Australia determined to make amends

Brian McFadyen, the Australia coach, has said his side has been planning for this ICC Under-19 World Cup for the past 18 months. Australia were the champions in the 1998 and 2002 but failed to qualify for the Super League stages and lost in the final of the Plate competition in the previous edition in Bangladesh.

"Those performances in 2004 gave everyone in Australia a bit of a shake-up," McFadyen said. "Since then we have had four training camps over an 18-month period plus a tour to India and we have been very thorough in our preparations. We have focussed pretty heavily on playing against spin bowling and using different strategies than we would back in Australia.

"During our training sessions we utilised some Australian players who have had success on the sub-continent. We looked to use their expertise and use them to develop different activities and drills for our players."

Moises Henriques, the captain of the current side, and also of the one that toured India and lost the ODI series 4-1, said that tour was a great learning experience, particularly for the batsmen. He said: "Batting in India is completely different to batting in Australia and for us to see how the Indians played in those conditions was a great learning curve. We also established India is going to be very hard to beat. We realize it is going to take some fantastic cricket to compete with them and also Pakistan and Bangladesh, who I think have a very good side as well."

Henriques is among the many pace bowlers in the team and the only survivor of the previous World Cup squad. He added that his experience in the subcontinent has enabled him to formulate a strategy for bowling on slow pitches in Sri Lanka.

"Depending on how the fast bowlers are doing I think we will look to use them in shorter spells than normal," said Henriques. "Also I think it is a case of looking to bowl within yourself as anyone who tries to huff and puff opponents out on these surfaces might find themselves ending up the worse for wear. It may be a case of the odd effort ball every now and then and also we have to look to bowl as straight as possible, especially to players from countries like Sri Lanka and India, as you just cannot give them any width."

Australia will face a lot of competition, having been grouped with the West Indies and South Africa in Group B, with USA the fourth team. With only two teams set to qualify from each group, Henriques shrugged off any hint of pressure. "We are not too worried about that," he commented. "We are just worried about playing good cricket."

He also stressed that he is determined to set the record straight after the failiure in 2004. "I think all the boys are hungry to make amends for that and I think we have got the side to do it."

Australia's Group B matches are against South Africa (February 5), the West Indies (February 8) and the USA (February 9).