‘Looking forward to playing T20 world champions’

Australian captain Ricky Ponting on Friday said his team was not looking at Saturday’s one-off Twenty20 cricket match as a chance for revenge against India for their loss in the World Championships in South Africa.

“There’s nothing about trying to get even. We are looking forward to playing against the Indian team which won this format of the World Championship a few weeks ago. This match has been talked about even more than the (seven-match) ODI series,” Ponting said on the eve of the Twenty20 International at the Brabourne Stadium here.

“We were pretty disappointed about losing the last ODI from a winning position. We lost to the Indians in the T20 World Championship. But you win some and lose some. What’s important is enjoying the game. It’s an enjoyable format,” said the Tasmanian batsman.

Australia were knocked out by the Mahendra Dhoni-led side in the semi finals of the T20 event at Durban and went on to clinch the inaugural world crown in the shortest format of the interntional game.

Ponting also said some of the Australian cricketers were down with sore throats, including left-arm wrist spinner Brad Hogg, who was a key member of the ODI squad that defeated the hosts 4-2 in the series that ended on October 17.

“We will have to take a call on Brad Hogg later this evening. He has a sore throat,” said the Aussie skipper who expected in-form opener Matthew Hayden to return to action after missing the last two ODIs because of a hip injury.

BCCI steps up security for Twenty20

Rahul Dravid is determined to enjoy the season ahead of him.Despite being left out of the Indian playing eleven for the Mumbai One-day match against Australia on Wednesday, Dravid appeared committed to staging a comeback.

“A lot of matches are coming up. I am looking forward to enjoying the season and try and play the best as I can,” remarked Dravid, who flew into Dubai yesterday morning to attend a press briefing as brand ambassador for Skyline Construction and Housing Private Limited.

Though his contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) prevents him from making any controversial statements, Dravid, ducking intelligently at some tricky questions, spoke freely about Indian cricket.

Right decision

When asked why he gave up Indian captaincy, which is the dream job of every cricketer, Dravid said: “I stepped down because at that stage I was not enjoying the job.”It is important for me to enjoy the job and do it to the best of my ability. I felt at that it was time to move on.”

Dravid spoke about how he felt on playing under a young captain like Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

“I’ve enjoyed playing under him. Like with any job, you grow up in captaincy with experience. Whatever Dhoni has done so far has been promising,” said Dravid, who led India to two historic series victories against the West Indies and England.

To a query whether Dhoni does approach him for advice, Dravid said: “We interact a lot during the course of the matches. Conversations do come up asking for my thoughts and I have always been willing to provide it.”

Dravid avoided a question about the Indian media’s scathing attack on seniors like himself, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly after the Twenty20 World Cup win. However he spoke about how he handles the pressures of being a senior.

“One gets used to the pressures during the course of one’s career. It is just a question of learning to adapt and adjust. I have the experience of playing for nearly 13 years for India and I have enjoyed it.

“You learn about your cricket and your personality as you go along and in the process you also learn to handle the pressures. In fact you grow along with your experience.”

Dravid was not part of the Twenty20 World Cup, team. Did he feel upset at not being part of a team that made history?

No bad feelings

“It was a glorious moment of Indian cricket and I enjoyed watching it. It was great to see India win and I did not feel bad that I missed the tournament. What made me most happy was the fact that India won the trophy. It was also nice to see the enthusiasm and celebrations of the people.”

Talking about the oncoming series against Pakistan, Dravid said: “It is a big series. The Indian players are looking forward to it as much as Pakistani players.”

Finally, to a question on what will it take to beat Australia? Dravid responded: “To beat Australia you need to play good cricket consistently.

Crowd behaviour has embarrassed even host fans: Ponting

A livid Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has said continuous “racial abuse” directed towards all-rounder Andrew Symonds by the crowds during the one-day cricket series against India must have left even the host fans embarrassed.

“I am sure there will be a lot of embarrassed people around this country as well to know that this stuff has happened again at one of their cricket venues,” Ponting said after Australia won 7-match ODI series 4-2.

Ponting said he was hoping for better crowd behaviour during the Twenty20 match on Saturday.

“It is done now, hopefully in the Twenty20 match on Saturday it does not happen there” he said.

Ponting said he wanted an end to the hostilities and called on the spectators to behave during the tour finale at Brabourne stadium.

“Some of the other stuff that went on today (Wednesday) was totally unnecessary. I just hope that it does not happen again at another cricket venue that I play in because it leaves a bad taste in everybody’s mouth,” the skipper said.

Symonds has alleged that racial taunts have been directed at him in the last three one-dayers at Vadodara, Nagpur and here, a claim backed by match referee Chris Broad, who has mentioned the incidents in his report to the ICC.

Even during last night’s match here, four spectators were detained by the police for “misbehaviour”.

Symonds was booed when he came out to bat and it continued after he was out first ball. The man of the series was once again jeered by the crowd during the presentation ceremony.