The 25,000-capacity multi-purpose stadium, some 40 km from Montego Bay, will bring together 16 teams - the most that have contested a World Cup - accompanied by razzmatazz unleashed by about 1,500 performers at the opening.
It is also the first time the game's prized tournament, comprising 51 matches and lasting 49 days, is being held in the Caribbean.
The World Cup winners will received $2.24 million, the runners-up $1 million, and the semi-final losers $450,000 each.
The team finishing fifth will receive $200,000, the one finishing sixth will take home $150,000. The seventh place is worth $100,000 and the eighth position will earn $50,000. Winners of each of the 24 group matches will fetch $10,000 and the losing teams will get $5,000.
The matches start Tuesday with a West Indies-Pakistan encounter at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica.
And when the final is played at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, April 28, the world would probably have a new champion -- and the Caribbean would have carved a niche amongst its peer with its organising capabilities.
The Ricky Ponting-led Australia, despite missing injured pace spearhead Brett Lee, again start as the favourites for the title, though Rahul Dravid's India is not far behind with the form the team has shown lately.
Australia are on the verge of making history, having won successive World Cup titles in 1999 and 2003, when Ponting's side defeated India in a one-sided final in Johannesburg.
If Australia win again, it will become the first team since the World Cup's inception in 1975 to win three successive titles. At the moment they are tied with West Indies (1975 and 1979) as both have won two World Cups successively.
If Kapil Dev's Indian team spoiled West Indies' hat-trick in 1983, this time there is more than one team that will challenge the might of Australia, who are looking a wee bit beatable.
South Africa, one of the strong contenders along with India, England, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, have snatched Australia's No. 1 rank recently, and have also defeated them in high scoring matches.
Even England have beaten Australia, the most notable being in the Commonwealth Bank (CB) Triangular Series in Australia late last year. Australia then also lost all three away matches to New Zealand.
In fact, Australia have lost their last five One-Day Internationals - two to England in the CB Series and three in New Zealand - before they open their World Cup with a Group A game against qualifiers Scotland at Warner Park, Basseterre, St. Kitts & Nevis, Wednesday.
India are also high on confidence, having won two successive one-day series at home, against the West Indies and Sri Lanka, and also the two warm-up matches here with huge margins.
Almost all the Indian players are in form and look set to top Group B, which also has 1996 winners Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, which stunned New Zealand Tuesday, and first timers Bermuda.
The top two teams from each of the four pools will progress to the Super Eights, or quarter-finals, where they will play against each other. The top four sides then advance to the semi-finals and eventually the final.
Besides throwing a few new talents on the global firmament, the World Cup is expected to open new avenues for the Caribbean to do business with the rest of the world. After all, CARICOM, or the Caribbean Community, has backed the tournament 100 percent, right from its bidding in 1998 till today.
The political leaders of the various Caribbean islands have thrown their weight behind the cricket organisers despite many impediments.
'We have overcome the early challenges and Jamaica is ready for the world,' said Jamaica Prime Minister Simpson Miller recently.
'I am very pleased to see the enthusiasm being displayed by so many persons - ranging from young children to corporate citizens. Our CARICOM brothers and sisters have been a tower of strength (and) our global neighbours have given us their support.'
The relentlessly hard working organising committee, headed by CEO Chris Dehring, have absorbed many setbacks on the way, like the damage caused by Hurricane Ivan in Grenada and other islands, and overcome a shortage of cement in the construction of some stadiums.
The organisers also had to deal with cynics who had 'predicted' that the infrastructure would not be ready in time and that the tournament would be a 'disaster'.
They may be waiting to eat their words soon. We shall know the true picture as the tournament concludes April 28.
