World Cup 2015 Preview: Get, set, go! May the best team win

Expected to be a no-brainer in the pool stage and a three-day test from then on, expect a few surprises and heartbreaks as the 44-day festival begins Saturday

After the T20 tsunami since India's World Twenty20 win in 2007, the viewers of the game returned to the days of watching the first 10 and last 10 overs of an ODI. An innings of 50 overs spread over three hours started struggling to hold its ground against a three-hour entertainment package T20s offered. And the leftover excitement of an ODI was killed by the incessant frequency with which India and Sri Lanka pleased each other.

Then came a time when a bilateral series of five or seven ODIs came close to be regarded as a futile exercise, with some corridors even resonating with a cry to stop it. But that argument lost steam when, for e.g., a game between England and New Zealand, was played to empty galleries in a tri-series in India, whereas stadiums in a series of five ODIs during, say, Australia's tour of India were packed to capacity for each game.

The mathematics was easily understood by the ICC, that no need to touch bilateral series, keep multi-nation series to a bare minimum and design ICC events in a way that all major cricketing nations reach the business end.

As a result, the 2011 World Cup saw the tournament rules undergoing a change to ensure Test-playing nations don't make early exits due to just one defeat in the first round, which happened with India and Pakistan in 2007 after they were stunned by Bangladesh and Ireland, respectively, to leave the tournament tasteless. That followed India's success at the 2011 World Cup trophy at home, which breathed new life into the format.

Quite rightly then, at its latest meeting, the ICC pressed the undo button on deleting Champions Trophy from their calendar, re-affirming the fact that an ICC event is critical to the existence of one-day internationals.

And the 2015 World Cup now has a job to vindicate the fact that 2011 re-established.

The 11th edition of the cricket spectacle has returned to Oceania after a gap of 23 years. And how satisfying it will be to see a new champion. Not the four-time champions Australia or the two-time winners India and West Indies or for that matter Pakistan or Sri Lanka. But a new champion.

May be it's time for New Zealand, the team with most semi-final appearances, or South Africa - two perennial World Cup chokers. May be England throw their hat in to finally bury the ghost of Mike Gatting's sweep in 1987.

Fair to say, it's an open World Cup. Pakistan won the last edition on Australian soil in 1992 after losing six warm-up games in a row. India are going through a similar kind of run. They have been in Australia for close to three months but have only one win to show - that too in an unofficial warm-up one-dayer against the lowly Afghanistan.

But if Pakistan's run in 1992, which had to thank a rained-out game and Inzamam's belligerence in the semis, is anything to go by, then you can't rule out India's title defence altogether. However, there's hell of a difference in Pakistan's 1992 bowling attack and the one India is carrying in 2015.

Results of the warm-up games suggest something on the similar lines. Zimbabwe beat Sri Lanka, Ireland got the better of Bangladesh, Scotland lost to West Indies by just 3 runs chasing 313. Poof! This indeed could be the most open World Cup to date.

The first World Cup in 1975 finished in less than three weeks; this one will take double the time - six weeks. Nobody is complaining about it, but minnows Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland and UAE will have to put up some challenge if they want a re-think from the ICC that why the 2019 edition shouldn't be a 10-team event.

Bangladesh could be clubbed in that minnow group, especially after losing to Ireland, who are doing all the right things to move towards a demand for Test status.

Perhaps it's time for Zimbabwe to deliver a promise the likes of Dave Houghton, Heath Streak, the Flower brothers and Neil Johnson almost fulfilled, but for the political turmoil in the country that seemed to have done an irreparable damage to their cricket.

The format, though, leaves little hope for the bottom-ranked teams. Two pools of seven teams with three lowly teams in each makes it a red-carpet welcome to quarter-finals for the top eight Test nations. Three wins should keep them among the top four by the end of pool stage, but teams like Ireland, Scotland and Zimbabwe will want to upset calculations.

PREDICTIONS

Pool A:

(Through) England, Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand

(Eliminated) Bangladesh, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Scotland

Pool B:

(Through to QF): South Africa, India, Pakistan, West Indies

(Eliminated)Zimbabwe, Ireland, United Arab Emirates

As a few of the experts quite rightly pointed out, from the quarter-finals onwards, it's anybody's game, and whichever team plays its best cricket for three games in a row may come out as the winner.

It will sound cliched, but may the best team win.