Let the games begin

The Greeks would sympathise. There has been something Athenian about the doubts and delays that have dogged England's preparation for the ICC Champions Trophy, which gets underway at Edgbaston and The Oval on Friday. While the Zimbabwe crisis was raging, there was a genuine threat that the tournament would be whisked away to India, and as for the venues - neither The Oval, which is midway through its long-overdue facelift, nor the Rose Bowl, with its recently laid pitches, looked as if they could possibly be ready for such a high-profile event.

Factor in all those other peripheral matters, such as the wisdom of staging such a jamboree so late in the English season, sluggish ticket sales, and the blink-and-you-miss-it format, which seemed tailormade for another embarrassingly early exit for the hosts, and there were all the makings of cricket's dampest squib since ... well, the opening ceremony of the 1999 World Cup at a rainy Lord's.

But then again, it is not every day that you get all the world's top players (give or take a Tendulkar or Muralitharan) gathered together in one place, and it is not every day that English cricket finds itself on a roll of quite such staggering proportions. So far, touch wood, even the weather looks as if it might play along. Far from being a tournament too many, the coming fortnight has all the makings of a celebration of cricket - and, assuming they don't fall at the first hurdle, a celebration of England's remarkable season as well.

That factor could be the clincher. With apologies to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, it is not being unduly one-eyed to suggest that the tournament's best hope of capturing the public's imagination is for England to progress beyond the group stage - for the first time in the competition's history. The whole show will be done and dusted in 15 manic days, which is a far cry from the bloated, seven-week slog everyone endured at the last World Cup. The longer the host nation is involved, the better.

Given the disparity between the competing teams, the four groups of three could hardly be better balanced. There is little prospect of an upset from any of the four underdogs (and in the case of USA v Australia, those of a weak constitution ought to look away now). In fact, the only side that might conceivably fancy their chances are Bangladesh, the best of the rest, who have been drawn alongside those two faltering powers, South Africa and West Indies.

The tasty ties, however, are Australia v New Zealand in Pool A, and India v Pakistan in Pool C. Quite apart from the local rivalries involved, each throws up the prospect of a clear challenge to the established pecking order. Australia, as they showed against Pakistan at Lord's on Saturday, retain an uncanny ability to wriggle out of any tight corner, but both they and India have shown signs of vulnerability in their recent performances.

As for India, their victory over a Flintoff-free England in the last match of the NatWest Challenge was hailed in some quarters as the turning of a corner. That might be over-egging the game's significance slightly - the mere fact that England selected Anthony McGrath as Flintoff's stand-in was ample proof that England have, to borrow Brian Lara's phrase, no Plan B, not when it comes to their one-day side, anyway. It is time for Duncan Fletcher to cross his fingers and pray that his first XI can come through four more matches unscathed.

There is, of course, one potential match-up lurking around the corner that could conceivably shunt even Wayne Rooney and Graeme Souness off the back pages of the British tabloids for a day or two. If England can see off a Murali-less Sri Lanka at the Rose Bowl, and Australia send everything pear-shaped for the Kiwis at The Oval, then the big two will square up at Edgbaston on September 21. It will give England a chance to lay the ghost of that two-wicket defeat at last year's World Cup, not to mention a marker or two for next summer's Ashes.

It's not all going to be fun and frolics, however. The ICC has seen to that with their absurdly draconian stance on spectators' picnics (never mind British Rail suffering from the wrong sort of snow; to be apprehended for the wrong sort of cheesy nibbles really takes the, er, biscuit). And all the while, the climate threatens to jeopardise the entertainment. Never mind the threat of rain, the real fear is that too many matches will be decided by the toss of a coin, as fielding sides take the chance to exploit the moist conditions that will prevail early in the morning.

But all such doubts remain, at this stage, mere speculation. A global audience of millions will be tuning in over the next fortnight; there is prizemoney of US$1.15million at stake, and new stump-microphone technology has been introduced to aid the umpires in adjudicating on caught-behind decisions. All of this and more goes to show how high-profile this tournament is intended to be. It's time to put the cynicism to one side, and let the games begin.