All Set For The Grand Finale

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A sneak peak at Saturday's pitch.

By Tristan Holme

And so the cycle is complete. Having begun an epic journey in Barbados and taken in the beautiful islands of Jamaica, Antigua, Grenada and St Lucia, I'm now back in Barbados with just one question remaining: who will take the spoils home from the longest World Cup tournament in history?

The last time I was here there were few signs of excitement about cricket, but today (Friday) Bridgetown is full of the hustle and bustle that accompanies an influx of thousands of foreigners, all making their own final preparations for the grand final.

Kensington Oval is much the same as organisers put the final touches on what is an amazing arena, with all the grandeur you would expect of a World Cup final venue. Standing in the middle and looking around the ground brings a feeling of awe, which has already been heightened by the history recently added by Brian Lara's memorable farewell.

Waves of expectation buzzed around a packed press conference as the media waited patiently for the players' arrival. The Aussies kicked it off with Ricky Ponting looking serious and focused, his eyes darting around the room as he fielded questions for about twenty minutes.

Next to him was Glenn McGrath, one game away from the end of an inspirational career, looking as relaxed as they come and piping up with plenty of jokes that clearly took the pressure off his slightly edgy skipper. Indeed as the conference began and the two players were introduced, McGrath quickly butted in to introduce himself as an 'express bowler'.

The man known to most on these pages as 'Mystic McGrath' claimed that he's never been as relaxed as he has on this tour, and admitted that this has probably helped him in grabbing the Man of the Tournament Award. With 15 points in this field, Pigeon tops the rankings ahead of Mahela Jayawardene, and as the Sri Lankan skipper can only score three points if he wins the man of the match award on Saturday, the result is already settled.

Meanwhile, Ponting reckoned that the pitch was looking rather suitable for his side and claimed that the Australian preparation had been 'perfect', a fair call given the dominant tournament they've had.

Jayawardene followed, looking much more at ease than you'd expect for a man who had never led his country in a World Cup before, let alone into a final. He spoke freely, but it was clear that his side had not singled out any weaknesses in the opposition and he preferred to talk about Sri Lanka's game than about how they could dismantle the Aussies.

With their long unbeaten run in World Cup games, the Aussies seem somewhat invincible. However Jayawardene reminded us all that they're only human and bound to make mistakes over a 100 over game, and it will be up to Sri Lanka to make the most of those mistakes if they are to cause a sensational upset.

A close inspection of the pitch revealed that Punter had not been playing mind games. It's hard and even and will produce plenty of bounce up front, though it's a bit too early to tell what the captain who wins the toss will want to do. However the ball will certainly come onto the bat and I feel that as long as Sri Lanka's batsmen perform then we should have a bit of a runfest.

We've been pretty lucky with the weather in this tournament, but unfortunately we may pay for it tomorrow. Sporadic showers washed over Bridgetown today and the forecast for Saturday predicts more of the same. However given this sporadic nature of Caribbean rain, there is reason to believe that it will not dominate the day but rather force the odd delay and add to the intrigue of what will hopefully be a tightly-contested final.