India U-19 confident and raring to go

Venkatesh Prasad, the India Under-19 coach, has said that India are hungry for success and have not been complacent in their preparation for the U-19 World Cup following successes at the Afro-Asian U-19 Cup and against Australia U-19.

"They [India] have been very committed and I am extremely happy to work with this bunch of players,"said Prasad. "They have been fantastic and they know exactly what is required by the team, which is something we have focused on ahead of any individual goals. They have come up with their own mission statements and have set their own training and playing standards on their own without me. Those standards are keeping their feet on the ground. They know their jobs and it makes my job a bit easier because of it."

Prasad was happy with the training camp the team had in Chennai prior to their departure for Colombo. "We had the camp there because we felt the weather and pitch conditions were similar to Sri Lanka." India will play all their group matches at the R Premadasa Stadium. "They tell me the wickets [at the R Premadasa] have been relaid," said Prasad. "I still remember Sri Lanka scored almost 1000 runs against us there in a Test [it was 952-6 declared in 1997, with Prasad taking 0 for 88 in 24 overs] but that was a long time back."

In the round-robin stage, India have been grouped with Sri Lanka and Associate teams Scotland and Namibia. "A few have said to us we have got an easy draw but we do not think it is easy," said Prasad. "The players know each and every game is important, no matter whom we play. We respect opponents for who they are and it is a learning curve for us too, even if we are playing against the so-called weaker teams. The draw does not matter as, even if we had been drawn against those stronger sides, we would have gone about our business just the same."

But he admitted that India were looking beyond the group stage to matches against the top sides of Group B that include Australia, West Indies and South Africa.

"We have looked at the permutations and combinations if we make it to the quarter-finals. But that quarter-final is not until February 11 and we have got three matches before that on [February] 6th, 8th and 10th. To start with we will cross out the game on the 6th, then move onto the 8th and so on."