Bangalore, February 10
Speculation over the future of master batsman Sachin Tendulkar and coach Gary Kirsten are mere distractions India will have to ignore if they are to lift the World Cup on home soil, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said on Thursday.

MS Dhoni addresses a press conference before a training session at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Thursday. The India captain said his team is well-equipped to handle the pressure of playing in a World Cup in front of home crowds. — AFP

"The feeling is the same (in the team). What is important for the team is to concentrate more on the process and the preparation rather than think about all the other things," Dhoni told reporters.

"There are plenty of issues that always surround the Indian cricket team. We are quite good at distracting ourselves from all the issues. But the fact remains that it will be the last World Cup for Sachin and most likely it will be the last tournament for Gary Kirsten as India's coach."

The wicket-keeper batsman rued the absence of paceman Praveen Kumar due to injury and said India will miss the "street-smart" cricketer.

The Indian captain though was happy with the balance of his squad. "We have got some very experienced players in the side," he added. "Most of the players have played over 5-7 years of (international) cricket at least. That's a very good sign. At the same time you have got very talented youngsters who can really change the course of the game."

The World Cup, to be jointly hosted with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, will help revive the popularity of the 50-over format, which has been hit by the success of the shorter and more entertaining Twenty20 format, Dhoni said. "I am a big fan of 50-over cricket. For Test matches you have to wait for five days and T20 cricket happens in just five overs," he said. — Reuters

Bangalore, February 10
On his last assignment with the Indian team, coach Gary Kirsten focussed on all-rounder Yusuf Pathan and pacer Ashish Nehra on the second day of the four-day preparatory camp for the World Cup at the National Cricket Academy, here today. Kirsten was one of the first members of the team to take the field and left the ground last along with colleagues Eric Simmons (bowling consultant) and Paddy Upton (mental conditioning coach).

Kirsten supervised the net sessions of not only the batsmen but even attended to left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra and threw a few balls at him at the fag end of the three-hour long practice session. Realising Pathan's weakness against short-pitched stuff, Kirsten threw some bouncy balls at him and was also seen giving tips to him on how to counter the fast bowlers.

After yesterday's optional practice session, it was more serious business today. Soon after arriving at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, the entire Indian team went through fielding drills for nearly 45 minutes before shifting base to the NCA nets. The trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, who returned to the squad after a short injury lay-off, were the first to hit the nets and batted for about 40 minutes during which they middled the ball from the word go.

Young Virat Kohli also spent a considerable amount of time at the nets and looked at ease, but Yuvraj looked little out of sort with his timing. After completing his session at the net, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni joined Harbhajan Singh at the other end of the NCA ground and the duo smacked Karnataka Cricket Academy bowlers to all parts of the park.

All the bowlers, meanwhile, rolled their arms in turns with Munaf Patel extracting considerable amount of pace and bounce from the pitch. After the camp, India will be put to their first test when they play Australia in their first warm-up match on Sunday and then round off their preparation with a practice game against New Zealand in Chennai on February 16. — PTI

Chennai, February 10
Desperate to win the elusive World Cup for his country, South Africa captain Graeme Smith today said his side was well-balanced and had the most variety in bowling, especially spin, and looked forward to play a tense and most exciting tournament in the sub-continent. "We have come here with a lot of energy. We have done a lot of really good preparations. There are lot of fresh faces.

At the end of the day it is a tense and exiting tournament... lot of cricket to be played," Smith told a media conference after a practice session ahead of South Africa's warm-up match against Zimbabwe, to be played here on February 12. Stating his team had the most variety in bowling to take on the challenge in the sub-continent conditions, Smith expressed confidence in his spinners.

"We have got two left-armers. We have three frontline spinners and some part-timers also. From bowling point of view in these conditions we have most variety. From selection point of view for each game, slightly different options are available to us. We have also got quite a few options and depending on the conditions we can select the team," he said. On playing on the India sub-continent, the Proteas captain said it was a dream come true for most of his teammates to play the World Cup in a region where there was so much passion for cricket. "I think the people in this region are already excited about hosting the World Cup. And for a lot of us, it is a dream come true to play in the World Cup here." Smith said sustaining good performance was the key to winning the World Cup as the tournament was spread over a long period of over 50 days. "You need to sustain good performances over a lengthy period of time. World Cup is a 50-odd day tournament. It is a long time to maintain high level of standards...balance is always the key. You have to be ready for your games when they come especially in the round-robin league. You have to perform better than your opponent, which is the key," he said. — PTI

Melbourne, February 10
Australian captain Ricky Ponting has conceded that he would have to play through pain during the entire World Cup due to his finger injury. Ponting, who injured a left hand finger during the Ashes series, has been included in the squad despite battling pain. "100 per cent to me is ... if I've got pain, so what?" Ponting told reporters before heading off to India.

"If it can function it's 100 per cent. That's the way I've always looked at those things. Most of the players play with some sort of pain at different times ... It does feel a lot better now," he said.

However, middle-order batsman Michael Hussey has not been lucky enough to retain his place in the side for the event starting February 19. Ponting said keeping Hussey would have been too big a risk.

"I actually don't know (why Hussey wasn't given more time). I'm not sure if the selectors have answered that question today or yesterday either, but I know what the selectors had spoken about - they wanted to have as many fit guys ready to go for the start of the tournament as possible," he said.

