Women's cricket team raring to go

Two consecutive Test victories by their male counterparts seem to have pepped the Indian women's cricket team, which left for New Zealand on Thursday, to have a crack at the World Cup. The girls are full of confidence and raring to go.

"We will definitely better our previous performance, when we were knocked out of the last World Cup at the semi-final stage by a slender margin of 19 runs by Australia," Anju Jain, the buoyant skipper of the team said before departure.

The first opponent India faces in the league stage is South Africa, whom it had beaten comprehensively in the quarter-finals of the 1997 World Cup, held at home.

Asked what would be the strategy against South Africa, the 26-year old wicket-keeper-cum-opening bat said, "We know little about the abilities and weaknesses of the opponents to have team strategy. The weaknesses have to be exploited in the field and that too quickly."

Not having access to video footage of key opposing players is always a big handicap for any international team, but Anju has no complaints.

The Air India employee, who was the youngest in the 1993 team for the World Cup in England, said: "This is as much a handicap for us as for others, for very little video footage is available of women cricketers."

Asked what would be a challenging score in the World Cup, Anju said: "A score between 220 and 250 would be a winning one, provided the bowlers stick to their line and length. We have got some good bowlers in Purnima Rao, Neetu David, Rupanjali Shastri and Deepa Kulkarni.

"They will prove to be a handful for any international eve's side," Anju said, adding: "Our batting line-up is also impressive and we have worked and trained hard for the last two months."

Anju, who graduated from the Indraprastha College in Delhi, said a training camp was held in Chandigarh and the team played some good practice matches with the under-16 and under-19 boys' teams.

Is she happy with the team composition?

"Yes," was the reply.

Asked how she feels about being given the captaincy of the team, she said: "In fact, I was surprised. But it is a challenge, and I think I will do justice."

Mail Cricket Editor