Conditions provide truest test

The batsmen, the spinners and the medium-pace dobbers had the conditions in their favour on the sub-continent last time. This time, at least for as long as it remains the murky month of May, it is the fast and fast-medium bowlers who are going to enjoy themselves most with the hard, white Duke balls; and the sides with the best exponents of seam, swing and speed who are likely to progress to the Super Six.

If, then, we should have a flaming June and with it drier air and pitches, this could be the truest test yet of which is the best all-round one-day cricket team in the world.

South Africa have been the prime innovators almost from the moment that they returned to the fold and the radio link between Bob Woolmer and his two senior players at Hove on Saturday was more bright thinking than sharp practice. Whatever the rights and wrongs, the International Cricket Council's temporary decision to forbid the device will do the favourites no harm.

Some captains would welcome advice; others find it distracting, but most of them, surely, have enough to think about without having a coach's voice in their ear suggesting yet another option to a churning mind.

No sides will be so well supported in this tournament as the two leading forces from the sub-continent, but the critical remarks of Zafar Altaf, the Pakistan manager, miss the point of what the World Cup now means to every cricketing country. "What the hell is 8,500 for a match of this importance," he said of Bristol's inability to cater for more than a small proportion of those who would have paid to see Pakistan play the West Indies yesterday. "Come to the sub-continent," he added, "and I'll fill a stadium with 100,000 for this type of match."

We will ignore the fact than only one ground on the sub-continent actually holds 100,000 spectators and none in Pakistan, perhaps even overlook the more pertinent one that Lord's, where this year's final will be held, holds more spectators than the stadium at Lahore, where the previous final was held in 1996. It is worth quoting, however, Alan Lee's verdict on that tournament in Wisden. "The event was poorly conceived in its format and its logistics and suffered throughout from the threat - and ultimately the reality - of crowd disorder."

Unruly crowds are already threatening to be a problem, but the point is that the World Cup's raison d'etre is not to make the maximum possible amount of money, whoever takes the profits; or even to show the game live to as many spectators as possible, desirable though that clearly is.

It is to foster and regenerate the game in different parts of the world and to bring a distinctly local flavour to each tournament. It will be South Africa's turn next, then the Caribbean's, followed, presumably, by Australia-New Zealand before the World Cup returns to India and Pakistan, where interest in the game is unequalled.

Certainly the presence of the India and Pakistan teams at Hove and Bristol over the weekend brought a welcome injection of colour and passion to surroundings that often lack atmosphere. Neither of these historic grounds has seen anything like it for years and one of the purposes of the tournament is to spread the gospel to all parts of the country (not to mention Ireland and Holland). It is good that so many clubs are getting a piece of the action.

May 17, 1999