World Cup 2007: Richard Gillis talks to former West Indies legend Courtney Walsh about Ireland's World Cup hopes

There are worse places to spend St Patrick's Day. That's the message coming through ahead of Ireland's appearance at the World Cup in the Caribbean next March. Ireland play their key group game against Pakistan in Jamaica on March 17th, which is the cue for a Paddy's Day party on the island.

"There will be a great deal of local support for the Ireland team at the World Cup, they will be everyone's second-favourite team," said Courtney Walsh, the former West Indies captain who is in Dublin as part of a delegation from the Jamaican Tourist Board.

His views on the current game are worth noting. Walsh was one of the greatest bowlers of all time, the first man to take 500 wickets in Tests in a 20-year career that started at Perth, Australia, in 1983, when he was 21.

He thinks Ireland have a puncher's chance of progressing beyond the group stage.

"Form suggests that West Indies and Pakistan should go through from the Jamaica group, but Ireland have beaten West Indies twice and beaten Zimbabwe, so they are very capable of causing an upset," he said.

Pakistan's form will be something of an unknown quantity, according to Walsh, but his views may dampen Irish hopes. The last two months has seen ball- tampering accusations, cancelled matches and, only yesterday, the loss of bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif to doping bans.

"With everything that has happened they will come to the World Cup ready to play," says Walsh. "These sort of things tend to have a galvanising effect on team morale."

Walsh was raised in the suburbs of the Jamaican capital, Kingston. He was the last of the line of great West Indian fast bowlers produced by the islands over 30 years. The absence of players of Walsh's quality from the current West Indies team has been felt keenly and caused much soul-searching at home.

Young Jamaicans have more choices in terms of how they spend their leisure time, and the slow-burn appeal of cricket can pale by comparison to soccer and basketball. "It is good to have choice, and young kids still want to play cricket," he says. "What needs to be done is the cricket authorities need to do more to keep them in the game."

"It has taken some time for the team to take shape following the retirement of myself and Curtly Ambrose, but recent form has been encouraging. I would be very disappointed if they failed to make the semi-final at least."

The marketing push aimed at enticing Irish fans to Jamaica began in Belfast on Tuesday, before reaching the Burlington Hotel in Dublin yesterday evening.

According to the Jamaican Tourist Board, the town of Ochio Rios has emerged as a favourite destination for Irish people looking for a base in Jamaica during the first two weeks of the event. Ochio Rios is on the north coast of the island, within an hour of Kingston's Sabina Park, the historic ground which will stage all of Ireland's matches.

The opening ceremony takes place at Trelawny Sports Ground on March 11th, which is a two-hour car journey from the town. A spokesman for the tourist board said that there is considerable goodwill toward Ireland due to the presence in Jamaica of brewing company Diageo (Guinness), which owns the Red Stripe brand, and telecom supplier Digicel, owned by Irish businessman Denis O'Brien.

"Digicel in particular is seen in a good light because it freed local people from the monopoly of Cable and Wireless," said the spokesman. "As a result, the company has received very positive coverage in the media and has shown its commitment to the region by sponsoring the national team. Every Jamaican has a mobile phone because of Digicel - that sort of thing will mean Irish people will be very popular next March."