It146;s about speed-breakers, not speed

As if that isn8217;t disheartening enough, there are far too many 8216;injury8217; casualties this time around, already robbing the March 13-April 28 fest of its sheen on the bowler8217;s front.

Aussie mainstay Brett Lee is out. So are illustrious Pakistan sensations Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif. This World Cup clearly doesn8217;t have super-heavyweight crowd-pullers like Wasim Akram, Shane Warne or Allan Donald.

That leaves us with either alarmingly ageing or stressed-out warhorses, or simply with the hobbling-with-injuries lot to look up to8212;namely, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shaun Pollock, Andrew Symonds, Anil Kumble, James Anderson and a sprinkling more.

On the choking slow and low pitches in the Caribbean, the slow bowlers should call the shots. They may not rule, but you can well imagine thinking captains exploiting the deadness of the wickets in the middle-overs, deploying spinners and part-timers.

A scrutiny of the top-draw teams will give us a clearer picture of how they are placed. Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid can actually be quietly confident on tackling the slow-low front. Questions are being raised on whether there8217;s a deserving pace line-up to support the only new ball certainty, Zaheer Khan. Yet, even if a barely recovering Munaf Patel, a ghost-of-himself Irfan Pathan and an erratic S Sreesanth don8217;t instil confidence, there8217;s enough firepower on the slower side of things.

Team India8217;s opponents will be wary of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. Both will play pivotal roles in the middle-overs. And then, of course, there8217;s plenty more to choose from8212;Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh.

With the Indians feeling at home on those wickets, you can picture Dravid marshalling his spin options, choking rival batsmen in the middle-overs, after handing the new ball duties to the trusted pair of Zaheer and Ajit Agarkar.

About Australia, don8217;t jump to conclusions with Lee out of the equation. Despite missing a genuine spinner even a quarter of the calibre of the long-gone Warne, that is perhaps the only side in the 16-team tussle that has enough finishers in the ranks who can bowl out of their skin just when it matters.

Other batting line-ups will be drooling at the prospect of facing a rare, lacklustre Oz battery8212;McGrath is over the hill to dominate throughout the tournament, Nathan Bracken isn8217;t the aggressive type, Symonds is convalescing, Shane Watson is too expensive in crunch games, while in-form Shaun Tait isn8217;t often the man to watch out for.

Yet, there8217;s the wily duo of comeback kid Michael Clarke and the fast-evolving Brad Hogg, who can play the speed-breakers8217; or chokers8217; role in the middle-overs.

England and South Africa, famously hailed as the best nations never to have won the World Cup, sadly look off course this time as well. England will rely far too heavily on their spin sensation Monty Panesar. But that8217;s about it, with ace pacers Anderson and Jon Lewis down with back and ankle injuries, respectively, leaving it all up to the unpredictable Andrew Flintoff.

Spare a thought for the Proteas. Keen to get over the blues in the last World Cup, they have a pace battery that can raise hell on responsive wickets. But no matter how potential the combination of Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Jacques Kallis and Andre Nel can be, that key missing link 8212; the missing spinner8212;could cost South Africa dear on the slow-low pitches.

Less awkwardly positioned on the spin front are hosts West Indies, even if they seem too Lara-heavy. If the experienced Chris Gayle and the cunning Marlon Samuels do what they do best8212;bowling out the bulk of the middle-overs with authority8212;then surely there8217;s much to Windies8217; bowling this time round than just the tearaway Jerome Taylor.

Equally paradoxical could be New Zealand8217;s run. They go in as the only team that has shown true tenacity in overcoming any form of run chase as we witnessed in the Chappell-Hadlee Series. Yet, not fluttered and calculating that skipper Stephen Fleming always is, he knows that more than Bond read: sheer pace or Brendon McCullum read: lusty hitting, it8217;s his slow options in Daniel Vettori, Jeetan Patel or even the adjustable Craig McMillan who have to deliver big time.

That leaves us with Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Pakistan won8217;t have Shoaib and Asif, and new ball hope Umar Gul is nursing an ankle injury. Mohammed Sami has reached the Caribbean as one replacement Yasir Arafat is the other, but the former has just recovered and Rana Naved ul-Hasan may not be too impressive.

That leaves Inzamam with Azhar Mahmood and Shahid Nazir. The country will be praying for Danish Kaneria, Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik to overcome the crisis with their spin.

The Lankans, meanwhile, go in with a lot of confidence on the bowling front. Last World Cup8217;s top wicket-taker Chaminda Vaas isn8217;t over the hill yet. And the bowling department will rely on the experience of Murali and Sanath Jayasuriya, who have done it umpteen times before on 8216;subcontinent-like8217; conditions.

The 1991-92 World Cup was the last time you could see bowlers having a ball. Thereafter it has been all about batsmen.