possibility that they could have their moments against some of the really big fish.

One player who is already enjoying his moment in the sun is an unlikely character who overshadowed the efforts of two West Indian namesakes- Bravo and Smith- on Monday.

Dwayne Leverock's Bermuda gave a pathetic batting effort against England in St Vincent, being shot out for just 45 runs. Yet the jovial, bulky slow bowler more than held his own when England batted first.

Given the intense focus on producing finely-chiselled athletes at the highest level of the game, Leverock - all 270 lbs of him - looked completely out of place in the World Cup environment, even in what amounted to a 13-a-side training session at Arnos Vale. That is, until he rippled up to the crease and delivered ten overs of better-than-ordinary left-arm spin, removing Paul Collingwood to a catch at the wicket and having Kevin Pietersen smartly stumped.

Obviously, he is more than a few notches below world class, but his willingness to use flight and guile, complemented by impressive accuracy, presented accomplished batsmen with a real challenge to get him away. It will probably be a different story when he comes up against the Indians and Sri Lankans at the Queen's Park Oval from next week, but I really, really hope that Leverock does well in those Group B matches, if only to show the West Indies selectors that even the Bermudians are ahead of us in the appreciation of what classical spin bowling is all about.

Successful or not, he will surely be a favourite for Oval fans who, in an earlier era, never hesitated to let Rangy Nanan have it whenever he looked a bit more heavy-set than usual.

This is really what the Caribbean cricketing experience is all about. The International Cricket Council's all-encompassing rules for their World Cup may prevent all sorts of seemingly harmless items from being brought into their grounds. Inappropriately branded shirts have to be turned inside-out, unauthorised liquids must be consumed outside or dumped, and written permission must be had before a conch shell gets past the turnstiles.

But long before there were flag-wavers, face-painters, deafening amplifiers and a never-ending supply of winer girls, West Indians enjoyed themselves armed with nothing more than a wonderful sense of humour and a genuine appreciation of good cricket, whether it was exhibited by visiting players or their own heroes.

They can't take that away from us, even with the very best security screening systems known to man.

Anand Vasu

When Sachin Tendulkar's bat is raised to the fans, it usually means victory for India © Getty Images

Openers try to set the pace, and sometimes they succeed. The finishers lap up the glory, because that's the nature of the beast, they're the last ones standing when a team gets past the finish line. But, more often than not, the crucial contribution comes from someone in between. Soup, salad and caramel custard are great, but what about the meat and potatoes?

Here, we look at some players who may not always walk away with the Man-of-the-Match award, but they're the ones who have laid the platform for others to reach for the stars.

In India it has often been said, and mostly uncharitably so, that Sachin Tendulkar has not done enough to win games. Few stop to check how many wins he sets up. Of the 41 times he has reached 100, India have won 29. That is a strike-rate which any team would accept. And then there's Rahul Dravid. No-one since Robert de Niro has been forced to play so many roles . He has had to prove himself coming in to bat in a crisis, shepherding the middle-order after a moderate start, and even finishing games. Very few people in the game today can take charge as well as Dravid.

For Australia this has barely been a concern, because of the firepower they have at the top and the lower-middle-order allrounders who come and crash the ball to all parts. Yet, Ricky Ponting has been such a powerful talisman that he has come to be regarded as the best No. 3 batsman in either form of the game. The crux of that lies in the fact that he can attack from any situation. It's not that he doesn't have one eye on the scoreboard, but he knows he launches from self-belief, and that seals the deal.

When you're looking for dark horses in this tournament it's impossible to rule out Sri Lanka, simply because of the balance in their team. But a lot of that balance revolves around the form of their joyously unpredictable captain, Mahela Jayawardene. His lack of form, and runs, has affected the Sri Lankan team of late. But when he gets it going, as Aravinda de Silva did when Sri Lanka won the World Cup in 1996, the complexion of the team changes. Fortunately, Jayawardene shares the responsibility with his buddy Kumar Sangakkara, and his former captain, Marvan Atapattu. At the end of the day, though, Sri Lanka's hopes are inexorably linked with Jayawardene's form.

