Buoyed by Sunday’s inspirational opening ceremony at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium on Jamaica’s north west coast, hosts West Indies and Pakistan will create another piece of history today when they meet in the opening game of the ICC 2007 Cricket World Cup at the more than 100-year-old Sabina Park in downtown Kingston.

Sixteen international teams led by the hosts, as well as defending champions Australia will be competing in nine Caribbean countries over the next 47 days, involving 51 games culminating in the grand final at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados on April 28.

Cricket’s World Cup is easily the largest and most expensive sporting venture ever to be held in the English-speaking Caribbean, as well as the biggest and most complex joint-venture event undertaken by regional governments. They are forking out in excess of US$400 million to finance the tournament, with Jamaica footing the bill for about J$8 billion or well in excess of US$100 million.

Jamaica is spending in excess of US$60 million for the brand new Trelawny stadium and for the almost complete re-make of Sabina Park – the traditional headquarters of Jamaica’s cricket. Improvements to roads, airports, the health sector, and beautification programmes, etc, have also factored heavily in Jamaica’s spend.

In Kingston, Zimbabwe and ICC associate nation Ireland join West Indies and Pakistan in Group D for six first-round games. Group D action ends on March 23 with the hosts up against Ireland at Sabina Park.

Group D apart, there are also Group A in St Kitts & Nevis, Group B in Trinidad and Tobago and Group C in St Lucia.

Two teams from each of the four groups will advance to the Super Eight stage of the World Cup. From there, the top four will advance to semi-finals on April 24 in Jamaica and April 25 in St Lucia.

Hosts West Indies will be bidding to win their first World Cup since Clive Lloyd’s legendary teams won back-to-back titles in the very first tournament in 1975 and again in 1979 – both played in England. Lloyd’s team seemed headed for a third successive title in 1983 – also in England – only to be shocked by India in the final.

But to win the 2007 version of the Cricket World Cup, West Indies, led by 37-year-old master batsman Brian Lara – now in his fifth World Cup – will have to swim against the tide of history, since no host nation has ever won cricket’s most prestigious tournament.

It’s an extraordinary fact that hasn’t been lost

on Lara.

“We know that the host nations haven’t had a great record when it comes to winning,” Lara said recently. “Let’s just say that we (West Indies) are confident we are going to have a very good World Cup.”

To the annoyance and extreme frustration of West Indians, Lara’s team is also haunted by the curse of inconsistency – running hot and cold for no apparent reason.

That curse reared its head once more last week in the World Cup warm-up phase with the West Indies being dismissed for 85 by India and in the end going down to a humiliating nine-wicket loss on a fair pitch, before a large crowd at Trelawny.

Lara, understandably, has found comfort from the fact that his team has turned in such performances before, only to bounce back with a vengeance. As recently as the ICC Champions Trophy in India last October, West Indies, the defending champions, after shocking the world two years earlier, were embarrassed by Sri Lanka – skittled for 80 and beaten by nine wickets – only to follow with some compelling cricket before being beaten by Australia in the final. The last, following another astounding batting collapse.

“We have to refresh our memories now about how we got ourselves out of this situation the last time and do it again,” Lara said after last Friday’s warm-up loss. He also suggested that perhaps the humiliating defeat by India “could be used as some sort of tonic for us to get our act together…” ahead of the start of World Cup competition.

From a purely psychological point of view there could be no tougher opponents for the hosts than Pakistan for today’s opening game.

The Pakistanis – winners of the 1992 World Cup – have beaten the West Indies in five of six ODIs over the last two years, including a 3-1 series win in Pakistan last December and a 3-0 sweep in the Caribbean in 2005.

The Asians had an ideal tune-up for today’s opening game with successive warm-up wins over Canada and No 1-ranked South Africa in Port-of-Spain last week.

However, Pakistan’s coach Bob Woolmer has warned against reading too much into the warm-ups.

“We do take it with a pinch of salt,” the former England batsman said. “We now need to win the main matches.”

Pakistan’s preparation has been affected by doping cases involving pacemen Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif – both of whom are absent from the tournament, officially because of health problems.

But Lara and his men will have no reason to feel comforted by their absence, since neither was in the mix over the last two years in the West Indies’ losses to Pakistan.

Today, the West Indies will be up against a high-quality pace attack that is likely to be led by the tall, impressive 24-year-old Umar Gul. Other pace options include Azhar Mahmood, Mohammad Sami and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan. The dangerous wrist spinner Danish Kaneria could also be an option on a Sabina pitch that traditionally provides bounce for pacers as well as spinners. The Pakistan batting is potentially as good as any with their captain and batting master Inzamam-ul-Haq, the prolific Mohammad Yousuf and the consistent Younis Khan expected to lead the way.

Lara will be hoping that the hard-hitting Chris Gayle and the veteran Shivnarine Chanderpaul produce the goods at the top of the order and that others like Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels and Dwayne Bravo also come through with the bat. Based on recent form, pacers Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell and Corey Collymore could be asked to lead the attack.

There has been real concern lately about the left-arm pacer Ian Bradshaw, who in recent games has looked a shadow of himself. A key element from the West Indies perspective will be the performance with the ball of off-spinners Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels.

Sabina’s pitch curator Patrick Gordon is predicting a “batsman-friendly” pitch with even pace and bounce, while the Met Office expects partly cloudy and humid conditions in Kingston.

Squads: West Indies – Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan (vice-captain), Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Denesh Ramdin, Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell, Corey Collymore, Ian Bradshaw, Devon Smith, Lendl Simmons, Kieron Pollard.

Pakistan – Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Younis Khan (vice-captain), Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Azhar Mahmood, Yasir Arafat, Mohammad Sami, Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria, Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, Rao Iftikhar.

Umpires – Billy Bowden, New Zealand, and Simon Taufel, Australia.

Third umpire – Brian Jerling, South Africa.

Match Referee – Chris Broad, England.