Australia Cricket / Editor / 28 February 2007 /

Australia captain Ricky Ponting is unconcerned about his side's poor form going into the World Cup and feels they will be competitive in the Caribbean.

The defending champions were most people's favourites for the tournament after dominating the sport in recent times but, after losing five one-dayers in a row to England and New Zealand, many pundits feel they could be there for the taking.

The Aussies have suffered their fair share of injuries over the past few weeks with Brett Lee ruled out of the tournament, Andrew Symonds set to miss at least the opening group matches due to a bicep injury and fitness worries also surrounding Matthew Hayden and Michael Clarke.

Ponting, who missed the 3-0 whitewash at the hands of the Black Caps in the recent Chappell-Hadlee trophy, admitted that things have not gone well over the past couple of weeks but remained positive about the Aussies' chances of winning the trophy for an unprecedented third successive time.

"There's been a bit of negativity around the team over the last couple of weeks," he said. "But we'll be extremely hard to beat. I'm not that fussed that we're going in having lost our last five games."

And the world's number one ranked batsman feels that when his big guns are back on the pitch they will perform when the pressure is at its greatest.

"We've had up to six or seven of our top 11 players out, which probably hasn't been reported that much over the last couple of weeks," he added. "That should be able to bring the best out in the players.

"This team generally lifts itself and plays its best cricket when there's some big games on the line, and it doesn't get any bigger than a World Cup."

Despite their recent woes, the men from Down Under are the 3.35 favourites to win the World Cup, with South Africa trading at 5.5 and the West Indies available at 9.6.

In an emerging market Ponting is the 3.1 favourite to be top Australian batsman in the Windies with Hayden trading at 4.2 and Mike Hussey available at 5.

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