The crowd for tonight's England-Australia pool match is expected to reach 90,000. About 1000 standing-room-only tickets were released yesterday to cope with the sell-out demand.
Yet there was little evidence of an imminent major event when you wandered the streets of Melbourne yesterday. There was certainly no proliferation of Ashes colours in the city's abundant eat-and-drinkeries.
Perhaps England's famously barmy supporters are hiding their lights under a bushel. Their performances against Australia in the recent tri-series gave little cause for optimism and new captain Eoin Morgan seems a little shell-shocked by the increased media attention.
So far all Morgan has done with any alacrity is provide Australia's tabloids with bulletin-board material. They have him as saying that Mitchell Johnson is nothing special and all the pressure is on Australia, not England. On closer inspection, that is an extremely liberal interpretation of his quotes, but at least he knows from now that the Alastair Cook method of saying absolutely nothing of any interest whatsoever is the most prudent way to circumnavigate Australia.
If England are seeking inspiration out of humiliation, then they might want to look at the full-page ad taken out by a betting company. On it is a picture of two shiny red Kookaburras with the statement: "Missing: a pair of balls. If found, please return to the England cricket team."
Geez, sledging's come a long way, hasn't it?
Most of the on-field intrigue has centred around captain Michael Clarke's fitness. He's been ruled out of the opener, but expects to return for the Bangladesh match, writing in his column that he was bang-on target.
Meanwhile, former captain Ricky Ponting, who saved the most biting comments in his War and Peace-sized autobiography for the man known as Pup, has suggested Clarke relinquish the one-day captaincy after the World Cup.
You may recall how (cough) graciously Ponting accepted such advice while he was captain of Australia and fighting a PR battle in the wake of multiple Ashes defeats. How the worm turns.
"In Michael's body and mind he may only have another two or three years left at test level, and I think it would be a good time for Steven [Smith] to take over the one-day job and Michael to remain as test captain," he wrote in Cricinfo.
"This would give Smithy a bit more of a chance to get used to the idea of captaining his country long-term."
In truth, a World Cup victory would be a great way to bow out and, frankly, nothing less is expected on the left side of the Tasman Sea.
