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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Captain of defending ICC mini World Cup champions New Zealand, Stepehen Fleming expressed confidence that his team will be able to retain the title they won two years ago at Nairobi.

Fleming speaking to the media at Hotel Taj Samudra yesterday said: "We are very excited by the prospect of defending the championship we won the last time. That has been on our minds during our preparations for this tournament in Australia".

"The Australian leg was very important for us. It was more like getting into the swing of play. The conditions are quite different, but getting outside was the first thing for us because of adverse weather," said Fleming.

"We have come across here with a good program of preparations with tough games against South Africa and Zimbabwe. We are here nice and early so that we can get used to the heat. In a week's time we will be really done".

"It's an honour that we can come back here as defending champions. We haven't had much success in big tournaments around the world and Nairobi was our first major success.

"We have been here many times, so we know what to expect. It is a very important tournament for us. We look forward to getting it underway on the 15th against Australia," said Fleming.

New Zealand will certainly miss their star class all-rounder Chris Cairns who played the stellar role in their success over India in the final at Nairobi two years ago.

"What we have done in his absence is to give opportunities to the younger players to come to the fore. Other players in the side will be looking to fill his position in the side. With the World Cup in mind and Cairns coming back into the play, competition within the squad is important," said Fleming.

"We have a lot of young and exciting players. Jacob Oram is an exciting all-rounder and Scott Styris had a very good series in the West Indies. Those are just two, but you will find that during the tournament there will be a number of players who will stand up at certain times and show themselves," he said.

One of the exciting prospects in the New Zealand side in the absence of Cairns is fast bowler Shane Bond who completed the Australian leg of preparation with a spell of five for 32 off 8.4 overs against New South Wales at Sydney on Friday.

"Bond has exceptional talent that we are lucky to have. He is in good form after a stint with Warwickshire and he arrives in good form from Australia as well," said Fleming.

"He is a fast bowler of genuine pace. Played very well in the Carlton and United series in Australia which is quite a fierce tournament on the world stage. It's a good sign to have him in the team and he complements the other bowlers very well," he said.

Fleming said that although the tournament is conducted on a league basis, "you can still go out of the competition if you lose a game. To me, nothing's really changed but there's only an extra game," he said.

New Zealand play Australia in their opening match on next Sunday at the SSC grounds and Fleming said: "We are confident from our preparations that we can match Australia. They are a good cricket side obviously and you've got to play well to compete with them.

We have prepared ourselves and we hope to do that through hard work and planning".

The 12-nation Champions trophy gets underway on Thursday when Sri Lanka meet Pakistan under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

NEW ZEALAND SQUAD: Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Shane Bond, Chris Harris, Paul Hitchcock, Kyle Mills, Chris Nevin, Jacob Oram, Mathew Sinclair, Scott Styris, Glen Sulzberger, Daryl Tuffey, Daniel Vettori, Lou Vincent, Denis Aberhart (coach), Jeff Crowe (manager).

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