South Africa are enjoying their ranking as No.1 ODI team in the world, but they should be the first to concede that this has more to do with Australia's slipping standards than any meteoric rise of their own. The man who provides them with backbone is Jacques Kallis, and there his no doubting his sheer ability with a bat in hand. He has an incredibly effective defensive technique, a penchant for putting the ball away, and yet is not one of the shining lights of modern cricket. That's only because he seldom takes charge of a game, shifts gears out of his own comfort zone, and ensures that the job is done, come heaven or high water.

Never say die, or for that matter "run out", while Inzamam-ul-Haq is still at the crease© AFP

They've had such problems lately that you have to give a bit of leeway to Pakistan. Their best bowlers have been pinched through anti-doping programs or injury, depending on what you'd like to believe, they've been plagued by internal problems ... But the one thing that has remained unshakeable is Inzamam-ul-Haq. People who see him farming the strike, conserving energy and sauntering singles, will do well to remember the 1992 World Cup where he turned a semi-final on its head with his exasperatingly explosive batting. There's a lot packed into that man, and the fact that he is playing a certain role at the moment does not mean the caterpillar can't emerge from the cocoon once more. And then there's Yousuf Youhana and Mohammad Yousuf. With or without a beard, against pace or spin, he has shown he can run the show while he's at the crease. Few people build a one-day innings better than him in the current game.

After Chris Gayle has done his bit, there's often no need for anyone in the West Indies side to play a significant part. But often enough, there are times when Gayle fails, and someone needs to step up to the plate. Brian Lara has been talking incessantly of the need to build more matchwinners, and depend less on a few, but the fruits of that labour are still to be realised. For the time being it is Lara, who can bat at any position, and often controls the game by coming in to bat as late as possible, and Ramnaresh Sarwan, on whom this responsibility falls. Sarwan's sterling record is nothing to be sneezed at, yet you can't help but wonder why a man of so much ability has not delivered more.

It's no coincidence that the emergence of Kevin Pietersen as a modern maestro has resulted in a revival in the form of England in the shorter version of the game. Sure, they won in Australia without KP, but that was only because Paul Collingwood, the cool finisher, stepped up and filled the breach. Pietersen has given England demonstrable belief, and that counts for a lot.

Perhaps it's telling that some of the other teams don't have such influential characters in their mix. With Stephen Fleming lost to opening, New Zealand may have missed a trick, and the next such stalwart is Bangladesh's Habibul Bashar. He's invaluable when chasing a modest target, with his steady, stodgy ways, but otherwise not so relevant.

These are men who could have the most impact, by what they do, and equally what they don't. If performance is the decider, these are the players who have most to win or lose.

Ian Chappell

Ian Chappell: 'West Indies have depth and power in batting and good variety in bowling and their fielding is solid so it's not surprising that they are a competitive side' © Getty Images

The 2007 World Cup has all the makings of the most open tournament yet held with as many as six teams having a realistic chance of lifting the trophy at Kensington Oval in late April.

Adding to the difficulty in predicting a winner or even the four semi-finalists, is the wide range of pitch conditions that might prevail. As recently as the middle of last year many Caribbean pitches were slow and low with considerable assistance for the spinners. However, a number of new wicket blocks have subsequently been laid and there are suggestions these will provide some encouragement for the faster bowlers. Depending on what actually transpires in the way of pitch behaviour, teams like South Africa will either have no chance [if they are slow and low] or a real threat [if they provide pace and bounce] and the reverse holds true for Sri Lanka and India.

Not since the 1991-92 World Cup when matches were played in Australia and New Zealand have teams had to contend with such diverse conditions as those being predicted for the Caribbean. The 1991-92 tournament was a wide open affair with Pakistan saving their best till last and defeating England in the final.

