(Recast) (Sports) Feature: Riches, pride to be won in cricket's World Cup

The World Cup of cricket gets underway in Australia and New Zealand on Saturday in one of the richest team-sport tournaments, and easily the most watched, on the planet.

A total of 10 million U.S. dollars is up for grabs for the first 10-placed teams out of the 14 nations taking part in the six- week-long event, held every four years.

The tournament will feature 47 games, including finals, in the one day format of the game where each 11 member side is given 50 six ball overs each to bat and bowl unless the 10 batsmen of either team are bowled out under the 50 overs.

The winning team alone will pocket 4 million U.S. dollars.

While traditional Test cricket is played in white uniforms and scheduled over five days, one day cricket is played at a much faster and riskier pace with different rules - and in brightly colored team uniforms.

The late Australian billionaire Kerry Packer hijacked cricket from England's ultra-conservative controllers of the ancient game in the late 1970s, championing the razzle-dazzle one day form as part of his takeover plan.

It flourished, and is now the most profitable and popular form of the game for players, spectators and profiting administrators.

India is the current World Cup holder, and its players are the ultimate sporting heroes and household multi-millionaire names in the country of more than one billion people.

But the World Cup of cricket includes teams from some of the world's poorest countries, such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

And in terms of talent or lack thereof at an international level, there are teams from the United Arab Emirates, Ireland and Scotland.

Australia, England, South Africa and India are the powerhouses of cricket, but forever biting at their heels are the often giant- killing minnows of New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, the latter being the dominators of the game from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s.

One of the attractions of the one day cricket is that it is as unpredictable as it is predictable, depending on the teams playing. One six ball over by a wicket-taking bowler can turn a match on its head.

As can a two- or three-over onslaught by a batsman culling the two highest scoring shots off a single bowled ball in cricket. They are a four, when the ball hits the fence or rope surrounding the playing field. Or a six when it clears the boundary without bouncing.

Whereas hitting batting's golden goal of 100 runs or more is seen as astonishing off 100 balls faced by a batsman in Test cricket, Australia's Glenn Maxwell slammed 122 runs off 57 balls he faced in a World Cup friendly warm up match against India this week.

In Test cricket bowling, it is a major achievement to take five wickets off 20 or more six ball overs.

In one day cricket, bowlers often do that in their 10-over per- match limit.

One of the world's most respected cricket writers, Peter Lalor of The Australian newspaper, spends much of his year following the Australian team around the globe as they play the three forms of the game Tests, one day games and the even more frenetic T20, a 20 over per-side version of cricket.

He explained to Xinhua why one day cricket is such a phenomenon, despite the game largely being a mystery in nations such as the United States and regions including Asia and mainland Europe where it is rarely played, if at all.

And the ins-and-outs of the sport, played mainly in countries once part of England's colonial empire.

"The 10 Test playing nations get automatic entry to the competition and four affiliate nations win entry through qualification rounds," Lalor told Xinhua.

"This year Ireland, Afghanistan, the UAE and Scotland all won the right to test themselves against the established nations like England, South Africa, India and the host countries of Australia and New Zealand."

The World Cup features the one day version of the game and was introduced in 1975. It is played every four years, and the trophy has had a significant impact on the countries that win it.

"India's win in 1983 was met by delirious scenes, and heralded a new era for the game in that soon-to-be cricket-obsessed nation. People have argued it changed the national mood, giving Indians a sense of pride and confidence," he said.

That mass of new fans helped turn the subcontinent into the world administrative headquarters of cricket, run by the International Cricket Council.

"The one day game was embraced on the subcontinent after that, and it became a religion," Lalor said. "When Pakistan and Sri Lanka also won the event, it added to the sense of rivalry between those close neighbors."

Fans are extremely loyal and rivalries such as between neighbors India and Pakistan are intense, especially in countries where there are expatriates from both countries.

Tens of thousands of fans from around the world, especially England, have also arrived in Australia to combine their passion for cricket with a holiday.

"The India/Pakistan match (on Sunday Feb. 15) in Adelaide sold out its more than 50,000 tickets a year ago, and is expected to be the most watched game of cricket in history," Lalor said.

"The tournament's curtain raiser between Australia and England (in Melbourne on Feb. 14) will attract a crowd of 90,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and the match between India and South Africa (Melbourne, Sunday Feb. 22) is tracking to do the same."

"Expatriate Indians and tourists have meant over a million advance ticket sales for the entire tournament alone. And every World Cup is watched by hundreds of millions of people on the subcontinent and they pay for the pleasure."

Spare a thought for England if you can. Host spectators in Australia certainly won't. Whatever sport is played between the countries, Australians simply refer to England as "the old enemy."

"England, the inventors of the game, have never won the World Cup," Lalor said.

"Australia announced itself in 1987 and ruled the world winning a hat trick of cups in 1999, 2003 and 2007 - it didn't lose a game in the last of those two tournaments."

There are extremely exciting individual players, even in the lower-tier teams, and global satellite and free-to-air television coverage will reach all parts of the globe.

And cricket-playing nations are well aware of the sleeping giant China that represents to sports it has yet to focus on.

But for the 14 playing nations, it is now game-on. Endi