Sri Lanka look for bold start

Former champions Sri Lanka begin their World Cup bid against Bermuda on Thursday, a game likely to be as much of a mismatch in practice as it is on paper.

The ICC's commitment to spreading the game beyond its traditional heartlands is commendable and may well bear fruit some time in the future, but for now, the fact is that that the likes of Bermuda are way off international standard.

Sri Lanka are 1/100 while Bermuda are 40/1.

Sri Lanka's batsmen probably can't wait to get started and should Mahela Jayawardene win the toss on Thursday, he will probably be torn between trying to get some batting practice for his top order, or just ripping through the Bermuda line-up.

Bermuda collapsed to 45 all out in their warm-up against England and the thought of facing Muttiah Muralitharan has probably cost them some sleep in the run-up to the game.

Murali will be licking his lips but the chances are that by the time he comes on to bowl, Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga will have removed half of the batsmen already.

Bet365 are offering 15/2 on Vaas being the man-of-the-match and that is not a bad price.

Of the batsmen, though Kumar Sangakkara has been the mainstay of the Sri Lanka side for the past 12-18 months, Sanath Jayasuriya seems to be hitting form at the right time and could well be worth backing at 6/4.

For Bermuda, David Hemp - who will be a familiar face to many fans of English county cricket - is favourite at 3/1, while Janeiro Tucker has some ability and could be tempting at 5/1.

Whatever you do, though, if Bermuda bat first, don't miss the start, because it probably won't last long.