World champs take their R&R seriously

POTCHEFSTROOM, South Africa - Australia's players were so tense during the early stages of the 1999 World Cup they couldn't breathe ... or play.

It was pure torture. The harder they tried, the worse they got, losing to Pakistan and New Zealand and struggling against a bunch of modestly-talented bravehearts from Scotland.

It's history, and something of a miracle, that Australia won the title. Those first few games were such an ordeal that Ricky Ponting's side vowed to avoid a repeat this time.

They wanted to hit the ground running in South Africa, win the first two games against Pakistan and India to blow off the cobwebs, then enjoy themselves.

Mission accomplished.

The Australians aren't living and breathing the World Cup over here. Far from it. In fact, when they aren't playing, or when they are about to face weak opposition like Holland on Thursday, they are being encouraged to let their hair down.

Australia's team hotel in Potchefstroom the last two days has been noticeable for how many players have been absent.

A large gang went to R&R heaven: Sun City. Others went back to the capital, Johannesburg.

Those who did stay in Potchefstroom did laps of the local golf course, swam, played table tennis, played pool, sipped the odd beer - anything that didn't involve cricket, anything that would help clear their heads.

It's all part of a plan to keep the players fresh over a long two-month tournament, enabling them them to peak at the right times. There's no need to be peaking now.

The time will come soon enough when the Super Sixes, the semi-final and final roll around. There's an energetic vibe in the camp that was missing at the same stage of the Cup four years ago.

"I remember us having a very, very tough and hard meeting a couple of games in," said Ponting.

"We sat down in Headingley and locked all the doors and just tried to really get to the bottom of why things were not happening for us.

"It was a really open and honest meeting for us, we got everything out but we haven't had to do too much of that this time.

"Things are going really well and I probably think part of that is the chance we've had to - not do our own thing all the time - but we haven't placed too much emphasis on this being a big tournament and a World Cup.

"We've tried to make it a little bit the other way if anything, be a little bit more low key and just go about our business day in and day out. The guys are probably responding pretty well to that.

"It was built up big-time in '99 and that's what we've tried to stay away from. There's going to be enough excitement and pressure around on game day anyway to get the guys pumped up, so we've deliberately tried to make it as low key as we can."

Australia returned to the nets on the eve of the Holland game with batteries fully charged.