Johannesburg: The first ever Twenty20 cricket world championship has arrived.

From today, when hosts South Africa face West Indies in the opening game of the 12-team competition, the best batsmen in the game will be encouraged simply to hit the ball out of the ground.

Each side has only 20 overs to smash as many runs as possible. There's no time for a batsmen to play himself in and bowlers aim to contain rather than take risks to get wickets.

Australia hold the record for the highest international score, amassing 221-5 against England in Sydney in January at an average of 11 runs an over. With Ricky Ponting trying to add the title to the 50-over World Cup title, they are the favourites at this level too.

They won the more prestigious 50-over World Cup in April with a 104-ball 149 from Adam Gilchrist and remain the highest ranked Test nation. Ponting delayed his arrival in South Africa until an improvement in his wife's health, but has now arrived. With several quality sluggers, including allrounder Andrew Symonds, Australia remains the king of free-scoring.

The two-week tournament has had a stormy runup.

Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was sent home after he allegedly abused and hit fellow paceman Mohammad Asif with a bat. South Africa caused a stir by leaving out star batsman Jacques Kallis.

Veteran's of the game

South Africa's new selection panel said it left out Kallis to rest him ahead of a busy conventional season, rather than admitting it believes he scores too slowly. But with captain Graeme Smith - the world's leading scorer in Twenty20 internationals with 259 runs in five matches - along with a host of other six-hitters, bowlers will not relish facing the hosts.

England's players have been playing the game longer than anyone else, with Twenty20 introduced first in county cricket competition in 2003, and this is reflected in the team selection.

Darren Maddy owes his place to an ability to get quick runs as well as bowl tightly enough to slow batsmen down.

Kevin Pietersen is an outstanding batsman whose impatience for runs is ideally suited for this format. Allrounder Andrew Flintoff travelled to South Africa with the rest of the England squad on Sunday, despite again being troubled by an injured left ankle. Another allrounder, Dimitri Mascarenhas, hit five 6s in the last five balls against India in the sixth one-day international last week.

The West Indies will look to Dwayne Bravo, who is strong at batting, bowling and fielding. He's potentially enough to win a match by himself - particularly short ones. Bravo will likely need the support of batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who looks just as comfortable batting for hours in Tests or smashing the ball all over the ground in the short version of the game.

Pehla and Firstnetto beam live telecast

All the matches in the first-ever ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup, which begins today in South Africa, will be telecast live on Ten Sports of Pehla and Firstnet bouquet.