We can emerge among favourites for World Cup: Vettori

Chennai, Nov 10 (UNI) New Zealand can emerge as one of the favourites for the next World Cup if it performs well in the coming series against top teams, in the run up to the 2007 edition in the West Indies, Vice Captain of the team and star left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori said today.

In a brief interaction with the media, Vettori who was here along with his former team mate, all rounder Chris Cairns for an exhibition match with school kids, as brand ambassadors for Pepsodent toothpaste, said, '' We have a couple of series coming up against top sides like Sri Lanka and England. If we play to our potential in these matches, we could be among the favourites for the next World Cup.'' Vettori said New Zealand had a good development programme with a few stars in the making and the team had been performing quite well in major ODI tournaments like the just concluded Champions trophy.

The Kiwis, it may be recalled had made it to the semi-finals in the World Cup no less than four times, in the 1975, '79, '92 and '99 editions.

Asked how it felt to bowl in the land of spin bowling - India during the Champions trophy despite the not-so-conducive wickets, the bespectacled Vettori said, '' One has to get on irrespective of the nature of the wickets.'' On how it felt to be among the few genuine left arm spinners in the game today, Vettori said there were a couple of good south paws like England's Monty Panesar.

Cairns, who holds the record for most number of sixes (87) in his Test career after Adam Gilchrist and a strike rate of 105 in ODIs, said ''it was unfortunate that Pakistan's star fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar was caught in the doping scandal. It is unfortunate when a top athlete gets involved in such cases,'' he said.

Denying that New Zealand were not able to force a win in big games due to the lack of a 'big scorer', Cairns, who is the highest wicket taker for the Kiwis after Richard Hadlee, said ''players like Vettori and McCullum have to be given greater voice in shaping up the side.'' UNI VV-GV SAM KP1604