Oddly enough those are the two major nations without a realistic chance of winning the trophy in 2007. Nevertheless, England with their late resurgence on the tour of Australia and the return of the highly dangerous Kevin Pietersen could be worth a flutter to make the semi-finals if a few cards fall their way.

Despite their derailment in the last few weeks, Australia must still be the slight favourite, as they have the players best equipped to cover variable pitch conditions. However, they still have to unearth a bowling combination which can consistently "shut down" the opposition in the final overs, with Glenn McGrath currently their only reasonable performer in that situation. They also desperately need a spinner to regularly take wickets in the overs following the Powerplays. If they don't solve these two major problems and Andrew Symonds isn't effective with his damaged arm, then even their strong batting line-up won't be enough to win them a record third consecutive World Cup.

Depending on what actually transpires in the way of pitch behaviour, teams like South Africa will either have no chance [if they are slow and low] or a real threat [if they provide pace and bounce] and the reverse holds true for Sri Lanka and India

New Zealand, South Africa, India, West Indies and Sri Lanka are all on the next rung of the favouritism ladder. South Africa is a one-dimensional side; they like to stifle the scoring with their pace-oriented attack and they don't bat so well in conditions that suit good spinners. However, they are a blue-collar bunch who are extremely competitive and in conditions that suit their pace bowlers they'll be dangerous if Graeme Smith and Herschelle Gibbs fire with the bat.

India has the batting experience plus the explosive power of Virender Sehwag and Mahendra Singh Dhoni to either post or chase down big totals. The big question mark is the ability of the bowlers to hold it together when they are attacked in the field restriction period of an innings. It was their failure to retain composure that let them down in the 2003 final and a lot of those same fielders are now four years older so the task won't be any easier this time unless Zaheer Khan and company bowl well.

Sri Lanka has a varied attack that should handle any conditions but they rely heavily on Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya for the bulk of their runs on bouncier pitches. The West Indies has quietly compiled a good one-day record under Brian Lara with a win and a trip to the final in the last two Champions Trophy tournaments. They have depth and power in batting and good variety in bowling and their fielding is solid so it's not surprising that they are a competitive side. Their one failing is a lack of a power bat in the middle-order and they need Dwayne Smith to confirm his potential.

New Zealand are a strong allround side with a varied and skilled attack, backed by committed fielders. The recent improvement in their top order run getting has boosted their chances enormously and a fit Jacob Oram, along with the equally dangerous Brendon McCullum, provide power with control in the middle-order. If three successive victories over Australia are a sign that self-belief has made a belated but grand entrance to their camp, then they are genuine contenders.

In a tightly bunched field I favour Australia, New Zealand, West Indies and India to scramble into the final four. If, to reach the knock out stage it's the battle I expect, then it'll be a tremendous tournament; it's just a pity it takes so long to reach the highly competitive stage.

Australia's Find of the Year wasn't good enough for the World Cup © AFP

Stuart Clark - Australia

Here's a conundrum. Australia's one-day bowling is all over the place, so what do they do? They choose to ignore their Find of the Year, Stuart Clark, whose nine Tests in 2006-07 produced 47 wickets at an economy-rate of less than two-and-a-half an over. It was a baffling bit of selectorial whimsy that justifiably had Clark, "the new Glenn McGrath TM", seeking some sort of clarification from the chairman of selectors, Andrew Hilditch. "If there was a World Cup semi-final at stake, I'd much rather have him bowling than a couple of other guys," said Geoff Lawson among others. However, Hilditch and Co. perhaps had half an eye on the events in Kuala Lumpur last September, when Clark was spanked for 87 in seven overs by Chris Gayle and Brian Lara.

Cameron White - Australia

Ever-present in the opening rounds of the CB Series, and a qualified success in the Chappell-Hadlee disaster that followed, White's luck ran out when Australia's two Queensland allrounders, Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson, swapped roles ahead of the CB Series finals. Watson - perpetually promising but perpetually injured - returned to fitness
just as Symonds was being carted off in the other direction with a bicep injury. It was a destabilising trade-off for Australia. For all that White can do a passable impression of Symonds with the bat, the selectors were less certain about the reliability of his part-time
legbreaks. So Brad Hogg got Symonds' spinner's gig instead, and the Bear had to grin and bear it.

