December 06, 2006	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 14, 1427

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RAWALPINDI, Dec 5: West Indies captain Brian Lara has predicted the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup will be a great windfall for the Caribbean Isles in terms of financial gains.

Lara, arguably one of great ambassadors of the game, said: “There will be a lot of revenue generated from the World Cup and we are going to make huge profits. I believe and hope it’s a great tournament not because of just cricket on the field, but also for all the visitors coming up from wherever – Pakistan, India, Australia, South Africa. England – and they are really going to enjoy the islands they travel to.

“They are tourist-oriented islands and I’m sure there will be a lot of fun and its going to be a successful tournament.”

Lara also indicated there will be high-scoring matches in the World Cup, which opens on March 13 with the West Indies taking on Pakistan in the opening fixture at Sabina Park in Kingston (Jamaica).

“The pitches are going to be good. They are normally very good pitches and scores close to 300 is a norm in the Caribbean. I’m sure we will see a lot of high-scoring and close matches between the good sides.”

The West Indian skipper hoped the trend of the hosts not winning the tournament would change this time.

“There should be a shift in the tide in terms of the host team winning the World Cup. Sri Lanka partly did it in 1996 when they only hosted a few matches while the majority number of games were staged in India and Pakistan,” he said.

Lara emphasized the West Indies are keen to provide their fans with the World Cup trophy for the first time in 28 years and added the playing in the home environment would suit them.

“The West Indies is a peculiar place to play cricket and since we are accustomed to playing in our backyard. I expect us to get really fired up for the World Cup. And if we put up consistent performances together, especially in the last part of the tournament, I think we could go very close to winning it,” he remarked.

Lara, a veteran of 131 Tests and 279 One-day Internationals, expressed his satisfaction at the improvement shown by his charges in recent months.

“I’m happy with the progress we have had made in the one-day arena this year since we had something like 60 percent win ratio. It’s really good to have that sort of record, especially in tumultuous times when have not been playing good cricket as a team in both forms of the game.

“I think we have a team that is coming together, gelling together and performing,” he concluded.