Indians are backing Sri Lanka and that is good: Russel Arnold

St George's, Grenada, Apr 15 (UNI) Sri Lanka middle order batsman Russel Arnold has thanked Indian fans who have come here to support his side in the cricket World Cup.

''With India and Pakistan not here, we have been getting support from their fans as well as the West Indians. In fact it feels very much like being at home -- with the weather and lifestyle out here, it's not that different to Colombo for us,'' he wrote in his column for BBC.

Arnold said Sri Lanka's good showing in the ongoing showpiece event so far has led to ''expectations rocketing'' back home and ''it's up to us to live up to them.' Sri Lanka take on defending championa Australia in a Super Eights league match here tomorrow and according to Arnold ''the confidence in the camp is sky high.'' ''Against Australia we will be throwing everything at them because a win in that game will propel us even further forward.

''We have beaten England and New Zealand in our last two games, and we are in a very good frame of mind with the semi-finals coming up. Results in other games could guarantee us a place in the last four but we'd obviously prefer to keep winning and take that momentum into the big games ahead,'' the 33-year-old left hander said.

''What we must not do is get carried away. As long as we keep our feet on the ground, we will continue to perform to our potential. If we do that, we have nothing to worry about.'' Arnold said it was nice of New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming to say that Lankan bowling attack was the best in the world.

''It's nice to hear things like that but we're well aware that we are only as good as our last game and only victories will take us forward and give us the rewards for our hard work,'' he said.

He admitted that he has not spent that much time in the middle and he has mixed feelings about that.

''Of course as a player you always want to be involved but the most important thing is the team and if I'm not playing much of a role at the moment it means our batting is doing really well,'' Arnold concluded.

UNI