Khaled Mashud - Bangladesh

Bangladesh, quite literally, have decided to drop the Pilot by ousting their former captain, wicketkeeper and longest-serving international cricketer, Khaled Mashud. Apparently this decision had been a long time coming in the corridors of power at the BCB - since the tour of
England in 2005, Mashud has produced just one one-day innings of note, an unbeaten 48 against Zimbabwe in July 2006. Meanwhile his teenaged understudy, the former Under-19 captain, Mushfiqur Rahim, made an unanswerable case for inclusion in the recent return series in Harare. Mashud has not had much fun at World Cups - he was sacked as captain after Bangladesh's dismal showing in 2003.

Mal Loye - England

Another case of youth getting the nod over experience. Mal Loye, 34, made a mixed impression in his belated ODI debut for England this winter, slog-sweeping every fast bowler in the Antipodes before nibbling a wide one to the keeper, usually in the same over. Useful though his top-of-the-order impetus might have been, it was instead decided that a wild-card allrounder, Ravi Bopara, would provide England with more options. Even so, it seems highly probable that Loye will appear in the Caribbean at some stage, if Michael Vaughan's knee lasts an entire tournament.

Ramesh Powar - India

With Anil Kumble on the wane in one-day cricket and Harbhajan Singh less attacking than he was in his pomp, an opening in India's squad seemed to have been forged for Ramesh Powar, arguably the slowest flightiest offspinner in the game today, and a man who, since his recall 12 months ago, has been picking up his ODI wickets at a rate of almost two a game. His belligerent batting should have been a factor in his favour, but he has managed just one half-century in 11 visits to the crease, and it is believed that the selectors found it hard to
look beyond his ... err ... ample frame.

Boeta Dippenaar - South Africa's Fall Guy , though not for the first time © Getty Images

Nathan Astle - New Zealand

A surprise absentee, but this time of his own volition. Nathan Astle took a leaf out of Damien Martyn's book by jumping ship just moments before his liner docked at the perfect retirement port. One of the cleanest strikers in the game, and an under-rated seamer with 99 ODI wickets to his name, Astle will forever be remembered for his astonishing blitzkrieg against England at Christchurch in 2001-02 - 222 runs from 168 balls to all but seize the first Test of that series. He wasn't exactly sluggish in ODIs either, with a national-record 16 centuries to his name. But four ducks and a 1 in his last seven innings convinced him that his heart was no longer in it.

Yasir Hameed - Pakistan

It's hard to know what Hameed must have done to offend the Pakistan selectors. In the past two years he has played in just four ODIs out of 45, and yet in those games he has run up scores of 41, 57, 71, and 41. Admittedly they have come a touch slowly by one-day standards, but Hameed is by nature an opener, and that department has been Pakistan's Achilles Heel since the retirement of Saeed Anwar. Instead, Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Nazir and Kamran Akmal have been trusted to come up with a combination that can improve on their tally of three half-century stands in the past 12 months.

Boeta Dippenaar - South Africa

One of nature's stodgier one-day cricketers, Dippenaar's finest one-day innings was arguably his seven-ball 1 on March 12, 2006, in that match at Johannesburg - by getting out of the way nice and early, he allowed his flashier team-mates to cut loose and hunt down
Australia's incredible total of 434. And yet, in 10 previous one-day innings in the Caribbean, Dippenaar has been the plodder turned gamebreaker. He has clobbered 428 runs at an astonishing average of 107, and he has not once finished on the losing side. He might have
been worth a place as a lucky mascot.