"I think the medicos weren't entirely sure or convinced when Mike's injury was going to come right. Just the uncertainty around his recovery time was the main reason he wasn't selected.

"I don't think there was anything easy about squeezing Michael out of the squad, I don't think that was an easy decision to make," he added. Ponting said Hussey's experience would be missed in the middle order.

"(Michael Hussey) is a massive loss to our group," he said. "He's a class player in this form of the game ... a very experienced player, a leader around our group," he added.

But the skipper hoped that David Hussey would ensure that his brother is not missed that much. — PTI

Patiala, February 10
With determination writ large on his face, and the fact that he narrowly missed the World Cup squad, Delhi pacer Ishant Sharma claimed four wickets to tilt the North Zone Ranji Trophy one-day group qualifier match against Jammu & Kashmir in their favour. Played at Dhruv Pandove Cricket Stadium the Delhi team played aggressive cricket to win the match by 81 runs.

Batting first Delhi scored an impressive 296 runs in 50 overs thanks to a solid knock by Shikhar Dhawan who scored 65 off 75 balls. Dhawan scored all around the park, following a cautious start on a perfect batting track. Middle order batsman Rajat Bhatia scored 62 while his teammate Summit Narwal wrapped up the innings with a quick-fire 42. From J&K Raman Dutta got two wickets conceding 50 runs and Abid got two wickets conceding 66 runs.

In reply, the J&K team could manage only 215 runs losing all their wickets in 48.5 overs. P. Rasool from J&K showed some grit and scored 70 off 103 balls, while Ram Dyal scored 28.

Ishant Sharma picked up 4 wickets in 6.3 overs conceding 25 runs, while Sumit Narwal got 2 wickets in 9.5 overs conceding 52 runs and Pardeep Sangwan took 1 wicket conceding 47 runs.

BRIEFLY

Kenya relying on Jonty Rhodes
Colombo: Kenya are banking on the expertise of fielding coach Jonty Rhodes to revive their fortunes at the World Cup, key player Collins Obuya said today. Desperate to end a lean period since their surprise semi-final appearance in the 2003 edition, Kenya hired Rhodes to improve their fielding. Rhodes, the former South African batsman famous for his fielding exploits, took charge of the minnows during a three-week training camp in Pretoria in November last year. "Jonty's had a good rub-on-effect on all of us," said Obuya. — AFP

Zim bank on Bangla experience
Chennai: Making their eighth World Cup appearance, Zimbabwe would be banking on their recent exposure trip to the sub-continent — Bangladesh — and West Indian legend Brian Lara's inputs to stand them in good stead, in the forthcoming quadrennial event. Zimbabwean coach Alen Butcher and captain Elton Chigumbura admitted that the side has been in a rebuilding phase after some poor results but exuded confidence ahead of showpiece event starting February 19 in Dhaka. — PTI

I am fit to play, says Tanvir
Karachi: He has been dropped from Pakistan's World Cup squad due to injury but pacer Sohail Tanvir insists he is fit to play and should have been retained in the side for the quadrennial event starting February 19 in the sub-continent. The Pakistan cricket Board yesterday dropped the unorthodox bowler from the 15-member squad on the recommendations of the national team management, a medical panel and the selection committee and replaced him with rookie left arm pacer Junaid Khan. Tanvir, who has so far claimed 48 wickets in 36 ODIs, said, — PTI

Messi sinks Portugal
London: Lionel Messi scored a last-minute penalty to give Argentina a dramatic 2-1 victory over Portugal while France maintained its renaissance under coach Laurent Blanc with a 1-0 win over five-time world champion Brazil on Wednesday. Cristiano Ronaldo looked to have earned Portugal a draw in Geneva with a 21st-minute equalizer but the Real Madrid forward was upstaged by his Barcelona rival, who converted from the spot with seconds remaining. Karim Benzema was France's matchwinner in Paris, the Real Madrid striker scoring in the 54th minute after good build-up play by Jeremy Menez. — AP

Real Madrid is richest club
London: Real Madrid has topped the league table of the world's 20 richest football clubs for the sixth straight year with a fortune of 438.6 million euros, according to Deloitte. According to the rich list, Real's arch-rivals Barcelona (398.1 million euros) retained second spot in the list, ahead of Manchester United (349.8 million euros) and Bayern Munich (323 million euros). Arsenal (274.1 million euros), Chelsea (255.9 million euros) and Liverpool (225.3 million euros) were fifth, sixth and eighth respectively. Manchester City were the biggest climbers, up from 20th to 11th place. — ANI

Mumbai FC player suspended
MUMBAI: India's national soccer league provisionally suspended Mumbai FC midfielder Nishant Mehra on Thursday after a positive test for tetrahydrocannabinol, the active substance in cannabis. Mehra's case was the first doping incident reported in the I-League, India's national football league, since in-competition checks began in January. "The footballer appeared today with his manager and was taken to the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) where his 'B' sample was opened for testing," Sunando Dhar, the chief executive officer of the I-League, told Reuters. — Reuters

England Test great Bailey dies
London: Former England all-rounder Trevor Bailey has died in a house fire, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed today. Bailey, 87, who played 61 Tests during a 10-year international career, died early today in a fire at his home, the ECB said in a statement. Bailey, who also enjoyed a 21-year career with Essex before finding success as a cricket writer and broadcaster, was known as "barnacle" following several stubborn stints at the crease. — ANI