The Olympic-style ceremony at Cape Town’s Newlands cricket ground was beamed to some 1.4 billion people around the globe , marking the biggest event of its kind ever staged in Africa and a boost to South Africa’s hopes of hosting the much larger soccer World Cup in 2010.

“All Africa thanks you that have thus come to us as friends,” South African President Thabo Mbeki told the 14 teams as he declared the competition open.

“Thus you have given us a gift that is as priceless as life itself.”

Some 22,000 spectators gathered at Newlands cheered as the ceremony got under way with party of San hunters – descendents of South Africa’s earliest inhabitants – pursuing performers dressed as stampeding herds of zebra, giraffes and antelopes

Organisers have seized on the World Cup to promote South African tourism and modern infrastructure and Saturday’s ceremony provided glimpses of the “Rainbow Nation”, from its spectacular physical beauty to the vibrant culture of its black townships.

In six scenes, 4,500 volunteer performers joined in a choreographed display of national pride, taking viewers from the backcountry bush through a shebeen – or pub – crawl of modern township life to a ballet paying homage to the ocean.

And in a huge tableau dubbed Unity, ranks of performers of every colour joined to form a beaded African necklace – a salute to the ethnic mosaic that South Africa has celebrated since the end of white-only rule in 1994.

Unlike the pyrotechnics of recent Olympic parties, Saturday’s World Cup show was deliberately low-tech and “people-based”.

All the nearly 12,000 costumes and props in the show were constructed out recycled materials and most were made by township craftspeople as part of a plan to spread the benefits of hosting the cricket championship.

Saturday’s ceremony launched six weeks and 54 matches of the World Cup, with hosts South Africa taking on West Indies in the first game at Newlands on Sunday.

As fusillades of fireworks exploded in the skies next to Cape Town’s famous Table Mountain, fans, players and officials joined in a party most hope will put cricket – and South Africa – back at centre stage.

“We hope the world will be proud of us,” said Bernadette Karelse, a 12-year-old performer who joined the thousands of other volunteers in putting on Saturday’s show. “Maybe next time we will do the Olympics. That would be even better.”