Cricket great Allan Border has nominated classy all-rounder Glenn Maxwell as the X-factor to lead Australia to a first-ever one-day World Cup crown on home soil.
Australia have won the World Cup a record four times, with Border leading a young and unfancied line-up to unexpected glory on the first occasion back in 1987 on the sub-continent.
More success followed in 1999 in Britain, in 2003 in Africa and in 2007 in the Caribbean.
But under Border’s captaincy in 1992, Australia flopped hosting the global showpiece for the first and only time.
The hosts didn’t even make the semi-finals and Border put the failure down to a poor preparation consisting of a Test series against India and one limited-overs warm-up game, against NSW at North Sydney Oval.
“It was expected that we’d go from one form to the other seamlessly and it doesn’t work that way,” Border said on Thursday as he joined Australia’s other World Cup-winning captains Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting and current skipper Michael Clarke to mark 100 days from the start of the 2015 tournament.
“So that’s the message to Michael: make sure you get that preparation right.”
With a jam-packed summer featuring a five-match one-day series against the top-ranked South Africans and the ODI Tri Series against England and India either side of four Tests with India, Border said Australia should enjoy an ideal build-up this time around.
Clarke agrees.
“I’d rather be playing than training,” Clarke said.
“That’s how you build momentum as a team – (getting) runs and wickets on the board and hopefully some success as well.”
The key now, Clark believes, is for selectors to settle on a 15-man squad capable of lifting the trophy before the Tri Series.
A former selector, Border said Australia undoubtedly had the talent available to win the Cup for a fifth time and tipped Maxwell to be the star of the show.
“I think Glenn Maxwell is on the threshold of a breakout period,” he said.
“He’s got the talent, the skills. It’s just sort of corralling all that when he’s out in the middle.
“This could be his season to really break free and really show the multi talents that he’s got.”
Ponting, a three-time World Cup winner, said Maxwell was just one of several X-factors who could swing the tournament Australia’s way.
“Mitch Marsh could be someone like that, even (David) Warner at the top of the order,” Ponting said.
“Whichever 15 they decide to go with, there’s going to be lots of those x-factor players in that line-up.
Border urged the Australians to embrace the pressure and expectations that go with co-hosting the tournament with New Zealand “rather than duck and weave”, while Waugh offered his own advice.
“Don’t focus too much on the end prize of actually winning the World Cup,” Waugh said.
“I mean, that will happen if you play good cricket.”
