Ponting, McGrath know feeling of being World Cup losers

WORLD CUP: Ricky Ponting and Glenn McGrath have played starring roles in Australia’s streak of 22 World Cup victories as they chase their third title.

They also have something that separates them from Saturday’s cup final opponent Sri Lanka.

Ponting and McGrath know what it’s like to lose in the final.

The opener and the fast bowler were on the Australian lineup that lost to the Sri Lankans in the 1996 final in Lahore, Pakistan.

Since then, the Aussies outplayed Pakistan in the 1999 final at Lord’s and India in the 2003 final at Johannesburg. Few people are betting on them to lose in Barbados on Saturday.

Ponting believes his team is getting stronger.

“We’ve been building our performance and can improve further in the final,” Ponting said after his team’s routine seven-wicket semifinal victory over South Africa on Wednesday.

“We have maintained very high standards during this World Cup. When the big games come, Australia raises its performance. There hasn’t been a game where we’ve not been able to execute our plans for a long period,”

The buildup to the match at Kensington Oval began Thursday when the teams arrived at the hotel they will share just outside Bridgetown and began working on the strategies each hope will lead them to the title.

Sri Lanka’s tactical plan began 12 days before the final when it left its top three bowlers - pacemen Lasith Malinga and Chaminda Vaas and spinner Muttiah Muralitharan - off the lineup that faced the Australians in Grenada.

Although Malinga was recovering from an ankle injury, coach Tom Moody decided to keep Vaas and Muralitharan out of range of the big hitting Aussie batsmen to maintain the element of surprise.

Although the Australians won that match by seven wickets, the Sri Lankans didn’t mind because they knew they were already on their way to the semifinals.

They may consider leaving out one of their fast bowlers, Dilhara Fernando, for the final in Barbados because of a poor performance in Tuesday’s 81-run semifinal victory over New Zealand in Jamaica.

While the rest of the bowlers were accurate and always looked likely to take wickets, Fernando allowed 45 runs in five overs and was twice warned by the umpires by running too close to the batting line.

Australia is unlikely to make any changes from the lineup that outplayed South Africa in St. Lucia.

Ponting’s team has won all 10 games with ease and the only problem he could face is how his players will react if the Sri Lankans put them under pressure. Because of the round-robin format, Australia has played all of its major rivals and beat them without trouble.

Australia didn’t have to play India or Pakistan, however, because they were knocked out in the first round. Their form during the group stage suggested they wouldn’t have been much of a threat to Ponting’s team.

Before they left Jamaica, Pakistan’s players became embroiled in a murder inquiry after their coach, Bob Woolmer, was found apparently strangled in his hotel room March 18.

Jamaica’s Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields said on Thursday it was a “huge and complex” inquiry and it and it would take time before any suspects are identified.

Meanwhile, cricket’s top official admits that the 47-day schedule of the current tournament is too long and he is looking to cut as many as 10 days for the next World Cup in 2011.

“We listen to criticism, and there has been a lot of it from people saying it’s been too long, so we’ll look to make it shorter,” Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the International Cricket Council told BBC Radio Five.

“We’ll seek to reduce this 47-day World Cup by seven or 10 days, and hopefully we’ll get it down to somewhere between five and six weeks next time.” The 2011 World Cup is being co-hosted in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Friday, AP

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