London, March 1:

Less than a month ago, Australia’s defense of their cricket World Cup title looked like being little more than a long vacation in the Caribbean.

Five one-day defeats in a row with England and New Zealand each winning a title have given all of Australia’s major rivals confidence that they could lift the trophy in Barbados on April 28.

With Brett Lee sidelined with an ankle problem and three more players carrying injuries, captain Ricky Ponting’s team now looks beatable. But Australia are still the bookmakers’ favourite to become the first team to win the title three times in a row.

“The Australians are favourites to win the World Cup,” former Pakistan captain Imran Khan said. “Although they will miss their match-winner Brett Lee, Ricky Ponting’s side is still very strong in every department. Australians have this winning habit, which is hard to break for other teams.”

Australia scored runaway victories in the last two finals — beating Pakistan by eight wickets at Lord’s in 1999 and India by 125 runs at Johannesburg in 2003.

They have batting strength all the way down the order, but their bowling attack has been weakened by Lee’s injury and Shane Warne’s retirement. Aging paceman Glenn McGrath will retire when the World Cup ends.

Australia had their first 10-wicket loss, to New Zealand, in the streak of five losses and they also lost their position atop the one-day cricket rankings to South Africa. Australia are in Group A with Scotland, the Netherlands and South Africa.

Chasing their first World Cup title, South Africa have the same squad that beat Pakistan 3-1 in a one-day series which ended on February 14. The strength of the team is the experienced fast bowling pair of Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini, and allrounder Jacques Kallis. “We have worked together to make a formidable team over the last 18 months,” captain Graeme Smith said.

Hosts West Indies, who are desperate to avoid the embarrassment of being knocked out in the first round for the third consecutive World Cup, are in a tricky Group D with Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Ireland.

Brian Lara, who will turn 38 four days after the final, leads a mainly youthful lineup in his last one-day championship, alongside talented openers Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul and allrounder Dwayne Bravo.

“I think our form and what we have done in recent times, I think I can safely say we have got the game to be among the top four teams,” Lara said. “We are forming a very good team and we are quietly confident about our capabilities.”

Pakistan’s preparations have been hampered by the doping cases of pacemen Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif. The two pacemen were initially in the squad but are out citing injuries. Pakistan are already without allrounder Abdul Razzaq.

“Razzaq suffered injury on his left knee during practice session Monday evening and doctors have advised him a rest of at least three weeks,” Pakistan spokesman PJ Mir said. “It’s most unfortunate that we have lost a player of Razzaq’s caliber.”

With all three missing, Bob Woolmer’s team will rely heavily on its powerful batting lineup which includes skiper Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohammad Yousuf and Younis Khan.

India’s chances are built around a formidable batting lineup of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and captain Rahul Dravid and veteran spinner Anil Kumble. But India are notoriously bad on the road and may struggle on the fast, bouncy pitches in the Caribbean.

England’s one-day series victory in Australia provided a happy ending to a miserable tour, in which they lost the Ashes Test series 5-0. Led by injury-plagued Michael Vaughan, who has barely played in the last 12 months, they have a brittle lineup which is prone to astonishing batting collapses.

Much will depend on star batsman Kevin Pietersen and allrounders Andrew Flintoff and Paul Collingwood, but at least they are in a relatively easy Group C with New Zealand, Canada and Kenya.

New Zealand’s 3-0 series triumph over the Australians have lifted the confidence of Stephen Fleming’s team, which will expect big contributions from lower order big hitters Craig McMillan, Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram and bowlers Shane Bond and Daniel Vettori.

Bangladesh have to upset India or Sr Lanka and beat Bermuda if they are to reach the Super Eight. Zimbabwe, who hope to regain their full Test status later in the year, won’t have much confidence after coming off a series loss to Bangladesh in Dubai and have to play the West Indies and Pakistan. As for the remaining six teams, the seeding system means that they can only realistically hope to try and upset one of the Test nations and then beat each other.