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London - They have proclaimed the seventh World Cup ``A Carnival of Cricket'' but Trinidad's Mas, Guyana's Mashramani and Barbados' Kadooment it certainly won't be.

It doesn't even come close to the Notting Hall variety and, to ensure that there is no confusion over the English concept of the cricket-carnival connection, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the organisers, have plainly detailed the contradiction to their competition slogan on each of their tickets.

Among the items that are ``prohibited and may not be taken into any match'' are klaxons, megaphones and compressed air or gas-operated horns.

There are to be no face masks, banners, fancy dress or ``oversize headwear of a nature which has the potential to cause injury to its wearer or other spectators or which could severely restrict the view of, or be construed as 'offensive' to, other spectators''.

Also banned are bands ``other than those with prior agreement in writing from the organisers''.

National flags, without flagpoles, will be allowed but ``continued use of musical instruments, which causes annoyance to other spectators, will result in them being confiscated''.

So there will be nothing resembling Sabina's Red Stripe Mound or Queen's Park Trini Posse Stand. No Chicki's Disco will be pumping out carnival sounds between overs.

And if Mac Fingall is thinking of coming along, he can leave his trumpet and drums back in St. Philip.

At half the grounds, there will be ``a total ban on the importation of alcohol'' and at those where there isn't – among them Lord's and the Oval – no more than four cans of beer or the equivalent in wine will be allowed in.

Rum, whisky, vodka and other spirits are all on the banned list.

There won't even be the kind of elaborate opening ceremony that has become virtually mandatory at such presitigious international sporting events that fill television screens in millions of homes around the world.

Instead, according to Press spokesman Andy Edwards, British Prime Minister Tony Blair will declare the tournament officially open to the backdrop of ``a brief, colourful show involving children'' at Lord's on Friday.

After that, England, the hosts, and Sri Lanka, the champions, get the show on the road. Over the next six weeks, that road will wind through 18 cities.

With 12 teams and 42 matches, it is the biggest cricket event ever staged in the country that gave birth to the game. Yet the build-up has been strangely low-key.

Most of last Sunday's national newspapers carried special preview supplements and there has been plenty of coverage of the preparation matches. But not nearly as much as there understandably has been for the climax of the English football season.

Perhaps the organisers feel they don't have to worry. After all, all the tickets have been sold. But it is the public awareness of a sport that needs a boost here that is of current concern and a World Cup, properly promoted, could provide that.