Sport - Cricket   

India - a strong contender: Procter

By Our Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA OCT. 22 . Legendry South African all rounder Mike Procter has rated India as one of the "strong contenders'' with a potential to win the next year's World Cup to be held in his country.

Procter, however, preferred to cast his dice in favour of the "Kangaroos'' as the "favourites'' to win the Cup. "Australians are the favourites to win the cup going by their team strength. But India is a strong contender for the Cup'', he said in an informal chat with reporters at his hotel lobby.

Procter was in the city here on Tuesday in his capacity as the International Cricket Conference's (ICC) referee to study the facilities available in Vijayawada city for hosting the seventh one-day international match between India and the West Indies.

``India is very good. Particularly the fielding has improved vastly and they have some promising youngsters to perform as witnessed in the recent ICC tournament at Colombo,'' Procter said in substantiation of his assessment.

Procter had a special word of praise for India's foreign coach John Wright and the other members of the team management in enhancing the physical fitness of the Indian team.

``I have seen the recent performances of the Indians. Many of the youngsters are really good on the field and have a high degree of physical fitness, John Wright and the others seem to be doing a good job,'' he said.

Asked about the steps being taken to avoid the match-fixing controversies in the aftermath of the Hansie Cronjie episode, Procter said that the ICC had taken sufficient safeguards to prevent recurrence of such practices.

``The ICC is deploying anti-corruption units at all international fixtures to curb the practice and we are confident of overcoming the problem,'' he said.

Procter did not agree with the view that the South Africans who were considered as one of the strongest teams in the world were turning into "chokers'' as the team appeared to have lost several crucial tournaments after entering the last stage. "South Africa has been playing well. I don't think the team tends to choke during the final stages of a match or the tournament. The overall performance of the team has been good, though we did loose the recent ICC Cup semifinals, he said.

Asked about the arrangements being made by the South African Cricket Board for the next year's world cup, Procter said he was not fully conversant with the arrangements as he is not involved with the process.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

Chess

• Magesh, Saptarshi bounce back
  
  Cricket
  
• Aussies leave Pakistan battered and bruised
• Vijayawada may host India-Windies one-dayer
• India - a strong contender: Procter
• England loses tour opener
  
  Football
  
• Bengal, Maharashtra and Manipur in quarterfinals
  
  Tennis
  
• Rohanna Bopanna brimming with confidence
• Shantanu chalks out good win
• Bad day for under-14 third seeds
  
  Carrom
  
• Grand double for IOC
  
  Volleyball
  
• New rules bring more passion into game
  
  

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu