Battle of the big hitters

Confidence has a strange effect on cricketers. With the World Cup less than a week away England will go into their opening group game in St Lucia with a buoyant spring in their step—an unthinkable state of mind in the wake of their Ashes debacle. But a much improved Commonwealth Bank tri-series win, where an underrated New Zealand and a weakened Australia were overcome by an England team with a point to prove, replenished those reserves of self-belief, prompting skipper Michael Vaughan to upgrade his team's chances to "dark horses".

A touch over-optimistic, perhaps, but England certainly have the firepower, if not the consistency to go all the way. As Geoffrey Boycott is fond of repeating, one-day cricket is all about maximising opportunities to score runs, and this World Cup looks set to feature some record-breaking run totals—some of which will surely underline the gulf in class between cricket's haves and its have-nots. "It is not going to be evenly balanced when bats are getting stronger and boundaries shorter," said former Australian Test captain Ian Chappell, when asked if this World Cup might produce the first 500 total.

If big scores do play a part, strength in depth will be key. With a fit-again Kevin Pietersen, England's middle order looks at least as strong as the Aussies' (who will start without Symonds and Gilchrist) and perhaps even stronger than both hosts the West Indies and South Africa, who will rely on the unpredictable Justin Kemp to clear the ropes. England's strategy will be to start conservatively, before unleashing big-hitters Flintoff and Pietersen to try and put the game out of sight.

Lifting the trophy would still be some achievement. The one-day game in this country comes a very distant second to Test Match cricket, an imbalance coach Duncan Fletcher has done little to rectify. Admittedly, when he took the top job in 2000, Fletcher's priority was to turn around an ailing Test side, at the time the lowest ranked team in the world. He managed it, but his record in one-day internationals has been woeful—24 defeats in his last 31 is hardly World Cup winning form and England will need to dig deep if they're to make any ground in the Super 8, or indeed make it to the semi-finals.

One team unlikely to make either stage is Scotland, who may find their opening game against the champions Australia sets the tone of their campaign. Next up for the Scots is a mis-match against South Africa, before a final, more realistic, chance to pick up some points against the Netherlands. Post-defeat anaesthetics will be supplied by kit sponsor Deuchars IPA, a beer brewed by the Caledonian Brewery, which is also supplying two of the team's starting eleven, vice captain Ryan Watson and all-rounder Gavin Hamilton. Their colleagues have created a special brew, aptly named Allrounder, to commemorate the occasion.

Tickets for the group matches are yet to sell out, so there's still time to point the company jet in the general direction of the Caribbean and join the party. For the rest of us, Sky will be providing its usual breathless coverage of every game, from around lunchtime GMT. England are currently sixth favourites behind India, who thrashed England 5-1 in last year's one day tour of the subcontinent; Sri Lanka; hosts the West Indies; South Africa; and favourites Australia, who are 12/5 to retain the trophy. Be careful with those betting stubs. William Hill has made injury-prone skipper Michael Vaughan 9/4 favourite to be the first England player to score a half century. That's the same Michael Vaughan with a distinctly mediocre average of 28 from 74 one-day internationals. Funny thing, confidence.