Three successive World Cup titles, a 29-match unbeaten run, and an upcoming appearance record are all irrelevant for Australia right now, Ricky Ponting, their captain, said yesterday.
All that matters, Ponting told reporters, is starting the 2011 tournament with a victory against Zimbabwe today.
Ponting shrugged off questions relating to Australia's unfamiliar place down the list of teams favoured to lift the trophy in six weeks' time. He also said his players were unconcerned with Australia's previous dominance, and never talked about the team's No 1 one-day ranking.
The three-time defending champions' unbeaten streak at the tournament was "an incredible achievement," Ponting said, but he wants his new group of players to create their own records and "forge their own identity" at the top limited-overs tournament, beginning with their opening Group A match.
"We're not here to defend anything, we're here to win again," Ponting said. "That's what it's all about for us. We want to win another World Cup ... and we'll start the whole process [today], hopefully with a good performance.
"We don't think about the past, or how many games we have won. We know what's ahead of us, and that's 100 overs against Zimbabwe."
With winning in 2011 the sole focus for Ponting's squad, which has nine new players from four years ago, the captain said he had not even realised he was about to break a World Cup record at Ahmadabad's Sardar Patel Stadium.
The 36-year-old Ponting, at his fifth World Cup, will overtake Glenn McGrath, the former Australia fast bowler, when he plays his 40th tournament match.
"I actually got asked a few questions when we got here about who had played the most games in the history of World Cups and I didn't know. It ended up being me. Those things are all nice when you're finished, but certainly not right now ... The real stuff starts for us now."
Ponting also backed his fast bowlers and batsmen to succeed at the World Cup, even on the slow, spin-friendly pitches of the subcontinent. Australia's attack will be heavily weighted toward pace bowlers Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson.
"There's a lot made of our fast bowlers. I don't care who we're playing, or what the conditions are, if our fast bowlers play as well as they can it's going to be difficult for anyone playing them," he said.
Australia's pacemen, however, hold no fear for Zimbabwe, according to Alan Butcher, their coach.
"We have a fair idea how they'll bowl. If we play our best cricket and they don't, we may have a chance," Butcher told reporters.
"If both sides play their best cricket, it's very likely that we will lose," he added, perhaps remembering his side have not beaten a Test-playing nation in the 50-over World Cup for 12 years.
Zimbabwe have beaten Australia at the tournament before, a stunning upset in 1983, but that has provided little encouragement for the 2011 group.
Elton Chigumbura, the captain, added that "those [1983] players are gone now."
* Associated Press
Asia Cup 2018 final
Who: India v Bangladesh
When: Friday, 3.30pm, Dubai International Stadium
Watch: Live on OSN Cricket HD
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Francesco Totti's bio
Born September 27, 1976
Position Attacking midifelder
Clubs played for (1) - Roma
Total seasons 24
First season 1992/93
Last season 2016/17
Appearances 786
Goals 307
Titles (5) - Serie A 1; Italian Cup 2; Italian Supercup 2
England v South Africa Test series:
First Test: at Lord's, England won by 211 runs
Second Test: at Trent Bridge, South Africa won by 340 runs
Third Test: at The Oval, July 27-31
Fourth Test: at Old Trafford, August 4-8
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
What is blockchain?
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The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
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In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
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