Quick singles: Doubts over Australia

Former West Indies captain Viv Richards believes Australia deserve to be tournament favourites, but "they remain vulnerable to challenges from strong-minded opponents."

Richards, one of Wisden's five cricketers of the 20th century, concedes the Australians have dominated both forms of the game in recent years, as the West Indies did in the 1970s and 1980s, including successive cup titles under Clive Lloyd in 1975 and 1979.

"They deserve to be favourites. But I've seen that having played in past West Indian teams, when our guys were strong Australia did not handle that very well."

Richards, who is the West Indies chairman of selectors, said Australia had improved in the mental side of the game, but some cracks remained in Ricky Ponting's side.

"I still feel that when it is dished out to them, they don't handle it too well. Forget talent. This is all played upstairs."

Samuels back

West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels will be allowed to play in the cup following his unexpected recovery from injury.

The 22-year-old, one of the brightest young batting talents in the Caribbean, was dropped from the 15-man squad two weeks ago after injuring his knee, and replaced by Ryan Hinds.

But Samuels, initially ruled out for several months, underwent further examinations which showed the injury was much less serious that first thought, prompting the West Indies to ask for permission to recall him.

Test for Bevan

Key Australian batsman Michael Bevan has to pass a fitness test today or be ruled out of his team's opening game against Pakistan at Johannesburg tomorrow.

It is a close call whether Bevan, Australia's most successful one-day batsman, will get through, although he has made a rapid recovery from a torn groin muscle.

Family affair

It will be a family affair at the Harare Sports Club tonight when first-timers Namibia begin their cup campaign against hosts Zimbabwe.

Lining up will be the Flower brothers, the Kotze brothers and the Burger brothers, the first instance in cup history where three sets of brothers will be involved in one match.

Andy and Grant Flower have been part of Zimbabwe cricket for more then a decade, with left-hander Andy widely regarded as one of the more prolific run-getters in the contemporary game.

Little, however, is known about the Kotze and Burger siblings from Namibia. Deon Kotze, a powerful middle-order batsman, leads Namibia, while younger brother Bjorn opens the bowling.

Louis and Sarel Burger are both batsmen. There is another Burger in the team, Jan-Berry, but he is not related to Louis and Sarel.

England tipped

The embattled England team received an unlikely boost when they were tipped to have a successful cup campaign by a prominent South African sports columnist.

Under the headline "Barmy Army may have good reason to sing," John Robbie of the Johannesburg-based Star newspaper argues that Nasser Hussain's men can win the biggest prize in the sport.

Robbie believes they "looked very good indeed" at times on the recent tour of Australia.

Drawing parallels with the Sri Lanka side who emerged from a bruising tour of Australia to pull off a stunning victory in the 1996 tournament, the former Ireland rugby halfback listed England's chief weapons.

Nick Knight and Marcus Trescothick "are two of the best one-day openers in the world," senior pace bowler Andy Caddick "has been magnificent" and his junior partners Steve Harmison and James Anderson "could be hard to score against if they can just get the tightness right".