The battle for the championship of the world of One Day International cricket gets underway in Pool A at Christ Church between strong contenders and co-hosts New Zealand and former World Cup champions Sri Lanka on Saturday, while later that same day – St Valentine’s Day, just across the Tasman Sea at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), favorite co-hosts Australia take on arch rivals England in a match in which there is no love lost between the teams. And by March 29th when one team would have emerged with the holy grail as 2015 ICC world champions, 14 teams including Ireland, Scotland, Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), would have played 49 matches in 43 days.
Although saddled with the burden of being hometown favorites, one gets the impression that the Aussies are wearing it well and may even relish the pressure to perform at optimum level and outplay the elite teams in their group, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and England to earn a spot in the final at the cavernous MCG, where they would be likely to encounter either defending champions India or South Africa. The Proteas would be anxious to rid themselves of the monkey on their backs and once and for all remove the label of ‘chokers’ from their story line.
On this campaign the South Africans must do it without two of their hall of famers now retired – former captain and opener Graeme Smith and allrounder Jacques Kallis. But with credit to a system that consistently produces immense talent, they have made way for such gifted campaigners like the prolific wicketkeeper batsman AB DeVilliers, who recently pulverized the
