Tym Glaser, Associate Editor - Sport

The West Indies celebrate their victory over Pakistan in the first game of the Cricket World Cup at Sabina Park on Tuesday.--Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

COULD CRICKET World Cup 2007 possibly have gotten off to a better start

A mere seven days down and the cricket universe is salivating at what?s in store after a mouth-watering first week.

Other parts of the region including St. Kitts, Trinidad and St. Lucia have played their parts, but it is our rock, Jamaica, which has set a tremendous tone and pace the others now have to follow.

From the opening ceremony on Sunday at the new stadium in Trelawny to two contrasting, but equally pulsating games at renovated Sabina Park, organisers could not have asked for a better bowl-off to one of the world?s premier sporting events.

Infrastructure outside the arenas did not hit the target on time with the road from Montego Bay to Trelawny remaining a work-in-progress, the hasty ?facelift? of lower Kingston half completed and some minor organisational glitches at the venues but, like nearly all sporting events, it?s what happens inside the grounds that really counts and that?s where Jamaica came up trumps.

The opening ceremony was not seamless, but there was a ?rehearsed spontaneity? and vibrancy to the event that only the Caribbean could pull off.

It wasn?t overstated, it was just a spectacular and colourful mixture of music and dance which showed the world, as the Prime Minister said, that there is more to Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean than just sun and sand.

While acts from Ireland, South Africa and India played their parts well, the stage and grounds belonged to the Caribbean performers who sold the region like no tourist brochure or 30-second TV advertisement ever could.

For that alone, the World Cup just may pay for itself in years to come.

If you didn?t get a lump of pride in your Caribbean throat, check your pulse because you may be dead.

And if you didn?t have a tear form in the corner of your eye when the stage screen flashed up Bob singing Redemption Song, I have only one thing to say: How is the after-life

Having played its part to a tee, the Trelawny stadium will now drift into an uncertain future but that?s a problem for another day.

Venerable Sabina received the CWC baton two days later and ran with it like it carried within it the soul of every great sprinter the island has ever produced.

The new-look stadium has been transformed from a ramshackle cricket meeting place to a world-class venue and that alone is a triumph and Cup legacy.

Between two grandstands, the unpredictable West Indies then played their part to perfection by beating the equally enigmatic side from Pakistan which sent local hopes and rum sales soaring.

Two days later, before a sparse but lively crowd, two expected bit ? part players ? Ireland and Zimbabwe ? strode on to the stage and played out a drama of Shakespearean-like design which ended in a thrilling and appropriate tie.

All too soon the CWC baton will be passed to Jamaica?s cousins in the east. There?s a long way to go in this race to the finish line in Barbados but it looks like the other islands will inherit a huge lead and a ?run? extremely difficult to emulate.