Coach Denis Aberhart yesterday spelled out why Chris Cairns was appointed vice-captain for the World Cup team.
His experience was an invaluable asset for the side, Aberhart said.
"Chris is a highly skilled and experienced campaigner who offers an enormous amount to our team on and off thefield."
"He leads by example .. . and will provide Stephen Fleming with a valuable sounding board for on-field decisions."
Cairns has played 154 one-day internationals and has a batting average of 28.84 at a strike rate of 81.43, including four centuries and 19 half-centuries.
He also has 154 wickets at 31.90.
However, injury means he is unlikely to bowl many overs during the tournament.
* Former Australian captain Mark Taylor believes teams who withdraw from World Cup matches should not be fined.
Taylor, who was captain of the Australian side who conceded two points when they forfeited a World Cup match against hosts Sri Lanka seven years ago, said the points loss would be sufficient.
Reports have suggested New Zealand could be fined as much as $2.5 million from their estimated $14.6 million share of tournament revenues for their defiance of an ICC directive that their match against Kenya should proceed.
But Taylor thought that was going much too far.
"At the end of the day, what happened in 1996 worked out reasonably well," he said.
"We weren't all that comfortable about going over there. The Australian Government, along with the ACB, stepped in and said the side is not going and Sri Lanka got the two points, which was fair enough.
"We didn't play, we didn't get penalised in any way, we didn't get the points in the game, but we didn't get penalised, that's what should happen."
