PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad - As South Africa found out, playing a fringe cricket team can be a potential banana skin.

South Africa slumped to 91 for eight against Ireland in a World Cup warmup match in Port-of-Spain on Monday before recovering to 192 - and a stubborn reply meant it won by only 36 runs.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting has been among the critics of having so many non-test rated teams at the World Cup, but supporters of the concept say it promotes cricket around the globe.

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"If Ireland vs. South Africa is anything to go by, then all of us need to be on our toes," Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer said.

Woolmer knows all about minor teams - he was the International Cricket Council's performance manager from 2001 until joining Pakistan in 2005 and helped prepared the associate, or non-test, teams for the 2003 World Cup.

"All those associate sides have been working very hard," Woolmer said. "The high performance program has lifted significantly since I was there. There's a much larger budget. What we call the banana-skin sides, are better prepared than they were for the last World Cup."

There were some more lopsided results on Monday involving test teams against associates, with England trouncing Bermuda by 241 runs and Sri Lanka beating Scotland by 159.

Netherlands was against India yesterday and Canada was to play Woolmer's Pakistan lineup.

South Africa coach Mickey Arthur admitted his side's poor batting and fielding contributed to the Proteas' dire performance, but was impressed with Ireland, which is making its World Cup debut.

"Full marks to Ireland," Arthur said. "I thought they assessed the conditions well and bowled really well up front, so well done to them. They put us under pressure and we only responded late on in the innings."

Ireland plays West Indies, Pakistan and Zimbabwe at Jamaica in the group stage of the World Cup. Arthur was impressed with the work done by coach Adrian Birrell and said the Irish wouldn't be easybeats.

"I can see that he's (Birrell) molded the Irish side into a mighty fine unit, who play to the best of their abilities," Arthur said. "They're competitive with bat, ball and they're very competitive in the field. I really believe that they certainly could give some of those bigger teams a run for their money."

West Indies great Michael Holding has criticized the inclusion of the six associate teams - Scotland, Bermuda, Kenya, Canada, Ireland and Netherlands. Ponting, however, thinks that a total of 16 teams simply makes the World Cup tournament too long.

"I've always felt there are probably places and times for minnow nations to be playing. I'm not sure if the World Cup and the Champions Trophy is one of those times," Ponting said.

"I've never been a great fan for having those countries in. But if it does actually benefit their cricket ... then it should be a part of what they do."

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said their inclusion provided a good mix.

"The concept is pretty good," he said. "You've got an attraction for the developing teams to look forward to."

The quality of cricket from those so-called minnow nations is improving quite dramatically.

Fleming said upsets in previous World Cups - Zimbabwe beating Australia by 13 runs in its first official limited-overs international in 1983, Kenya upsetting West Indies in 1996 and Bangladesh beating Pakistan in 1999 - proved anything was possible in the tournament.

"There's always one or two upsets ... we've seen that in every World Cup and I don't see that changing," he said. "In some ways, these are more challenging than matches against the players you play all the time because you don't know anything about them."

Woolmer said some of the low and slow pitches being used for the warmup matches helped the less experienced teams.

"The worse the pitches, the more the sides even out," he said.