India favourites for World Cup: Graeme Smith

With less than 22 days to go until the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, South Africa captain Graeme Smith looks back on his side?s recent victory over India in its ODI series and looks ahead to the tournament, admitting the three hosts will be the teams to beat this time around, with India favourites for the title.

?I think the home teams will be right up there when it comes to the ICC Cricket World Cup. I think in the sub-continent conditions they?ll be very crafty knowing how to read conditions while other teams need to find ways to be successful there,” says Smith on this week?s ICC Cricket World Radio Show.

?I think for us we need to versatile, I think India will come in as favourites but personally I think there are five or six teams that could win this World Cup which is probably going to make it a very exciting one,? he says.

Also on this week?s show, former Pakistan captain and ICC Cricket World Cup winner Imran Khan looks back on his career and talks about what it feels like to win an ICC Cricket World Cup.

?I think you need to command respect rather than demand respect from your team-mates as a captain otherwise you?ll have a revolt. If a captain can?t command respect then you can?t make your team fight for victory,? says Imran about his captaincy style.

?The ICC Cricket World Cup we had a good one-day reputation going into and we were very competitive. To win the World Cup was very satisfying, I would not have played normally because I damaged a shoulder cartilage but we started disastrously so I decided to play to help us to win.

?I need to play to help us to win the World Cup, and the way we won was great coming from the bottom three was fantastic and the happiness it gave to the people of Pakistan, I think it was a perfect ending to my career,? says Imran.