Bowing out on the big stage

Foremost among these will be the great Pakistani fast-bowling pair of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. Both have taken over 400 wickets apiece in one-day internationals and it will be a very long time before a country will have two bowlers opening its attack who can boast that. Both of them have lost some of their fire in terms of speed, but the experience they have gained along the way amply compensates for that.

Along with these two, Allan Donald will be playing his last World Cup. Like Wasim and Waqar, he too has lost much of his original pace but is not a less effective bowler for that. He has settled in nicely into his role as the first change behind Pollock and Ntini, which means that he does most of his bowling after the fielding restrictions have been lifted. Also saying goodbye would be Aussie Shane Warne, arguably the greatest leg spinner the game has seen, and Glenn McGrath, perhaps the most accurate bowler. Both have been spearheads of Australian attacks in both forms of the game and once again in South Africa, Australia will be looking to them to bowl sides out. They have more than able support in Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie, although there may a slight question mark over the bowling prowess of the Australian allrounders.

The great Sri Lankan wizard Muttiah Muralitharan has also made it known that this will be his last World Cup. He leads a Sri Lankan attack in which he is by far the greatest threat and his side will probably be looking to its part time spinners like De Silva, Jayasuriya and Arnold to take the pace off the ball and let the batsmen come out to hit them. Sri Lanka won the 1996 World Cup mainly on the back of its batting with Jayasuriya leading the way in a brilliant exploitation of what was then the new rule about field restrictions in the first 15 overs.

Last, but by no means least, India’s Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath will also be saying goodbye to cricket’s premier tournament in South Africa. Both have been great servants of Indian cricket, but India’s efforts will have to be led by its batting powerhouse consisting of Sehwag, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid with Yuvraj and Kaif capable of feats to match anything the ‘‘Big Four’’ can produce.

There will also be some leading batsmen saying goodbye in South Africa. Saeed Anwar of Pakistan, at his best the most scintillating opener the one-day game has known, will obviously be bowing out and one hopes he can make it a swan song to remember. So too will be Aravinda De Silva, man of the match in the 1996 World Cup final at Lahore, Windies captain Carl Hooper and Englishmen Alec Stewart and Nasser Hussain.

The West Indies have a point to prove after their great performances in 1975 and 1979 and Hooper will be trying his very best to prove it. In Lara and Gayle, they have two striking players who can post a winning score on their own and I feel the first match of the tournament between hosts South Africa and the West Indies will be a very close one.

It would not surprise me in the least if the West Indies took it and went on to post great successes in the tournament. The pressure on the home team can be immense and the South Africans must be feeling the heat. This to my mind is the main reason why no home team has so far won the Cup although the advantage of home conditions can be a major one.

But in the end, a tournament such as the World Cup is all about coping with pressure and peaking at the right time. The team that is able to do these two things best will be laughing on the 23rd of March.

(The writer is the former captain of Kent and Pakistan)