The ICC One Day World Cup is finally underway with India leading the betting ahead of Sri Lanka, South Africa and current champions Australia. With the tournament being played across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, ground playing conditions will make for an interesting time.

England will start the competition when they take on Pakistan. Online bookmakers certainly have an interesting game to start betting proceedings with. You can get even money for each of them although most bookmakers lean ever so slightly to England. Betting is close with 39/40 the general go and evens for Pakistan. It’s interesting given that Pakistan are 9/1 to win the tournament while England are at 12/1.

India are 3/1 to take the trophy, Sri Lanka 5/1 and South Africa 11/2. Australia are the defenders, but their two trial games here have been woeful – they are a big risk at 6/1 on current form, especially with India and Sri Lanka having home ground advantage. India’s first game is against Bangladesh while Sri Lanka play their first game against Canada on Sunday.

It’s hard to see too many surprises in these early games. World cricket is really divided into two or three divisions now. You have an elite group that includes South Africa, India, and Sri Lanka. Australia and England are knocking on the door of that group while New Zealand, Zimbabwe and the West Indies sit in the middle group. You can place Canada and Bangladesh with the rest in the bottom group.

I would be very surprised if the semi-finalists in this competition didn’t come from that top five. New Zealand may sneak in if they get a good run early. India are 3/1 favourites and at this stage of the competition look to be great value. South Africa at 11/2 are also great value, and with a good betting strategy, are backable.