No brotherly love lost as co-hosts vie for glory in Cricket World Cup final
Whether it be the favourites Australia or underdogs New Zealand, whom people are pulling for - only one team will be crowned champions
After 48 matches involving teams from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, cricket's global showcase has distilled itself into a local derby.
Australia and New Zealand welcomed 12 other nations to the Cricket World Cup, but saved the final for themselves, ensuring Sunday's championship match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground will feature the tournament's two best teams and will be permeated by one of world sport's most heart-felt rivalries.
In trying to characterise that rivalry, commentators have evoked a game of backyard cricket between siblings: the older brother (Australia) accustomed to dominating the younger; the younger brother (New Zealand) eager for a win to further establish their own identity and to win their rival's respect.
I think the brand of cricket we've played has touched a lot of people and endeared us to a lot of people who follow this game
The status as favourites is disputed, but only in the sense each team have tried to confer it on the other. Australia say New Zealand are the favourites as the form team of the tournament, unbeaten to this stage and the winners, by one wicket, of the match between the teams in pool play.
New Zealand say four-time champions Australia are the favourites as the home team, masters of their own conditions and winners of more than two-thirds of all one-day internationals between them.
It is a heart and head calculation in which Australia are the experts' pick, New Zealand the sentimental favourites. Australia should have the support of most of the MCG crowd and of millions of compatriots in a country where cricket is the national summer sport.
But the New Zealand team's support will extend well beyond their 4.4 million countrymen and women. As each team have been eliminated from the tournament, most recently India, many of those fans have transferred their support to New Zealand as the alternative team they would most prefer to win.
