Cricket administrators are hoping the on-field action will overshadow the controversy, raging disputes and lopsided qualifying matches when the limited-overs Champions Trophy begins Sunday.
With the final two pool spots yet to be finalized, the attention has so far been on South African player Herschelle Gibbs' return to India six years after being implicated in a match-fixing case by New Delhi's police and a rift between host India and the ICC over commercial considerations.
The ongoing qualifying competition has resulted in several lopsided games in which Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have failed to provide a contest for defending champion West Indies and Sri Lanka.
The West Indies and Sri Lanka have already secured passage into the main tournament from the four-nation qualifying series, but the groupings will be decided after they meet in the final qualifier here Saturday.
The winner of that match - which brings international cricket back to Mumbai's Cricket Club of India - will join Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand in Group B, while the loser will contest Group A with World Cup champion Australia, England and India.
"It's a very, very important game, we'd love to continue the momentum, and so will Sri Lanka," said West Indies captain Brian Lara, who views the qualifying competition as useful match practice for his players.
The Cricket Club of India, which will also host the Nov. 5 Champions Trophy final, was India's first-choice test venue before the Mumbai Cricket Association built its own Wankhede Stadium in the 1970s.
The West Indies was forced to qualify for this year's tournament after its ranking slipped below the top-six, making it ineligible for direct entry under the new format.
The ICC has frequently changed the format of this event, which began as a knockout competition in 1998. Subsequent tournaments divided the teams into separate pools for a preliminary round followed by a knockout event, but several one-sided matches forced the world governing body to introduce a qualifying competition this time.
Lara said it would be a big boost if his team went into the Champions Trophy with three successive victories in the qualifiers.
"No team wants to pick itself up from a loss going into the important stage," Lara said.
Building its team after being outplayed 6-1 in a limited-overs tour of India last year, Sri Lanka entered this event on the back of a 5-0 whitewash of England.
Sri Lanka coach Tom Moody says his team is capable of making the final, while keeping an eye on next year's World Cup.
As many as five nations have won the Champions Trophy, which was earlier known as the Mini World Cup. No team has won the title twice.
Australia, a three-time winner of the World Cup, is missing from the list of Champions Trophy titlists which includes South Africa (1998), New Zealand (2000), India and Sri Lanka (jointly in 2002) and the West Indies (2004).
England needs to overcome the negative effects of its home defeat to Sri Lanka in the buildup for the Ashes tour of Australia.
South Africa, meanwhile, is trying to ignore the media glare that has following its key opener Gibbs after his interrogation by the New Delhi police, during which he named three former teammates as being involved with the 2000 match-fixing scandal.
Gibbs joined the South African team for a practice match Friday in Mumbai, turning his focus back to cricket.
India hopes homeground advantage will help it after a 4-1 thrashing on its summer tour of the West Indies, and failing to make the final of a recent tri-series in Malaysia that featured Australia and the West Indies.
Claiming that it revels in adverse situations, Pakistan enters the Champions Trophy without skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq, who is serving a four-match suspension. New Zealand is exuding confidence with the return of several injured players.
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