Graveney reveals his World Cup hopes

On Tuesday evening David Graveney, chairman of the England selectors and chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association, was in London where World Cups seem to be like the buses. You wait four years for one and then two come along together. Perhaps it only seems like four years waiting for a bus. Anyway, while he was at the St. Lucia High Commission to hear about the Double Wicket World Cup to be held in St. Lucia in April, he spoke to CricInfo about the real World Cup just about to start in South Africa.

We spoke on the day when an England XI, as it is termed during the lead-up matches, had beaten Eastern Province in Port Elizabeth. That match was the next one after England's spirited if ultimately unsuccessful effort against Australia in Melbourne. Graveney took heart from those performances and was far more buoyant than might have been expected after months of defeat in Australia and cannot conceal a certain optimism.

"In all the carnage of the injuries we've had, we've always had a plan," he said. "The key people for the balance of the team would be a fit Andrew Flintoff and a fit Craig White."

He reiterated what Nasser Hussain has said recently. "Nobody expects us to win and in that environment you can cause a few problems.

"The first game is the key. Forgetting the political situation, we need to win that game and if we can get to the point where we've won our first three games while the other sides have been playing against one another, somebody might have lost and be under pressure.

" I've always had the feeling that if we can get all our players on the park and we get through to the Super Sixes, which I've said is our most difficult hurdle, then I've think we've got some chance."

In any calculation about England's possible progress, the name of Australia inevitably comes into the equation. Graveney is philosophical about that.

"The run has got to come to an end at some stage," he says, referring to the 13 consecutive defeats at the hands of Australia in one-day internationals. "Wouldn't it be fantastic if it did, not necessarily in Port Elizabeth, but it happened to be, in some strange scenario, England versus Australia in the final in Johannesburg that the run ended."

There is a lot of cricket to be played before then, starting with the match against Zimbabwe scheduled for Harare on February 13th. When talking about that earlier, Graveney had said the words: "Forgetting the political situation..." Is it possible to forget the politics?

"No, you can't. It's immersed the game for a long period of time and it will have repercussions for a long time in the future.

"I hope the game is played and if you're talking in a purely cricketing sense, if we had to qualify from our group giving away those four points would be extremely difficult. But Australia did it in Sri Lanka, when they forfeited a match but still got to the final.

"It's been very difficult for the players in particular, but for everyone in the game of cricket. Hopefully the game will be played somewhere else, but the important thing is that the people who are in the know and involved in the discussions make the right decisions."

It is not inconceivable that England will forfeit the points by pulling out of their match against Zimbabwe and Australia do the same. Then Zimbabwe would have eight points without bowling a ball and the group would be thrown wide open. Graveney, however, feels that it is too early to discuss that likelihood.

"It would be difficult for you and me to speculate at this particular time. There are some difficult meetings to go through. Let's hope common sense prevails in the end. We are on the verge of a fantastic tournament and hopefully all the problems will be resolved by the time we get to the opening ceremony."

It is easy to be cynical in the present circumstances. With so many financial implications and with so many international politicians involved, the thought of common sense prevailing somehow appears a little quaint. But Graveney is right. Large portions of common sense all round and then we might be able to get on with the fantastic tournament about which he talks with such enthusiasm.