New Delhi, December 9
India are favourites for the ICC World Cup and a tough tour of South Africa later this month may well be the ideal preparation for the event. This was the general consensus among four World Cup-winning champions who were here to attend a function organised as a run-up to the event to be hosted in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from February to April 2011.

In an interactive session today, hosted by ESPN, Sir Vivian Richards, a member of the all-conquering West Indies side that won the first two World Cups in 1975 and 1979, Kapil Dev, skipper of the winning Indian team in 1983, Imran Khan, who led Pakistan to the trophy in 1992, and Arjuna Ranatunga, captain of the champion Sri Lankan side in 1996, were unanimous that India hold an edge.

Kapil Dev said that the upcoming tour of South Africa could be the ideal testing ground for the Indians. “If they do well there, their confidence will by sky-high and that would be great for the World Cup.

“However, there is also a chance that key players may get injured. I have always maintained that we play way too much cricket.

“India are definite favourites,” he said. “While they have home advantage, they will be under pressure definitely, since the vociferous crowds can really have an effect. But as long as they get their team composition correct, and right now I am not too sure who all will play, they should be the team to back.”

Imran Khan was of the opinion that India were ahead of Sri Lankan by a small margin in terms of being favourites. “But it is not always the best side that wins the World Cup. Pressure can come at all kinds of times. In 1987, I thought Pakistan had the best side, but some pressure in the semi-finals did us in. Similar was the case for India in 1996. So essentially one needs to be able to cope with the pressure, especially in the knockout games.”

Richards was definite that India would be team to watch. “What impressed me is that India are beating New Zealand now, even without many of their frontline players. That goes to show that there is tremendous depth. I think they definitely are up there in terms of favourites.”

New Delhi, December 9
World Cups are not won for a song. There is a lot that goes into making a team a champion side and there are stars that play a great role making such things happen. To see some of those stalwarts, all on the same stage, is something of a bonanza for the media of Delhi today.

Even as the countdown for the ICC World Cup 2011 gets underway, it was quite a revelation to witness the thought process and recollections of Vivian Richards, Imran Khan, Arjuna Ranatunga and Kapil Dev as they recalled their moments of glory.

Richards was his usual self, a suave swagger in his walk and talk making him the centre of attention for the initial part of the event, as Imran and Kapil tried to answer questions about how they dealt with him when he was t the crease. With great difficulty, as it turned out. “Normally, fast bowlers are the ones who attack,” said Imran. “But when Viv batted, he did all the attacking.”

They all agreed that going to the West Indies in those days was not about winning, but about coming away with a graceful defeat.

Richards, on his part, spoke about the 1975 final, where the Clive Lloyd-led Caribbeans beat Australia. “We knew the Aussies were poor runner between the wickets,” Richards said with a half-smile. “So we worked on our fielding and got five run-outs. That included the Chappell brother Ian and Greg, who till then I thought were pretty good players.”

Kapil spoke about how Madan Lal, after being thrashed all around the park by Richards, pleaded for another over. “He got the over and then the catch came towards me,” Kapil said. “I didn’t think about who the batsman was, or anything. I had my heart in my mouth but managed to wave off Yashpal Sharma coming from the fine-leg fence to take the catch.”

Imran applauded his team and also Javed Miandad. “I first saw Javed when he was 18 years old, and from that till now, there is no change in him,” Imran said amidst laughter. “The entire process of evolution has passed him by. But if there was a crisis, you were sure that Javed would fight till the end. It was just a matter of handling him.”

Ranatunga recalled the 1996 World Cup when the West Indies and Australia refused to go and play in Sri Lanka. “I thought it was a great thing, since that almost ensured the quarter-final for us,” he said. “All we had to do was to beat Kenya and Zimbabwe.

“But we realised that we were a good side once we had beaten India in Delhi. That is where we got the confidence.”

London, December 9
AS Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk and Arsenal became the final three teams to reach the knockout stage of the Champions League. Roma secured second place in Group E, behind Bayern Munich, by drawing 1-1 at Cluj. FC Basel came into the final matchday needing to beat Bayern to stand any chance of catching Roma but was thrashed 3-0 in Germany.

Group H had both qualifying spots open but Shakhtar finished top by winning 2-0 at home to FC Braga, and Arsenal joined the Ukrainian champions after a nervy 3-1 victory over Partizan Belgrade. Chelsea's perfect record in Group F ended with a 1-0 loss at Marseille to increase the pressure on manager Carlo Ancelotti, while Real Madrid remained unbeaten after its six matches in Group G courtesy of a 4-0 win over Auxerre, with Karim Benzema scoring a hat trick.

The draw for the last 16 will be held on Dec. 17, with group winners kept apart and teams from the same country prevented from playing each other. Roma only needed a point to go through, but looked like it would pick up all three when striker Marco Borriello put the Italian side in the lead in the 21st minute from 12 yards (meters). — AP

Rohtak, December 9
Fast bowler Manpreet Gony returned with a four-wicket haul to reduce Haryana to 153 for seven at stumps after Punjab posted a challenging 415 in the first innings on the second day of their Ranji Trophy Super League Group B match here today. Gony snapped the wickets of Nitin Saini (0), Ankit Rawat (32), Pardeep Sahu (1) and Joginder Sharma (5) and also engineered a run out of Rahul Dewan (6) to break Haryana's backbone.

Skipper Amit Mishra (11) and Sachin Rana (38) were at the crease when stumps were drawn at the Bansi Lal Cricket Stadium here. Earlier resuming at 322/2, Uday Kaul (97) missed a deserving century by a whisker when he was bowled by Sanjay Budhwar. However Mandeep Singh (112) completed his ton but could not stay on for a longer period as he bowled by Sunny Singh in the 115th over as Punjab lost half of its side at the score of 388.

Rana then rose to the occassion and triggered a collapse, scalping four wickets as Punjab finished their first innings at 415 in 125.5 overs. In reply, Haryana had a nightmarish start as they lost three wickets within 10 overs with the scoreboard reading just 27.

Brief scores: Punjab 1st innings: 415 all out in 125.5 overs (Uday Kaul 97, Mandeep Singh 122; Sachin Rana 4/51) Haryana 1st innings: 153 for 7 in 42 overs (Sachin Rana 38 not out; Manpreet Gony 4/43). — PTI

BRIEFLY

Pietersen fined for over-speeding
Melbourne: In-form England batsman Kevin Pietersen was today fined by a police officer for over-speeding near Geelong in Victoria. The officer used a laser speed detector to nab the 30-year-old batsman who was allegedly driving at 121km/h in a 110km/h zone on the Geelong Ring Rd at 2.35pm, the Herald-Sun reported. Pietersen was fined USD 239 and lost three demerit points. On a high after his match-winning double hundred in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide, Pietersen took the powerful Lamborghini Gallardo for a spin along the famous Great Ocean Road. — PTI

Amla feels strange!
Johannesburg: The first cricketer of Indian descent to make it to the South African national team, Hashim Amla says he feels strange when people ask how he feels whenever he plays against the country where his grandparents were born. "My grandparents came from India, but I am South African. I chuckle when I'm asked how I feel playing against India. It's a bit strange," Amla said. "Other players whose parents or grandparents came from overseas are never asked how they feel when they play against England," said Amla who has been named in the South African squad for the Test series against India starting on December 16. — PTI