Tony Becca

One week from today, the World Cup of cricket gets under way at Sabina Park with the West Indies up against Pakistan and already the fans, while watching the teams go through their final tuning upexercises in warm-up matches, are looking forward to some great cricket by the world's greatest players.

To many a man, to me, one-day cricket is not Test cricket. It is, however, fast. With the batsman on the hunt for runs off every ball, with the fielders on their toes for every ball, there is never a dull moment. Because of that, it is exciting, and that is what the home fans and the thousands of visitors expected in the region for the tournament want to see.

Fans

The fans, for example, cannot wait to see, not only the class of batsmen like Brian Lara, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Ricky Ponting, Inzamam ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Mohammed Yousuf, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Stephen Fleming, Michael Vaughan, Andrew Straus and Jacques Kallis, but also the power of batsmen like Chris Gayle, Adam Gilchrist, Shahid Afridi, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Jacob Oram, and against bowlers like pacers Chaminda Vaas, Lasith Malinga, Umar Gul, Shane Bond, Makhaya Ntini and Zaheer Khan, and spinners like Muttiah Muralitheran, Anil Kumble, Danish Kaneria, Daniel Vettori and Monty Panesar.

As is the case with players like Malinga and Panesar, they also simply cannot wait to see, for the first time in the flesh, batsmen like Robin Uthappa of India, Michael Hussey of Australia, Ross Taylor of New Zealand, and John Davison of Canada - the man who, in scoring 111 in 98 minutes off 76 deliveries, in blasting six sixes and smashing eight fours, caned the West Indies bowlers in Centurion Park in 2003.

On top of that, the fans cannot wait to see the likes of Herschelle Gibbs and Paul Collingwood flying through the air in the covers to pull in some brilliant catches, or apart from taking some great catches, to see Andrew Symonds racing around the field, diving and sliding, bouncing back on his feet, and sending a strong, arrow-like throw straight into the wicketkeeper's gloves or onto the stumps.

Based on what is happening around the world, however, based on the number of players who are already out because of injuries, cricket fans had better keep their fingers crossed and hope that they do see all whom they want to see.

Among the missing

Numbered among those missing in action are Brett Lee - Australia's champion fast bowler who is nursing an injured ankle, Steve Harmison - England's master bowler who is nursing an injured shoulder, Kyle Mills - New Zealand's promising pacer, and also, depending on who you believe or what you believe, Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif - Pakistan's two top flight fast bowlers.

The reason why the fans should be keeping their fingers crossed, however, is not so much who are out, but who, because of niggling injuries, because of injuries which many fear have not been fully healed, may be forced to drop out during the tournament.

Numbered among those are England's Vaughan - hamstring Jon Lewis - ankle, and James Anderson - shoulder New Zealand's Daryl Tuffey - shoulder, and Oram - finger; India's Yuvraj - back, and Irfan Pathan - shoulder Pakistan's Umar Gul - ankle Zimbabwe's leading fast bowler Tawanda Mupariwa - knee Australia's Symonds, who is suffering from an injury to his biceps; and probably even his countrymen, Matthew Hayden and Hussey who are suffering, respectively, from an injury to a toe and from a sore back.

Anyone of those players would be missed but probably none more so than Symonds - an exciting, hard-hitting batsman, a bowler of tight off-spin and stiff medium-pace, and a truly brilliant fielder all in one.

The World Cup is not Test cricket. It is, however, the showpiece of the game, and the wish of every cricket fan, West Indian or not, is that but for those who are already missing, the world's best, all of them, will last the course and be fit enough to parade their skills and to make this World Cup one of, if not the best ever.