NEW DELHI, Aug 5: World Cup cricket CEO Chris Dehring is hoping the 2007 championship in West Indies turns out to be a ‘Cinderella story’ — or a tournament full of surprise results.

In biggest ever cricket World Cup comprising 16 teams, qualifiers Holland, Scotland, Bermuda, Canada and Ireland will be up against big boys Australia — defending champions, runners-up India, England, Pakistan and others in March-April competition.

“We will have to wait until tournament evolves to see performance of some of teams. Clearly, it has made some of opening round matches not as attractive to find. But reality is upsets make tournaments - Cinderella story, the underdogs.”

To support his argument, Dehring, who was here for Indian launch of World Cup, pointed out minnows Kenya's dream run in 2003 World Cup in South Africa where they reached semi-finals against all odds.

“They almost became fans' favourites because people wanted to see Kenyans do well as they were underdogs. Similarly, in 2006 football World Cup Trinidad & Tobago were very popular even though they did not win any game.”

“I would like to see underdogs or less popular teams do well, but let's see how the tournament pans out to see whether 16 is right number or not.”

In South Africa, 14 teams took part and this time as many as five qualifiers have joined 10 Test-playing nations and Kenya at March 11- April 28 tournament.

Another issue that concerns the tournament is accommodation. It is feared hotels would hike up tariffs during World Cup, making it inconvenient for thousands expected to descend on the Caribbean.

Dehring said fans should not worry as there were several options for them.

“We have wide range of accommodation — from home stay programmes to villa programmes, bed-and breakfast programmes and a number of cruise ships available which are great value for money.”—Agencies