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Wide Open Twenty20 World Cup Offers Opportunities
Tuesday 11 September 2007 at 10:15
 The inaugural World Cup kicks off today when South Africa take on the West Indies, and while Australia will be favourites to take the title it is far from clear which team will prove to be masters of this new format.
Australia are favourites at 15/8 with Paddy Power, largely due to their number one test position, and go in to the Twenty20 World Cup as champions in the 50-over format.
However, Australia have only played six international Twenty20 matches and yesterday lost a warm up match against South Africa by eight wickets.
In fact the skills needed for the twenty over version vary from the longer forms of the game so results may no go to form.
The West Indies, poor at the One Day World Cup, have some big hitters in the likes of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo so could be in a better position than their odds of 8/1 with Paddy Power suggest.
India, who have in the past been the team to beat in the 50 over game, have only ever played one international Twenty20 match and Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly are not playing in the tournament, hence a price of 9/1 with Blue Square.
England, meanwhile, have Twenty20 experience - and have picked a squad to reflect this - but it will be interesting to see if they have the big hitters to complement Kevin Pietersen and the bowlers to keep the opposition batsmen in check.
Pakistan actually have the best record in the Twenty20 format and the Faisalabad Wolves are the world club champions, so odds of 10/1 with Paddy Power may be one of the most attractive prospects.
Overall the message has to be that there are no certainties in the 20 over game, and there will no doubt be upsets during the tournament so there are chances of some good returns if a few risks are taken.
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