Intro:

ICC Cricket World Cup co-hosts Australia trained and spoke to the media in Perth ahead of their Pool A match with Afghanistan - as captain Michael Clarke backed his team's confidence to bounce back after the narrow defeat to co-hosts New Zealand.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Clarke, Australia captain (on the confidence in the team):

"I believe in confidence and I believe we have been playing some good one day cricket over the past 12 months to two years..... I think that's what we'll continue to do. Like I said, we'd love to win every game we play, but I don't think that's realistic in the game of cricket. So, we certainly respect and appreciate how good a team New Zealand are, and they beat us the other day. It's up to us to turn things around and come out and perform really good tomorrow."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Clarke, Australia captain (on the recovery after his injury):

" I've had a back injury since I was 17 years of age, so my treatment and my preparation and my training hasn't changed since then and won't change until the end of my career. We just continue to learn from other people and take their expertise and experience in regards to people that have had chronic back injuries - and see if it helps me. But like I say, I feel as fit and as healthy as I've felt in at least five years, so that's a real positive sign. I've just got to keep my maintenance up, keep listening to the medical staff and doing as they ask, because I feel like it's helping me at the moment, that's for sure."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Michael Clarke, Australia captain (on Afghanistan's achievement so far):

"I think it's great for Afghanistan to have this opportunity and for a lot of the nations to have the opportunity to be part of the World Cup. I think that's great for the game..... I've always been a believer in the more countries that we can get involved in the game of cricket, the better. The more boys and girls playing all around the world, the better for cricket. I've never really cared what format. I just think if we can have kids playing this great game of cricket, I think the game can change your life."