The 2015 Cricket World Cup is shaping up to be a shoot-out between the world’s most stylish run-collectors. The conditions, particularly in Australia, are fair for stroke-making, and the stage is set for someone to take the tournament by the scruff of the neck.
What’s more, there appears to be no shortage of candidates to be the king of cricket’s castle, come March 29.
India and Australia have just completed a Test series which saw the stocks of two batters rise relentlessly higher.
In Virat Kohli, India have their modern superstar, as solid on the back-foot as he is savage when he plants his left leg down the wicket.
In Steve Smith, Australia have discovered another of that rare breed, the man who seemingly goes through periods when he forgets what it is like to fail. Those who thought that deputising as skipper for Michael Clarke may weigh him down found the opposite to be true.
The responsibility inspired Smith to reach dizzy heights, and he enters 2015 as the form batsman in world cricket. It can’t go on forever, but the co-hosts will be hoping his golden run continues for just a few months more.
With some of their biggest rivals in such ominous form, South Africa know they will have to hit the ground running Down Under.
However, they too, have their version of a Pacman on heat at the crease.
Abraham Benjamin De Villiers stands head and shoulders above his men when it comes to the full repertoire of cricket shots.
He scores where he wants to, against all comers. And deep down he knows that if he has a tournament harvest of runs as rich as the international form he has been in in the last few years, then the Proteas have just as good a chance as any rivals.
Yes, there are other willow-wielding superstars in his side. On their day, anyone of Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, JP Duminy and young guns, Quinton de Kock and Dave Miller, have the ability to leave teams in tatters. They’ve all altered the momentum of matches before, all highly capable of truly smashing astonishing shots from nowhere.
But every sporting team has a talisman. Even the most expensively assembled football clubs in the world still have that one great hope, shimmering brightest among an embarrassment of football riches. Take away Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid and they immediately appear more vulnerable, more beatable.
The same applies to Lionel Messi and Barcelona, Wayne Rooney at Manchester United, or that great one-man show, Alexis Sanchez at Arsenal.
Likewise, serious contenders at the World Cup have that standout player who has an extra sprinkling of stardust. And that will be the one player whose scalp the opposition craves that little bit more for than the others. Because deep down they know that removing that icon is a sincere body blow for any side.
One look at the manner in which the Proteas celebrate Chris Gayle’s wicket over the last few games – when it eventually comes – tells those who still wondered who the lynchpin in their lot is.
It’s not to say the West Indies, or any other country for that matter, are a one-man team – far from it.
But for the stylish Kohli for India, the dashing leprechaun Eoin Morgan for England, the classy Kumar Sangakarra for Sri Lanka, the swashbuckling Gayle for the Islanders, Australia’s insatiable Smith and, of course, the daring De Villiers of South Africa, national hope springs eternal while they are at the crease.
They are their country’s Ronaldo, and the World Cup presents their one-in-four- year chance to claim cricket’s true equivalent to the Ballon D’Or.
In fact, it is even more because Ronaldo and Messi, individual megastars that they are, may never know what it feels like to be world champions.
In a little over two months, though, one of cricket’s modern galacticos most certainly will.