Smile says it all: ‘We’re just too good’

“The way we ended our summer at home and in the Chappell-Hadlee series in New Zealand, we were not worried as we were giving ourselves enough time to prepare for World Cup as we wanted to. I’m happy all the good hard work has paid off.

“As I read about South Africa the other day, we too had been preparing for this World Cup for nearly two and-a-half years.”

Ponting believes the defeat at the hands of England in the Ashes series in 2005 filled the team with a fresh resolve.

“We decided (after the Ashes) that we would never take anything for granted. And we have kept improving for long periods of time.

“It might sound a cliche but we honestly never spoke about three successive World Cup wins among ourselves. We wanted to take every single game one at a time.”

Ponting also praised the Sri Lankans for the way they had fought in the finals.

“Sri Lanka did take up the challenge in the afternoon. (Sanath) Jayasuriya and (Kumara) Sangakkara are two quality players and they kept them in the game. At some stage, their run-rate was on par. But once we got Sangakkara, we put our nose in front. They gave us a good game.”

Looking ahead, Ponting believed it would be an exciting time to mould the younger players into a continuous winning unit for Australia.

“Personally, it will be an exciting time. I never go into a game without trying to win it and it would be the same. “I’m not worried about that. We’ve had Justin (Langer), Shane (Warne), Glenn (McGrath) and Damien Martyn leave the Test team at the end of summer and I’m actually looking at as a more exciting time in my career,” Ponting said.

“It would be a challenge for senior guys to elevate their performance and pull the juniors along. When I was coming up in 1995, I used to admire a few senior players and the advice they gave to me.”