After the skirmishing the World Cup proper begins today at the stunning new Sir Viv Richards Stadium on the outskirts of St John's in Antigua when Australia, the holders, take on West Indies, the hosts and, for a whole raft of reasons, a side that desperately needs to do well.
If there is some sadness on flying in to VC Bird International Airport and seeing the derelict Recreation Ground with its memories - the fastest Test hundred plundered by the Master Blaster on his home turf; Brian Lara's brace of world record scores; Chickie's Disco and the antics of the cross-dressing clown Gravy in the rocking Double Decker stand - then it was always evident, as with Bourda in Guyana, they are grounds too small for the occasion.
To say the Super Eight stage is not quite as expected is an understatement. In conception the tournament was structured to give emerging nations their chance in the limelight, and that surely is no bad thing. The need to project the Caribbean region too demanded a spread of the cricket and, with inter-island hopping a logistical impossibility on the necessary scale - one eminent cricket journalist took 48 hours to get from Montego Bay to St Kitts, perhaps 90 minutes' direct flying time, an excursion that involved nine different islands, including Guadeloupe and St Martin - the organisers came up with as good a structure as they could under the circumstances.
Except, of course, the Associate countries together with Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, were expected to say their thank-yous and go home, leaving the stage to the big boys. Instead, all on one day, Ireland, through competitive zeal and some good fortune with conditions, defeated Pakistan and sent them packing in the saddest of circumstances; those who suggest that game was fixed show scant knowledge of how these things work and Ireland won on merit. And Bangladesh, magnificently, did the same to India.
Thus, a competition that ought to be about eight teams competing among themselves for four semi-final spots has, in reality, become at best six going towards the same target and probably four going after two places. It is going to be harder for the back markers to make up ground. The explanation is simple enough. Four sides - Australia, West Indies, New Zealand and Sri Lanka - take with them two points gained from beating the eventual second-placed side in their group, with the four remaining sides - England, South Africa, Bangladesh and Ireland - starting with a blank sheet. Group encounters are not repeated.
Bangladesh and Ireland are each offering two points. But West Indies have already got theirs from Ireland and likewise Sri Lanka from Bangladesh, leaving the Australasian duo as clear leaders with an almost certain guarantee of six points, with one of them getting another two when the sides meet in the penultimate match of this stage in Grenada on April 20th. So both will have to play extremely poorly not to get to the semis. A win for Australia today will nail it on.
The other four major sides begin on an equal footing, with England eyeing up four points from Bangladesh and Ireland. A danger, though, is the notorious Guyanese weather which at its worst makes groundsmen forget Super Soppers and instead think about herding up two of every species and building an ark.
Sri Lanka against South Africa, at the Providence Stadium tomorrow, is a huge game, with points shared only slightly less of a disaster than if England are forced to split the points with Ireland on Friday. South Africa likewise run that risk on April 3rd.
