Sydney - There will be little love lost when arch-rivals Australia and England meet for a Valentine's Day clash in front of an estimated crowd of more than 90,000 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground when the 2015 World Cup gets underway on Saturday.
The first match of the six-week tournament, which features 14 teams and a mammoth 49 fixtures in all, will start hours earlier when New Zealand take on Sri Lanka at Christchurch's Hagley Oval.
The competition is being played at seven venues in Australia and seven in New Zealand. The top four in each group qualify for the quarter-finals of an event which officials predict could attract a potential global television audience of 2.5 billion.
Australia are in search of a fifth World Cup crown and England their first, having made the most recent of their three losing appearances in the final when the tournament was last staged in Australia and New Zealand in 1992.
The Australians will be overwhelming favourites to launch their 2015 campaign with a victory given they've beaten England in 13 of their last 15 home ODI matches.
That includes three wins in the recent tri-series culminating in a crushing 112-run success in the final.
The only uncertainty surrounding the Australian side concerns the captaincy, with George Bailey given the leadership of the 50-over team in the ongoing absence of the injured Michael Clarke.
Bailey's World Cup could extend to a solitary match if Clarke regains full fitness -- he has managed just one score in excess of 50 in his last 14 innings.
AFP
