SYDNEY, 1 March 2007 — Australia captain Ricky Ponting warned yesterday that despite some recent poor form the world champions will be “extremely hard to beat” at the upcoming cricket World Cup.
Speaking to reporters at Sydney airport as the team flew out to the Caribbean in search of a third straight World Cup victory, Ponting said he believed his team deserved to remain favorites.
“There’s been a bit of negativity around the team over the last couple of weeks, but I guess that’s to be expected when you’re not playing your absolute best and we certainly haven’t done that,” Ponting said.
The Australians go into the competition after suffering five straight one-day defeats — two against England and three against New Zealand.
But Ponting pointed out that the 3-0 whitewash by New Zealand in the recent Chappell-Hadlee Trophy was achieved against a team weakened by injury. “We’ve had up to six or seven of our top 11 players out as well, which probably hasn’t been reported that much over the last couple of weeks,” he said.
“I’m not that fussed at the moment that we’re going in having lost our last five games.
“That should be able to bring the best out in the players and this team generally lifts itself and plays its best cricket when there’s some big games on the line, and it doesn’t get any bigger than a World Cup.
“We’ve got some work to do, no doubt, and we’ve got some talking to do about our cricket as well. But we’ll get that done very early and I know that we’re going to be extremely hard to beat.
“I know now that we’re drifting favorites but, once the cricket gets underway, hopefully you’ll see some cricket that’s going to mean that we still are the favorites going in.”
Miandad Says Pakistan Must
Forget About Shoaib and Asif
In Karachi, former captain Javed Miandad has told Pakistan to stop waiting for Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif and go into next month’s World Cup without the two pace bowlers. “With so much uncertainty over their availability, I think it is best Pakistan forget about them and devised a new strategy with more spinners,” Miandad told Reuters yesterday. “Why waste time on something which is not available?”
Shoaib and Asif are receiving treatment in London for their knee and elbow injuries and will not be leaving for the Caribbean today with the rest of the squad. The pair have also yet to take the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) official doping tests, said media manager Pervez Mir.
Pakistan have also yet to receive permission from the World Cup technical committee to replace injured all-rounder Abdul Razzaq with Azhar Mahmood.
