Physio expects Ponting to be fit for World Cup

MELBOURNE - The Australian cricket team’s physiotherapist Alex Kountouris is confident that captain Ricky Ponting will be fit in time for the World Cup.

Ponting is recovering from a finger injury he suffered during Australia’s disastrous Ashes campaign and has been out of cricket since then.

Kontouris revealed that Ponting was assessed by a Melbourne based specialist Thursday.

“We saw the specialist yesterday and he was reasonably happy with how Ricky is going,” Kountouris was quoted as saying by The Herald Sun.

“It is an encouraging sign. We will see what happens in the next week or two.

“We expect him to be fit for the World Cup. We will progress to the next stage now. We will get his hand moving a bit and get it out of the splint, hopefully by the weekend.

“Until he picks up the bat again you do not know (how) his hand will respond. He might do it and be fantastic or it might blow up and we will have to slow down his recovery.”

Australia play their opening World Cup match against Zimbabwe Feb 21.

The other members of the 15-man squad - Nathan Hauritz, Shaun Tait and Michael Hussey - are also battling with injuries but are expected to regain fitness before the mega event kicks off in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.