Srilanka vs South Africa Live Streaming

South Africa v Sri Lanka (14:30 local, 12:30 GMT)

Srilanka Team
KC Sangakkara, TM Dilshan, ST Jayasuriya, DPMD Jayawardene, SHT Kandamby, CK Kapugedera, KMDN Kulasekara, SL Malinga, AD Mathews, BAW Mendis, M Muralitharan, KTGD Prasad, TT Samaraweera, WU Tharanga, T Thushara

South Africa Team
GC Smith*, J Botha, HM Amla, MV Boucher†, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, HH Gibbs, JH Kallis, JA Morkel, M Ntini, WD Parnell, RJ Peterson, DW Steyn, LL Tsotsobe, RE van der Merwe

Lack of choices can be a blessing in disguise. Hence we have potentially the best event organised by the ICC in a long while. Not entirely by design, though: there was no window for a longer tournament, there isn't even a reserve day for the final. So there was no space for flab or Super Sixes or Eights or whatever. Although Bangladesh can argue they had a better case than West Indies, few could have envisaged the political turmoil in the Caribbean when the tournament was being drawn up. As a result the preliminary groups are neither meaningless cakewalks nor so fickle that one freak loss ends the tournament for a team. Throw in the fact that the top three teams are so close to each other, the No. 1 ranking is likely to change hands more often in this tournament than the baton in a relay race. So good on the ODIs, which do with this shot in the arm.

Both players in the act on Tuesday run the risk of becoming perennial best men: both have been consistent limited-overs teams for large parts of last 15 years, but only two players in each team have tasted success in an ICC event: Sanath Jayasuriya and Muttiah Muralitharan won the 1996 World Cup, and Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis won the inaugural Champions Trophy in 1998.

Since then South Africa have lost two World Cup semi-finals, one World Twenty20 semi-final, and three Champions Trophy semi-finals. Sri Lanka haven't been that consistent, but they too have lost a World Cup final and semi-final each, a World Twenty20 final, and shared a Champions Trophy final.

Kumar Sangakkara and Graeme Smith, the two captains who will open the Champions Trophy in Centurion, both believe the tournament will be crucial in directing the future of the ODI as a viable format in international cricket.

The issue has swiftly become the pre-tournament theme, amid increasing noise and disquiet about the format's health in the wake of Twenty20's prodigious rise. Both captains do believe, however, that this tournament - significantly, the first world championship in the format since the World Twenty20 in this country exactly two years ago - is ideally placed to provide ODIs with that boost.

"It's an important step," said Sangakkara. "In the 2007 World Cup the cricket was great, but lots of people thought it was way too long, had too many teams and days between games. The true test of ODI is in big tournaments like this, the appeal to fans and players and how much money TV networks make from it. South Africa is a wonderful place to play and I think it will be a good tournament."

Getting the balance right between the three formats, Sangakkara believed, will be the key, something the ICC has advised members to bear in mind as the new FTP is hammered out "Everything should exist in harmony and balance," he said. "We've got to find a solution, players, administrators and the public, where attention and import should be given to each format. Cricket started with Tests so we've got to maintain and protect its primacy but also ensure that the cash flows in and the fans have something to look at and enjoy."