Chamara Kapugedera - Sri Lanka

Several batting line-ups are vying for the Dad's Army tag in this World Cup, but few can make a more legitimate claim than Sri Lanka, for whom Marvan Atapattu (36), Sanath Jayasuriya (37) and Russel Arnold (33) are all expected to turn out. Clearly, the next generation will have to wait its turn, and with that in mind, Kapugedera will, in all probability, be ushered into the side. His 18 matches to date have yielded just 203 runs and a solitary fifty, but given that he only turns 20 on Saturday, time is very much on his side.

Runako Morton - West Indies

Not so long ago, Morton was the man of the moment in West Indian cricket. His unbeaten 90 against Australia in last year's Champions Trophy helped propel his side all the way to the final, an achievement that looked set to culminate in a memorable homecoming for one of the
game's most notorious bad boys. In the course of his career, Morton been expelled from the squad in 2002 for lying about a grandmother's death, and arrested in 2004 in connection with a stabbing incident. But his form fell away as the tournament drew nearer, and after 30 runs in his last five innings he returned once again to the margins.

Hamilton Masakadza - Zimbabwe

Masakadza hit the heights at Harare in July 2001, making 119 against West Indies when aged just 17 years and 254 days, to become the youngest debut centurion in Test history. It was a record that has since been passed by Bangladesh's Mohammad Ashraful, but unlike Ashraful, Masakadza has not pushed on to greater things. He scored his maiden half-century against England at Bulawayo in November 2004 and bowls useful legspin to boot, but a tally of 42 runs in three innings against Bangladesh this month counted against him. He was shunted out of the squad in favour of Friday Kasteni.

Ricky Ponting's back, Andrew Symonds's arm, Brett Lee's ankle and Adam Gilchrist's due baby... Australia's worries ahead of the World Cup © Getty Images

Ian Chappell

Will we see a spectacular cricket World Cup unfold over the next two months in the Caribbean or will it turn out to be the Well Cup, a trophy clinched by the team fortunate enough to have eleven men still standing?

The World Cup should be the most prestigious one-day tournament on the cricket calendar designed to unearth the side with the greatest skill, determination and nous. However, with players currently going down like pins in a bowling alley, the cavorting in the Caribbean is shaping up to be more like a survival of the fittest frolic.

For months we have heard players and support staff justify every move by saying it is part of the planned lead-up to the World Cup. Now, as the tournament looms, players are being rested from competition so that niggling injuries can be healed in time for the start of the World Cup. That should be a hint to the programmers that the players are "cricket ready" and what they need is a little bit of time to fine tune and heal, rather than more matches.

Injuries are a fact of life for cricketers and they often come at the most inopportune time. They test the dedication of an individual and often determine how badly he wants to succeed. Equally, they provide opportunities for players and the best teams prosper despite the setbacks. Nevertheless, mental fatigue is the sportsman's greatest enemy and when players start thinking about saving themselves for something bigger and better, problems generally occur.

Is it any wonder with the demanding program of the last six months that many players are weary and injured and heaven knows how many are showing "empty" on the competitive juices gauge? In the case of Australia and England, they have played the Champions Trophy, a five-Test Ashes series, a month long one-day tournament and now they have to front up for the biggest tournament of all.

For the better players that means no mental let-up for seven months; no club or first-class match affording an opportunity to play in a more relaxed atmosphere, just hard grinding international cricket the whole way. And for good measure a Twenty20 match was squeezed in between the Test series and the one-day tournament just in case the players were thinking about putting their feet up for a day.

There can be no argument that if cricketers want to be well-paid they have to play regularly; the money is only available if big matches are programmed at appropriate times. However, equally true is the fact that if players are pushed too hard they will adopt their own measures to cope with the grind. This will include performing at a slightly reduced level (especially in the case of pace bowlers) and taking matches off.

There's every reason to globalise the game but when star players then miss tournaments being played in major cricket playing nations because they are weary it does seem to be defeating the purpose

The administrators in Australia see no problem with rotating players to monitor their work load but that can lead to a game or tournament being diminished.

