Bangalore - Australia captain Ricky Ponting is relishing the opportunity of another batting duel with Sachin Tendulkar in what will probably be their last World Cup
Ponting, 36, the tournament's second most prolific batsman behind Tendulkar, said he had always enjoyed playing against the world's leading runs scorer in test and one-day cricket.
"There is no bigger stage than a World Cup for all of us to stand up and perform well," Ponting told a news conference on Friday. "I am sure Sachin wants to have a good tournament. I am sure he wants to be a part of the World
Cup-winning side, but hopefully he is not." "It probably will be Sachin's
last World Cup and probably my last World Cup as well. I guess we have been
lucky over the years to play a lot of cricket against each other. I have always
enjoyed the chance of playing against Sachin and playing against the Indian
team, especially under these conditions here. So, nothing will change over the
next few weeks. We will enjoy and see who comes out on the top."
Ponting, who led Australia to victory in the last two tournaments, said he felt
there was no outright favourite for the Feb 19 - April 2 tournament in India,
Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. "There are a number of very good cricket teams
out there at the moment," he said.
"Yes, we rank number one but we will not be thinking about being the number
one team in the next couple of weeks. We will be training as hard as anybody
else and preparing better than anyone else to give ourselves the best chance in
the tournament. That is all we can do."
Ponting said Australia would miss injured left-hander Michael Hussey, who was
Australia's best batsman in the losing Ashes series. "Losing Michael Hussey is a
big loss to our setup. There is no doubt about it," Ponting said. "His experience
and his knowledge of the game in tournaments like this are almost second to
none. We will miss him"
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