Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called up the Indian cricket world cup team, on Thursday, and told them that the whole country was “waiting for good news from London” and urged the players not to “belie the high expectations” of the countrymen.

“Hundred crores of people have high expectations” from the team, Vajpayee said conveying his best wishes over telephone to the Indian team stationed at Hove, Sussex, for the cricket extravaganza beginning on Friday in England.

Captain Mohd Azharuddin assured him that the team would “definitely try hard to bring laurels to the country and keep the (Indian) flag flying very high”.

Replying to the Prime Minister’s query about injury to master batsman Sachin Tendulkar during India's last warm-up match against Nottinghamshire, Azharuddin dismissed it as “rumours in the media” and said, “no body was injured”.

“Look forward to very good performance from us,” Azhar told the Prime Minister in the telephonic conversation which was recorded and telecast by Doordarshan on Thursday night.

“Everything is going well, we should be doing well,” coach Anshuman Gaekwad said as Vajpayee told the team not to “belie the expectations” of cricket crazy Indians.

The boys are “quite confident” about putting up a good performance, Gaekwad said in reply to Vajpayee's exhortation that with the handling of the “right pressure at the right time, victory will be ours”.

“Everything should be all right. Things are going very well for us,” the coach informed him.

On Vajpayee enquiring about the morale of the team, manager Brijesh Patel assured him: “Boys are pretty relaxed, very confident and looking positive going into the first match” against South Africa at Hove on May 15.

“We will do our best to keep the flag flying high,” Patel told Vajpayee adding, “we need your best wishes”.

As the Prime Minister reminded Ajay Jadeja that the “whole country is waiting for good news from London”, the vice-captain promised to “do our best and give all we can” to bring home the cup Kapil's devils won in England in 1983.

Azharuddin said the climate was “not a problem” as Vajpayee enquired about the fickle British weather.
“It was raining yesterday, but today it is fine,” the captain said.

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