Because India has the money they offer huge financial incentives to the individual boards to participate in tournaments and you don't see star players opting out of series being televised on the subcontinent. However, some of these events are designed for television and played where cricket isn't a major sport, in the name of globalising the game. There's every reason to globalise the game but when star players then miss tournaments being played in major cricket playing nations because they are weary it does seem to be defeating the purpose.

Already the high cost of obtaining the rights for ICC events is adversely affecting the way cricket is telecast. If a plethora of advertisements eventually leads to a downturn in viewers then less young fans will be attracted to the game.

The administrators need to strike the right balance between greed and good intentions. Somewhere between the measly three matches that were played in the six months leading up to the first World Cup in 1975 and the multitude that have been crammed into the days prior to the 2007 tournament there is an acceptable work load for players.

Even though the players may have been a little underdone for the 1975 tournament, the final was contested by the two best teams at the time, both of whom were at full strength. It was a well-played Cup final not a last-man-standing affair, which could occur at the 2007 showpiece

Up in the air: Apart from injury concerns the possibility of Umar Gul's teaming up with Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif appears to be a chimera © Getty Images

Osman Samiuddin

While the rest of the world was calmly pondering one or two positions in their World Cup squads, Pakistan was mulling over half a squad. Seven names could be guessed before the announcement but the rest? Injuries, doping, form all had the PCB delaying the announcement all through the afternoon.

So first the less bad news: Pakistan have managed to cobble together a squad of 15 and within the ICC deadline too. Now the bad news, of which there is some.

Pakistan's success in the Caribbean was always to rest, in large parts, on their pace attack. But like the legend of India's spin quartet, who only played one Test together, the strength of Pakistan's pace attack has also now become a partial myth. Their first-choice trio, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Asif and Umar Gul are a dream together, figuratively and literally for they have never appeared together and are unlikely to do so, possibly ever. Because of their presence, this still remains a squad that isn't.

Rana Naved-ul-Hasan has been Pakistan's most incisive ODI bowler for nearly two years. But with a sense of timing generally associated with Pakistani weddings, he has chosen the run-up to the World Cup in which to slump painfully and dramatically. Not to worry, for behind these four, every conceivable option...also appears to be crocked.

The selectors have taken two gambits in Danish Kaneria and Imran Nazir, both brave but also eminently questionable. For what it's worth, Kaneria is an admirable, shrewd pick, a victory in the mini-battle of cricket thoughts for those who prefer specialists over bit-part, neither-fully-here-nor-fully-there allrounders.

But he has so resoundingly not been part of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Bob Woolmer's ODI plans over the last two years that the move is, at its root, nothing more credible than a punt. He's played seven ODIs in the time since Woolmer took charge, only 16 ever and has not been part of any ODI squad for over a year. His will, and no little skill, may see him through but a punt is a punt is a punt.

Abdur Rehman, the specialist spinner Pakistan did try and prepare for the tournament is dropped, one two-over hammering on the back of three very decent batches of ten overs reason enough apparently.

Nazir's return is a racy decision; potentially it can be explosively good but you have to wonder about another man who hasn't been in your thinking until just recently sneaking in, essentially on the basis of one extraordinary innings in three years. By that stick, Yasir Hameed, who has dutifully made 41, 57, 71 and 41 in his last four ODIs spread over two years, should've been a shoo-in.

Beyond that mind you, options were admittedly limited. Opening has become such a desperate thing that Sadiq Mohammad and Mohammad Ilyas, openers from the 60s and 70s, called up Cricinfo (exclusively, wouldn't you know) and announced that they were willing to offer their services.

It was worth a call too, what with Moin Khan offering to keep wickets for Pakistan again. Moin's offer, tragically funny as it was, did ram home another planning failure as reflected in this squad. There is no back-up to Kamran Akmal, who has had a year so shaky that Wasim Bari, chief selector and one-time gloved genius, said as recently as four ODIs ago that he needs a break. He wasn't given one, Zulqarnain Haider becoming less understudy, more non-existent. Pakistan will now hope that Akmal's slight upturn in wicketkeeping fortunes just recently continues for there is no one behind him.

