South Africa will face the West Indies in the opening match of the 2003 World Cup

South Africa will face the West Indies in the opening match of the 2003 World Cup and that, said 2003 CWC executive director Ali Bacher on Monday, is official.

With the two pools for the tournament seeded this time around there has been some uncertainty as to the final composition of these pools and, consequently, South Africa's opening game opponents. The qualifying period for the pools ended on September 30 with South Africa and the West Indies in Pool B along with Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Canada and Kenya. Pool A will consist of Australia, Pakistan, India, England, Zimbabwe, the Netherlands and Namibia.

As a result of the seedings, said Bacher, the World Cup policy committee had asked the West Indies to take part in the opening match.

Bacher said: "South Africa has long admired and respected the incredible contribution that the West Indies have made to the international game through the uniqueness of their cricket and their great players. They have richly entertained cricket fans for more than five decades."

The West Indies, it seems, had little hesitation in taking up the offer.

"This is indeed a great honour for the people of the West Indies and our team," said Wes Hall, president of the West Indies Cricket Board of Control. "It further emphasises the close ties that have existed between our two countries since South Africa re-entered international cricket with the inaugural Test match in Barbados in 1992."

Now that the teams have been settled, the policy committee still has to fix a date for the game. Originally the opening match was scheduled for Newlands on February 6, but a decision has been taken to move the final forward three and four days and this will ripple through the tournament, causing the opening game to be moved forward. The opening match, nevertheless, will still be played during the first week of February, 2003.

According to Bacher, consultations are currently taking place between the organising committee, the International Cricket Council and the Global Cricket Corporation (the joint venture between the World Sport Group and News International) in an attempt to maximise television audiences and revenues from the tournament.

The original date for the final was Wednesday, March 19, but it will now be played on Saturday, March 15 or Sunday, March 16. This will cause the entire tournament to be condensed to 38 or 39 days and there will now probably only be two days between the second semi-final and the final.

The full schedule for the tournament is due to be announced at the end of this month.

Limited Overs International Results

21 June 1999 to 30 September 2001

Team              P     W     L     T    NR   %Won
1    Australia        52    40    10     1     1  78.43
2    South Africa     59    39    18     1     1  67.24
3    Sri Lanka        60    37    21     1     1  62.71
4    Pakistan         65    37    27     1     0  56.92
5    India            71    34    36     0     1  48.57
6    West Indies      60    24    34     0     2  41.38
7    New Zealand      53    20    31     0     2  39.22
8    England          30    11    18     0     1  37.93
9    Zimbabwe         66    17    48     0     1  26.15
= 10 Bangladesh        9     0     9     0     0   0.00
Kenya             7     0     7     0     0   0.00

Note: The %Won calculation excludes "No Result" matches.