10 Mar 2012

Sport: PNG taking relaxed approach into Twenty 20 qualifiers

6:15 am on 10 March 2012

Papua New Guinea are keeping their expectations in check ahead of next week's Twenty20 Cricket World Qualifying tournament in Dubai.

16 teams are vying for the final two places at September's World Cup in Sri Lanka.

The Barramundi's will open the tournament on Tuesday against Afghanistan, who competed at the last T20 World Cup in 2010.

Despite being so close to a place alongside the big guns of world cricket, Cricket PNG's General Manager, Greg Campbell, says the players haven't thought that far ahead.

"They think they're just jumping on an aeroplane to go to Dubai for two and a half weeks to play a tournament. Really, deep down, they don't realise they could be playing a World Cup in Sri Lanka so the world could see and that's sort of how we've kept it in-house. For the last six months we haven't really talked about that, we've just talked about what's coming up and I think that's our secret weapon - you know there's no pressure on these guys."

Greg Campbell says a mid-table finish would be a good result for PNG.