Tony Becca

THE 2007 World Cup is just a matter of days away an no home team has ever won it, there are many West Indians, including the great Viv Richards, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh - plus yours truly, who believe the West Indies, like any of the other seven top ranked teams, can win it.

One reason for that opinion, and definitely so in my case, is that but for the exception of Australia at their best, the top eight teams are just about equal. Another reason is that it is a one-day 50-over contest and maybe because it is a short contest, any team can win on any day.

Still another reason is that the West Indies batting on its day is as good as any in the world and, in terms of aggression, it can, at times, be even more deadly than any.

A batting line-up, expected to be Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Marlon Samuels and captain Brian Lara, Dwayne Bravo and Dwayne Smith could be awesome.

More than batting

Apart from consistency, however, to win the World Cup will take more than batting.

On top of good captaincy, good and inspired leadership, it will also involve good bowling, good and even brilliant fielding, and that is where doubt surrounds the West Indies' performance.

While the fans, and certainly Richards, Ambrose and Walsh, are keeping their fingers crossed and hoping for the best, the feeling is that the West Indies bowling and their fielding is not strong enough to consistently limit opposing teams to manageable totals, and that appears to be the consensus.

For me, however, there is one other reason why, despite their potentially dangerous batting line-up, it is more hope than conviction that the West Indies will win the World Cup, and that reason has nothing to do with the fact that the home team has never won it.

The one other reason is the lack of the home advantage.

To many, the home advantage is the crowd support, and while that is mostly so, that is not only so.

The home advantage, especially in a sport like cricket where the pitch is so important that it is the heart of the game, is more than the support in the stands. It is also the atmosphere and the pitch.

As far as the crowd support is concerned, the West Indies, in spite of the army of visitors expected in the region for the tournament, will be OK. But for matches involving England, despite all the predictions and the expectations, there will be enough West Indians in the stands - probably as many as three or four to every visitor.

As far as the atmosphere and the pitch are concerned, however, the West Indies will be strangers in their own backyard.

With the new stands around, with some of them, like the new north stand at Sabina Park, going way up in the air, the atmosphere will be different from what the cricketers are accustomed to and, after playing their first-round matches on the familiar pitches at Sabina Park, they will, if they make it, be playing their Super Eight matches, all six of them, on newly-laid pitches in Antigua, Grenada, Guyana and Barbados.

In other words the pitches in the new stadiums in Antigua, Grenada and Guyana are new the pitches in the renovated stadium in Barbados are new the top layer of each of them is now three inches deep and no longer six inches the bounce of the ball is likely to be different, an no one knows how they will play, the West Indies, like all the visiting teams, will be playing on them for the first time.

In other words, like Australia, South Africa, England, Pakistan, India, etc., etc., as far as the atmosphere and the pitches are concerned, the West Indies, the home team, will be strangers to them during World Cup 2007.