What these selections in particular say about Pakistan's planning over the last three years is similar to what Lord Mountbatten is reputed to have admitted years later about his role in the partition of the subcontinent: "I f****ed it up."

Add to this the fact that Shahid Afridi not available for the first two games, one of which is particularly vital, and Pakistan's prospects appear ever more precarious. In fact, if you inhale hard enough, you might just catch a whiff already of an impending clear-out post-World Cup, just like 2003. Captain, coach, chief selector, senior players, all can conceivably be gone after the West Indies.

Which is precisely why, of course, nobody will rule Pakistan out. It is at moments such as this, with squads as ravaged by controversies, scandals and injuries, that Pakistan, uniquely, can never be discounted as a threat. The build-up and run-in to 1992 wasn't this bad but it wasn't much better. Forget the plans and long-term vision, say selectors. We're winging it now, hoping and praying. At least we're used to it.

'It is easy to get riled by his weight or his supposed indifference to fitness drills, but his ability to take wickets is beyond doubt' - Ravi Shastri on Ramesh Powar © Getty Images

Ravi Shastri

In my view, India have picked up just about the right bunch for the World Cup. The batters have experience and promise, as is the case with bowlers. There would always be one or two spots open to debate but that's true about most teams.

Having said so, I feel for Ramesh Powar, who had a strong case to be included in the team. If you name the seven best bowlers in the land in the one-day format, Powar would among them. He has been the most successful Indian spinner in the last 12 months.

It is easy to get riled by his weight or his supposed indifference to fitness drills, but his ability to take wickets is beyond doubt. He is the kind of bowler who can get you the wickets in the middle overs. His variety and loop entice batsmen who, anyway, are uncomfortable playing him defensively. He brings them out of their comfort zone, which is the essence of a good bowler.

This Indian squad has some very fine bowlers but you need clever operators who stand the best chance of breaking a promising stand. Lasith Malinga is a case in point: he went for runs in Rajkot, but also picked up wickets at key moments to shift the pressure on the Indians.

Powar also possesses this ability. He would have pushed for a place even with Harbhajan and Kumble in the squad - now that's good bench strength! He would have been in my team.

On a separate note, I think there is too much of a sameness in the pace attack. Now that Rahul Dravid has made it clear that he wants key players to step up the pace, the onus is on India's big guns to be good finishers of matches.

I suspect if the wickets are low and slow in the West Indies, big hits wouldn't be always possible. It would then be the players' speed between the wickets that could be of critical importance. India came a cropper in the middle overs in the West Indies last year and the message shouldn't be lost this time around.

On tracks where scores of 300 wouldn't always be possible and where the difference between teams could be just a few runs, good fielding and running between the wickets could well be the difference.

I guess fans need to be aware of the conditions which exist in the West Indies. We don't want a situation like last year when India went to the Caribbean high on their performances at home and a win over Pakistan in an away-series, only to be frustrated in there with the ball not coming on to the bat. It happened in game after game as the Indians found themselves unable to force the pace.

Doubts then set in and the high ground achieved at home was quickly lost. India went on a downward spiral till the slide was arrested, again, in a home series last month. It's a cycle which has been playing out too often for comfort.

Most of our cricketers would now take a break for the next couple of weeks, except for those seeking to find form and fitness. Yuvraj Singh and Irfan Pathan need to play as much as they can, and the same is true for Sehwag. They most likely would turn out for the zonal sides in the domestic one-day competition and would draw huge attention. One hopes there would be enough good performances by them to cheer the Indian camp.

In the West Indies, from Trinidad to Antigua to Barbados, the conditions could be very different. One hopes the team has covered most bases and wouldn't be found wanting on different tracks, whether they are seaming and bouncy or low and slow. It's a real issue and no smart team would ignore this possibility.