ALL TEAMS:
AUSTRALIA: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist (vice-captain/wicket-keeper), Nathan Bracken, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Matthew Hayden, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Glenn McGrath, Andrew Symonds, Shaun Tait and Shane Watson
INDIA: Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh, Dinesh Karthick, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicket-keeper), Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth and Munaf Patel
SOUTH AFRICA: Graeme Smith (captain), Jacques Kallis, Loots Bosman, Mark Boucher (wicket-keeper), A.B. de Villiers, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Hall, Justin Kemp, Charl Langeveldt, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini, Robin Peterson, Shaun Pollock, Ashwell Prince and Roger Telemachus
SRI LANKA: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Kumar Sangakkara (wicket-keeper), Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Marvan Atapattu, Russel Arnold, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, Malinga Bandara, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Lasith Malinga, Dilhara Fernando and Nuwan Kulasekera
WEST INDIES: Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Devon Smith, Dwayne Bravo, Dwayne Smith, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin (wicket-keeper), Ian Bradshaw, Corey Collymore, Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell
PAKISTAN: Inzamam-ul-Haq (captain), Imran Nazir, Mohammad Hafeez, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal (wicket-keeper), Azhar Mahmood, Shahid Afridi, Umar Gul, Rana Naved, Rao Iftikhar, Danish Kaneria, Yasir Arafat and Mohammed Sami
ENGLAND: Michael Vaughan (captain), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Paul Collingwood, Jamie Dalrymple, Andrew Flintoff, Ed Joyce, Jon Lewis, Sajid Mahmood, Paul Nixon (wicket-keeper), Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett and Andrew Strauss
NEW ZEALAND: Stephen Fleming (captain), Lou Vincent, Peter Fulton, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Jacob Oram, Craig McMillan, Brendon McCullum (wicket-keeper), Daniel Vettori, James Franklin, Jeetan Patel, Shane Bond, Mark Gillespie, Michael Mason and Daryl Tuffey
KENYA: Steve Tikolo (captain), Thomas Odoyo (vice-captain), Rajesh Bhudia, Jimmy Kamande, Tanmay Mishra, Collins Obuya, David Obuya, Nehemiah Odhiambo, Peter Ongondo, Lameck Onyango, Maurice Ouma (wicket-keeper), Malhar Patel, Ravi Shah, Tony Suji and Hiren Varaiya
BANGLADESH: Habibul Bashar (captain), Shahriar Nafees, Tamim Iqbal, Aftab Ahmed, Sakib-al-Hasan, Mohammad Ashraful, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Rafique, Abdur Razzak, Mashrafee-bin-Murtaza, Tapash Baishya, Shahadat Hossain, Syed Russel, Rajin Saleh and Javed Omar
BERMUDA: Irving Romaine (captain), Dean Minors (vice-captain/wicket-keeper), Delyone Borden, Lionel Cann, David Hemp, Kevin Hurdle, Malachi Jones, Stefan Kelly, Dwayne Leverock, Saleem Mukuddem, Stephen Outerbridge, Oliver Pitcher, Clay Smith, Janeiro Tucker and Kwame Tucker
CANADA: John Davison (captain), Ashish Bagai, Ian Billcliff, Geoff Barnett, Kevin Sandher, Umar Bhatti, Desmond Chumney, George Codrington, Austin Codrington, Andy Cummins, Sunil Dhaniram, Asif Mulla (wicket-keeper), Henry Osinde, Abdool Samad and Qaiser Ali
IRELAND: Trent Johnston (captain), Kyle McCallan, Andre Botha, Jeremy Bray, Kenny Carroll, Peter Gillespie, Dave Langford-Smith, John Mooney, Paul Mooney, Eoin Morgan, Kevin O'Brien, Niall O'Brien (wicket-keeper), William Porterfield, Boyd Rankin and Andrew White
NETHERLANDS: Luuk van Troost (captain), Bas Zuiderent, Adeel Raja, Peter Borren, Tim de Leede, Mark Jonkman, Alexei Kervezee, Mohammad Kashif, Darron Reekers, Edgar Schiferli, Jeroen Smits (wicket-keeper), Billy Stelling, Eric Szwarczynski, Ryan ten Doeschate and Daan van Bunge
SCOTLAND: Craig Wright (captain), John Blain, Dougie Brown, Gavin Hamilton, Majid Haq, Paul Hoffmann, Douglas Lockhart, Ross Lyons, Neil McCallum, Dewald Nel, Navdeep Poonia, Glenn Rogers, Colin Smith (wicket-keeper), Ryan Watson and Fraser Watts
ZIMBABWE: Prosper Utseya (captain), Gary Brent, Chamu Chibhabha, Elton Chigumbura, Keith Dabengwa, Terry Duffin, Anthony Ireland, Friday Kasteni, Stuart Matsikenyeri, Christopher Mpofu, Tawanda Mupariwa, Edward Rainsford, Vusumuzi Sibanda, Brendan Taylor (wicket-keeper) and Sean Williams
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