Tony Becca FROM THE BOUNDARY

THE ICC Champions Trophy gets under way in India two Sundays from today, 21 matches to be played in 30 days, and the question is who will win it?

Will it be defending champions West Indies, England - beaten finalists last time out, South Africa or Australia - the world's number one ranked team in both the Test and limited-overs version of the game?

Ranked number eight in April, the West Indies will have to qualify, starting this weekend, they will be playing against Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh with the top two qualifying for the tournament and, barring a major upset, they and Sri Lanka are favoured to advance.

Advancing is one thing, however, successfully defending the trophy is something else and, although the West Indies surprised the world from an almost similar position in 2004, although they could surprise again, the odds are heavily stacked against them - and especially so based on some interesting statistics posted by CricInfo recently on its website.

According to CricInfo, the West Indies, like England, have no chance - or rather, with cricket being the game it is and everyone having some sort of a chance, very little chance of winning the tournament.

Any team can win

Although, from my position, any one of eight teams can win the tournament, the fancied teams are Australia and South Africa - and definitely so according to CricInfo.

According to the statistics, when it comes to the winning percentage from matches played since the last Champions Trophy tournament in 2004, Australia with 69 per cent and South Africa with 67 from 55 and 40 matches respectively are one and two - way ahead of England and the West Indies who are down the bottom at number eight and number nine with 37 and 35 from 43 and 39 matches respectively.

SA, australia way ahead

According to the statistics, when it comes to performance with bat and ball, Australia, with a batting average of 39.66 and a bowling average of 26.33, a strike rate of 5.43 and an economy rate of 4.90, and South Africa, with a batting average of 37.19 and a bowling average of 28.67, a strike rate of 5.19 and an economy rate of 4.86 are one and two - way ahead of England and the West Indies who are down at the bottom at number eight and number nine with a batting average of 32.24 and a bowling of average 33.02, a strike rate of 5.11 and an economy rate of 5.07, and a batting average of 28.48 and a bowling average of 33.11, a strike rate of 4.88 and an economy rate of 5.02 respectively.

With the individual performances for the corresponding period showing only one West Indian, Ramnaresh Sarwan, at number 11 in the top 15 of the batting averages, and only one West Indian, Ian Bradshaw, at number 10, in the top 15 of the bowling averages, with Sarwan's average being 42.93 in comparison to Michael Hussey's 80.68 at the top of the tables, and with Bradshaw's average being 25.39 in comparison to New Zealand's Shane Bond's 18.11 at the top of the tables, there was only one category since 2004 in which England and the West Indies are at the top.

That category is wides and no balls.

England, with 364 wides and 132 no balls are at the top with a combined average of 11.53 per match, and the West Indies are number three, behind Zimbabwe, with 326 wides and 96 no balls for an average of 10.82.

Australia, 7.89, Bangladesh, 7.89, New Zealand, 7.67, and Sri Lanka, 7.57, have all averaged below eight.

What is really interesting about these statistics is that whereas Australia and South Africa's batting average, in terms of figures, is better than their bowling average, where their strike rate is better than their economy rate, the West Indies batting average is worse than their bowling average and their strike rate is worse than their economy rate.

Batting, bowling averages

Where the difference between Australia's batting average and their bowling average is a whopping 13.33, where the difference between their strike rate and their economy rate is 0.53, the difference for the West Indies is an unhealthy minus position.

The difference, for the West Indies, between their batting average and their bowling average, between their strike rate and their economy rate, is -4.63 and -0.14.

That does not mean that the West Indies cannot win the ICC Champions Trophy. What it does mean, however, is that everyone on the team has to lift his performance if the Windies are to once again surprise the world.