West Indies captain Carl Hooper said World Cup hosts South Africa should not underestimate his improving team, which arrived for cricket's showpiece tournament on Thursday.

"(South African captain) Shaun Pollock will realise that there is not a big gap between our two sides," he told reporters. "I believe we can go all the way, otherwise we wouldn't be here."

South Africa and the West Indies meet in the opening match of the tournament in Cape Town on February 9. The last time they met, in the Champions Trophy in Colombo in September, South Africa won by two wickets.

"We should have won that game," Hooper said.

The West Indies gained positive momentum for the World Cup on their tour to India in November and December, when they lost the Test series 2-0 but bounced back to win the one day rubber 4-3.

Hooper said, however, that the improvement in results against South Africa since their humiliating tour in 1998-99 was more instrumental in the West Indian resurgence.

"The last time we played South Africa in South Africa (in 1998-99) we were thumped (5-0 in the Test series and 6-1 in the one day internationals)," Hooper said.

"Since then we've played them in the Caribbean (in 2000-01), and things went well for us. We turned it around then and showed we can compete against the best in the world."

South Africa won the Test series 2-1 and prevailed 5-2 in the limited overs games.

Hooper said their top batsman Brian Lara had fully recovered from his recent injury problems.

"He's back to full fitness and ready to go," Hooper said.