Thirty-two years after the first World Cup was decided over a modest five playing days, the 2007 edition will open on Sunday and will go on and on until April 28.

The 16-team World Cup in the Caribbean will last 48 days with 51 matches broadcast live to an estimated world-wide audience of 1.5 billion people.

Those are monstrous proportions compared to the first tournament in England in 1975 when the West Indies won the first of their two world titles.

Back then Clive Lloyd's West Indians pocketed 4,000 British pounds and 10,000 pounds for retaining the title in 1979.

The 2007 champions will take home a cool 2.2 million dollars.

But to reach that stage, the tournament's leading players will face a test as much of stamina, patience and purse strings as of bat and ball.

Selecting a winner is no easy task in a tournament which lasts for the best part of two months and involves an exhausting schedule of inter-island travel.

Even world champions Australia, beaten three times in a row by England and then suffering at the hands of New Zealand earlier in the year, are looking vulnerable.

They are without strike bowler Brett Lee who misses the tournament due to ankle ligament damage while all-rounder Andrew Symonds and opener Matthew Hayden are both carrying injuries.

Nevertheless, as they showed when Shane Warne was kicked out at the start of the last World Cup in South Africa for drugs offences, Australia are capable of overcoming the loss of key players and still winning.

There were signs of an ominous return to form in their comfortable win against England in a warm-up game in St Vincent on Friday.

England too have fitness worries, starting with captain Michael Vaughan, who recently sustained a hamstring injury having been out for most of the past year with a knee problem.

Vaughan hit a confident half-century in the defeat against Australia to suggest that he is slowly approaching his best form.

India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, all former winners, have reason to fancy their chances.

India, led by Rahul Dravid and with Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and the restored Sourav Ganguly, have a powerful batting line-up.

Ganguly, who starred in the 2-1 home win over Sri Lanka on his return to the side in January, said: "We will get similar wickets in the West Indies and it is good that the players are in good form. This is a good outfit."

Pakistan, as always, have plenty of dramas going on.

Fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif, who have been at the centre of doping allegations, miss out through injury.

Sri Lanka, with Sanath Jayasuriya still a potent force, have several aggressive strokemakers and, in off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, together with pacemen Chaminda Vaas and the awkward Lasith Malinga, an attack that can overcome the odds stacked against bowlers in one-dayers.

For world number one South Africa, the challenge will be to keep their nerve.

In 1999 they went out in a semi-final tie against Australia and four years ago a failure to understand the Duckworth-Lewis regulations for rain-affected matches saw them exit against Sri Lanka.

They remain without a frontline spinner but any side that can scored 438, a world record for a one-day international between two Test nations, as they did against Australia last year in Johannesburg, has to be respected.

However, their two warm-up games - where they just escaped being embarrassed by Ireland before losing to Pakistan - have not inspired confidence.

New Zealand have a canny captain in Stephen Fleming and in Ross Taylor a batsman who will help them overcome the shock retirement of Nathan Astle.

West Indies, under the captaincy of Brian Lara can, battle a history which has dictated that no host country has even won a World Cup.

The way in which the tournament has been set up means it will be a major shock if the world's leading eight Test nations don't make it through to the second phase Super Eights where points won against fellow qualifiers will be carried through.

By including two minnows per qualifying group, the ICC risks some dreadful mismatches to add to the bad publicity the tournament has already received for hugely inflated hotel prices, a consequence of staging it in the Caribbean during the height of the tourist season.

Rates of 500 US dollars a night are not uncommon for the most ordinary of hotels.

There are also concerns regarding the long-term viability of expensive new stadia that have been built.

Around 260 million dollars has been spent on either building new venues or refurbishing existing ones at 12 different sites.

The World Cup officially opens in Jamaica on Sunday with hosts West Indies meeting Pakistan in the first game on Tuesday.

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)