Clouds gather for under pressure Ponting

Sri Lanka remain underprepared for the World Cup.

SYDNEY: Ricky Ponting has endured a troubled build-up to his quest for a fourth consecutive World Cup crown and his third title as Australia captain.

He earned the dubious distinction as the only Australian leader to fail to win the Ashes three times in the recent home Test series against England amid calls for him to be replaced. Complicating things was a broken little finger that forced the 36-year-old out of the fifth Sydney Ashes Test and also from the entire seven-game One-Day International (ODI) series against England.

Ponting only resumed training following surgery after the Boxing Day Melbourne Test match.

“I think I’m going to have that [pain] for a while. I don’t think it’s going to be one of those things that goes away altogether,” said Ponting.

In Ponting’s absence, Michael Clarke led the Australians to an emphatic 6-1 ODI series victory over England to give the World Cup champions a boost after the post-Ashes despondency. Australia go into the tournament on a 23-match winning streak in World Cup matches, having been undefeated at the last two tournaments.

Hosts underprepared

Sri Lanka on the other hand have missed out on a home advantage after being denied a chance to train at two new World Cup venues because of construction delays, said captain Kumar Sangakkara.

The Sri Lankans open their campaign against Canada at the Mahinda Rajapakse stadium on February 20, but delays in meeting building deadlines meant the venue could not be used for training. Sri Lanka’s hopes of getting a feel of the other new facility in Pallekele in the central district of Kandy were also dashed due to similar problems.

“We would love to train at all the grounds, but we also need to have the proper facilities to train,” said Sangakkara after wrapping up a 2-0 one-day series win over the West Indies. “But things are what they are, so we accepted the fact that we’ll have to go in and play World Cup matches on those grounds without knowing the conditions too much.”

Injury-hit England look optimistic

England may have won the Ashes and triumphed at the 2010 World Twenty20 but even their fans may think twice about backing them to win the World Cup.

Not only did they lose to Australia, bad enough in itself, they also ended the tour with injury worries regarding six members of their 15-man squad. Experienced all-rounder Paul Collingwood (back spasm), fast-bowlers Ajmal Shahzad (hamstring) and Tim Bresnan (calf), off-spinner Graeme Swann (back/knee) and pace-bowler Stuart Broad (abdominal strain) also had their tour of Australia cut short by injury.

“We’re pretty confident the other guys are going to be fit, but Morgan we are not sure of at this stage,” said England captain Andrew Strauss.

“It’s a big loss for us potentially. He is particularly important in those conditions as well, being able to clear the ropes in the manner that he does.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2011.