The first 3,000 applications came from 50 different countries with Britain, the United States and Australia the top buyers in the early hours, said Chris Dehring, managing director of ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007.

"It is going very well," Dehring told AFP. "We were up at midnight and it was very exciting to watch all the different markets waking up."

The organisers expect more than half of the 800,000 tickets to be sold within the West Indies for the tournament, which starts March 13 and runs through to April 28.

Dehring who is in charge of the World Cup marketing operation said organisers were still hopeful of selling all the tickets.

Internet sales on www.cricket-worldcup.com will run through July 31.

There is a general guideline reserving 50 percent of tickets for games for the West Indies market.

But this would be changed for high interest internationals such as games involving England and Australia.