da 888： Despite being labelled favourites after their scorching form leading up tothe tournament, Ricky Ponting’s Australians are not taking success forgranted in the forthcoming ICC Champions Trophy
Charlie Austin09-Sep-2002Despite being labelled favourites after their scorching form leading up tothe tournament, Ricky Ponting’s Australians are not taking success forgranted in the forthcoming ICC Champions Trophy.Ponting, who took over the Australian one-day captaincy from Steve Waughlast winter, believes the 12-team tournament starting Thursday is going tobe very competitive."A lot of the sides are evenly matched," he said, minutes after the team’sarrival in Colombo. "New Zealand showed they can beat us last winter athome, India are always dangerous and England are now playing some goodcricket."Australia will also be wary of the fact they were knocked out early in thetwo previous `mini-world cups’ in 1998 and 2000."We’re just focusing on the first game against New Zealand at the moment,"he said. "We have played in this tournament twice and lost both to India."However, although understated, the self-confidence was palpable: "We knowthat if we play to our best then we are going to be very competitive."Coach John Buchanan – who dramatically described his role as "taking theteam into areas they have not been before" – was also confident, claiminghis side was ready to meet the challenge posed by the shrewd Kiwi’s.Referring to last winter, when Australia failed to qualify for the final ofthe Charlton and United one-day series, he said: "New Zealand played to agood game plan but I think we will be able to handle it a lot better thistime."Australia will play a practice match against the West Indies on Wednesdaybefore their first game on Sept 15.Ponting was relieved to have a break: "After four games in seven days and anightmarish journey from Kenya, we’re lucky to have a couple of days offbefore the New Zealand game."Looking back on the Kenya tour, Ponting was disappointed that the tri-seriesfinal against Pakistan at Nairobi on Saturday was washed out, denying them adeserved victory after four crushing wins."We performed well in Kenya after a long lay off and it was a disappointingend to what might have been a good game," he said.The two major plus points of that short tour were the reduced girth andrevitalised enthusiasm of leg-spinner Shane Warne, as well as theincreasingly consistent fast bowling of blonde haired speed merchant BrettLee."Brett (Lee) was the shining light of the Kenya trip," said Ponting. "Heremained genuinely quick but was more accurate.""Shane (Warne) has lost 10-12 kilos and is fitter than he has ever been inhis cricket career. Moreover, he is bowling well and turning the ball."