Kookaburras wait out al-Qaeda threat

KOOKABURRAS goalkeeper George Bazeley is confident the team has done the training and preparation needed to do well in the World Cup - should plans to travel to New Delhi go ahead.

The team is scheduled to fly to India today, but has delayed a final decision on whether to go until the last minute after an al-Qaeda terrorist threat was made during the week against teams in the hockey World Cup, the Commonwealth Games and cricket's Indian Premier League.

Hockey Australia officials have confirmed they are awaiting advice from a range of security sources before making a decision.

Bazeley, one of two Victorians in the squad, said while he was excited to be attending his first World Cup only a year after joining the national team, the recent events had ''certainly put a dampner on things''.

''As a team we're acutely aware of the threats that have been placed on the World Cup and we're trying not to let that affect our preparation too much,'' Bazeley said.

''At this stage we're still going to be travelling. We trust Hockey Australia wouldn't send us into an unsafe environment and we're playing it by ear as to where we go from here.''

Bazeley said he was trying to get in a ''good head space'' should the trip go ahead.

''I know I've done the preparation. I'm the fittest I've ever been, I'm the strongest I've ever been and as confident as I've ever been. I just need to find that rhythm and get into that groove,'' he said.

Bazeley's rise to the elite level has been incredibly quick. ''I've been in the Australian team now for 12 months and before that I was playing club hockey in Melbourne and enjoying playing for Victoria in the State Hockey League,'' he said.

''I had a pretty good life outside of hockey and a great balance of work, rest and play and a good group of friends, a good job [as a town planner for a private consultancy] and hockey was going well.

''Just like anything, when you've got that balance in your life you start to excel. Then opportunities opened up with hockey and I would have been crazy not to take them up and make the most of it.

''At the moment, the coach [Ric Charlesworth] has high expectations and thinks I could really make it one day down the track on a world scale and I'm just starting to believe as well that I could potentially get there.

''It's just taken a bit longer for my belief to catch up with the coach's. It's certainly reassuring and it gives you a lot of confidence knowing that he thinks you can do that.''

Bazeley said the top six-ranked teams in the world, which included Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Korea and England, were all capable of beating anyone on any given day, with India also a strong chance in front of a home crowd.

The World Cup, which is held every four years, will be played in New Delhi from next Sunday to March 13.

The Kookaburras have won the World Cup once, in 1986, and were runners-up at the past two World Cup tournaments.

In Perth on Friday night, the Kookaburras beat New Zealand 4-2.