Woolmer expects close World Cup

Bob Woolmer: 'There are a lot of teams who can win at any one stage' © Getty Images

Bob Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, believes next year's World Cup in West Indies will be the one of the most open in the competition's history. Woolmer's side have been widely tipped as one of the leading challengers to defending champions Australia, given the wide array of talent they have at their disposal in all areas.

They dominated the opening fixtures of their ongoing one-day series against England, which they lead 2-1 heading into Sunday's finale at Edgbaston. Despite an eight-wicket defeat against England under the Trent Bridge floodlights on Friday, Woolmer's men remain an impressive one-day outfit.

But Woolmer reckons Pakistan are just one of several sides who had a shot at winning the World Cup, which takes place in the Caribbean during March and April.

"This World Cup in particular is going to be one of the closest World Cups of all time because there are so many sides at an even level," he said. "Australia have been pegged back a little bit and there are a lot of teams who can win at any one stage.

"For three games we have been written up as world champions but we know that that just doesn't happen. The nature of limited-overs matches means that unlike Test cricket it is difficult to fight back when in a corner."

Woolmer added that close finishes in ODIs are actually quite rare: "One-day cricket is a lottery, if a team gets on top it can lead to a situation like we had [on Friday] evening where one team wins quite easily.

"One side bats well, the other bowls badly, it is all relative. Very rarely do you get really close games in international cricket, they are few and far between if you actually look at it - one side normally gets on top and nails the other one.

"There are occasionally some fantastic games like at Southampton earlier this week [where Pakistan beat England by two wickets], or the famous World Cup semi-final between South Africa and Australia at Edgbaston in 1999."