It is perhaps because Australia has suddenly lost a few games, but there are many players who are desperate to play the World Cup. Desperate enough to even cut their fingers! And we kid you not! Jacob Oram, New Zealand’s star all-rounder over the last year suffered an injury in the recent Chappell-Hadlee tournament and is a doubtful starter for the World Cup. But he wants to play the tournament so bad, that he’s okay with having to amputate his finger! “If it means cutting the finger off, if that’s the worse-case scenario, if that’s the last resort, I’ll do that, there’s no way I’m missing this,” he is reported to have said. What luck it’s not a head injury!
On the other end of this spectrum is Abdul Razzaq who has hurt his knee. “I am simply devastated. One moment we are practicing and planning for the big tournament and next moment doctors tell me I am out of it,” he says despondently. Tsk tsk! Now we are not at all suggesting he amputate his knee and follow the example Oram is trying to set, but a little more vigour in showing disappointment would have gone a long way, no? To be honest, he is probably out of action for only three weeks and starting today, he could be back by March 21 and well in time for the Super Eight stage. But he doesn’t sound too keen on risking the knee, now does he?
Which maybe just goes to show the desperation the two teams have for winning the tournament. New Zealand, of course, are on a high after their 3-0 drubbing of Australia, and Pakistan have returned from a series loss in South Africa, but still, they could show some more fight, one feels!
Speaking of fight, the Australian captain is pleased to be back along with Adam Gilchrist and so do the media. Let the ‘mental disintegration’ games begin and it’s time for bloated statements from an ageing side (we may as well call them names while we still can!). “We’re the team to beat,” announced Ponting. Any why not? With Symonds hoping for a mid-tournament recovery (hint Mr Razzaq), Clark recovered from his hip injury and the Gilchrists having welcomed their third child (congratulations!), things are starting to look settled again.
And there is at least one more captain who seems to agree with Ponting. Rahul Dravid was fairly ‘routine’ in his assessment of chances saying, “Australia start as favourites. The competition is going to be tight among the eight teams.” Well, okay, we know that too. But how about some confidence or do you prefer to keep expectations low so failure can be addressed better? Maybe it’s best if we just called them underdogs… nice ring to it, no?