Quotes of the Day

If you've ever wondered why most of the sporting public is blissfully unconcerned about the eighth World Cricket Cup tournament, which just began in Cape Town, dip into the rule book. Each match lasts up to seven hours, with each side at bat for three and a half. Even if a batsman gets out, his side may still be in. If he gets a bouncer from the bowler, he ducks. If he gets out before scoring any runs, he gets a duck. If no runs are scored from a six-ball session, that's called "bowling a maiden over."

With a lexicon like this, is it any wonder cricket isn't a global game? Well, hold on to your googly — it's threatening to become one. With rabid fans in Africa, South Asia, Australia and of course the U.K., where the game began, the sport has two new World Cup teams this year, growing viewership, expanded corporate sponsorships and elaborate showmanship — and it has put a decade of nasty, high-profile match fixing and betting scandals behind it. Cricket's campaigners hope this World Cup will be the event that catapults the sport into the same arena as other global championships. Malcolm Gray, president of the International Cricket Council, is already claiming victory: "The tournament has grown beyond all expectations," he says. "It is now one of the greatest sporting events on the world calendar."

Host nation South Africa needs that to be the case. It is using the cricket competition to showcase not only its potential as an international sporting venue but also its post-apartheid aura of unity and democracy. The country hosted, and won, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and was beaten controversially by Germany for rights to the 2006 soccer World Cup. The South Africans are hungry to host the soccer spectacular in 2010. "Sport in South Africa has proved to be a unifying and empowering force," said South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki at the weekend opening ceremony in Cape Town, in which some 4,500 volunteer performers staged a stirring African-themed spectacular. South Africa also has visions of a stirring upset before the home crowds over heavily favored Australia.

Most of the upset so far, though, centers on the eight opening-round matches scheduled to be played in Zimbabwe and Kenya. New Zealand refused to play in Kenya, citing security concerns stemming from last year's suicide bomb attack on a Mombasa tourist hotel, and warnings of possible further terrorist actions. And, up to opening day, the English and Australian teams were still discussing the possibility of refusing to play in Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe has become an international pariah because of his repressive regime. Government officials protest that Britain has blown everything out of proportion. "Cricket is a game. Every game, every sport, should be divorced from politics," says Thompson Tsodzo, permanent secretary at the Zimbabwe Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture. "People are coming to play a game. Is England afraid of being beaten by us?"

But English players, whose official appeal to move the match was turned down Friday, were plainly worried that any demonstrations by Mugabe's opposition that took place while a game was in progress would be harshly suppressed.

The ICC, which controls the World Cup, and South African World Cup management officials insist that security isn't an issue in either country, but there are contingency plans to play the disputed games in South Africa. The teams could forfeit points if they refuse to play, which would probably prevent England from advancing to the second round, the Super Six.

The ICC is also trying to ensure that gamblers won't leave a mark on the game as they last did in 2000, when Hansie Cronje, captain of the South African side in the 1999 World Cup, fell spectacularly from grace after he admitted taking money from an Indian bookmaker. In India, betting on cricket has an estimated turnover of $9 billion a year. So the ICC has drawn up a list of around 100 "undesirables" to keep an eye on. With more than $5 million in prize money available — the winning side gets $2 million — under a battery of TV cameras that capture almost every blink, smile, spit and curse, and now help the umpires make hairline decisions on whether a batsman should be called in or out, the players should have plenty more to think about than match fixing.

Once played sedately on the village greens of England and known as the gentlemen's game, cricket is transforming itself for wider appeal. Night games, sponsorships, teams in national colors instead of the traditional Test cricket whites, cheer leaders, Mexican waves, blasts of Kylie Minogue in between overs, even streakers — cricket has shown itself perfectly willing to embrace the vulgarities of modern sport. The cup is expected to attract 1.2 billion TV viewers, almost double the number that tuned in for the 1999 tournament.

Australia has been the Tiger Woods of international cricket — if they're on form, and they almost always are, everyone else is roadkill. That would include Namibia, which, along with Canada, is the newest addition to the now 14-team tournament. Australia is led by its captain, Ricky Ponting, and Shane Warne, one of the world's greatest spin bowlers. But the team appears to have a bottomless well of batting talent, and behind Warne's trickery is a trio of fast bowlers who can do just as much damage.

Among other potential heroes to look out for: England's Marcus Trescothick and India's pint-sized maestro Sachin Tendulkar. Pakistan's Yousuf Youhana and Shoaib Akhtar, the "Rawalpindi Express," who can bowl a ball at 161 km/h, should be enough to keep them in contention. And don't miss Sri Lanka's man with the golden arm, spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, sometimes known as the smiling assassin because he grins incessantly as he mercilessly bowls out opposing batsmen.

For South Africa, meanwhile, there is the chance to recoup from a disastrous semifinal of the 1999 World Cup, when a dreadful mix-up with two balls remaining between their batsmen Allan Donald and Lance Klusener — named player of the tournament — gave victory to Australia, who went on to win the final.

A primary host country has never won the world event. Once barred from international cricket because of the government's insistence on an all-white team, South Africa, with an impressive list of recent international one-day wins, now has five nonwhites in its squad. Two of them, opening batsman Herschelle Gibbs and fast bowler Makhaya Ntini, could well be in line for Klusener's crown.

Much of the proceeds from the South African competition will be plowed into cricket development among the underprivileged black population. "We want to see the day when every kid in every black township will get the chance to play cricket," says Ali Bacher, once captain of the South African national side during the long years of isolation, and now executive director of the World Cup organization. Whatever South Africa's result, that would be considered a victory

• PETER HAWTHORNE/Cape Town
• Ccricket's World Cup is playing for popularity