Former India stumper Nayan Mongia on Monday sought reasons from the Board of Control for Cricket in India for his non-inclusion in the national team for the upcoming World Cup.

"I have sought reasons from the cricket board for not including my name in the team inspite of [my] consistent performances for the country," he told reporters after launching the Indoor Cricket and Sports Association at the Sport Club in Ahmedabad.

India wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel was the guest of honour at the launch.

"It was a torture for me and my family as my name was not included in the team inspite of consistent performance over the years," he said.

Mongia did not comment on India's dismal performance in the New Zealand series, but said: "Players have to adjust quickly to all conditions if they want to perform effectively."

Side-stepping a question on the standard of keepers donning the India colours, he said: "Whoever plays for India has to be good."

Sri Lanka on Sunday issued a thinly veiled threat to pull out of the World Cup tournament or field a B team as Sanath Jayasuriya's men refused to compromise on a pay demand.

The Board of Control for Cricket in Sri Lanka said its offer of performance-based payments had been turned down by the national squad.

The BCCSL has failed to keep the January 17 deadline imposed by the International Cricket Council for Sri Lankan players to sign ICC contracts.

Senior cricket officials believe Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe will not seek to shake England captain Nasser Hussain's hand when the two countries play in Harare.

The England and Wales Cricket Board has approved its team's participation in the February 13 World Cup fixture.

Hussain has admitted that some of his players have moral concerns about playing in the troubled southern African nation.

The ECB has resisted pressure from Tony Blair's government to withdraw from its World Cup fixtures in Zimbabwe.

Several English players are wrestling with their conscience over conditions in Zimbabwe, captain Nasser Hussain said on Sunday.

"I sat in my hotel room last night watching CNN...and what I saw was very difficult to take in," Hussain told reporters in Adelaide.

"It was very difficult to sit there in your room saying 'yeah, we should go to Zimbabwe'.

"What we saw out of Zimbabwe was very poor but that doesn't mean we are suddenly saying we are not going or anything like that."

The police in Zimbabwe are reinforcing and stockpiling equipment to quell possible disturbances during the six World Cup matches scheduled to take place in the country from February 10.

Police sources in Harare said they were buying more teargas and riot gear to replenish dwindling stocks.

Hightened security may even see the English and Australian teams playing their World Cup fixtures in near-empty stadiums on February 13 and 24 if the police blockade the venues to thwart protesters threatening to disrupt the matches.

The Zimbabwe army too would be put on standby to help deal with any unrest.

A very important sitting of the all-powerful working committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India will be held in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The meeting will discuss the impasse over the signing of players' contracts for the World Cup.

Though the Indian players have signed the contracts, they have deleted some clauses in the document. The International Cricket Council has expressed umhappiness at receiving, what it calls, altered contracts from the India team.

The Indian World Cup squad is scheduled to assemble in Mumbai on January 27 and leave for South Africa in the early hours of January 29.

Former Australia captain Allan Border on Sunday condemned the poor quality of first-class pitches in the country.

Border, now a national selector, expressed concern over the spate of "dodgy" wickets prepared this summer for the Sheffield Shield competition.

He warned that if the trend of green tops and huge first-day wicket hauls continued, development of quality batsmen would suffer.

"It's a worrying trend for me," Border said. "I don't want us to go down the England road where you play on result wickets for the sake of getting results."

South Africa's 15 cricketers for next month's World Cup have clinched a Rand 6 million (approximately Rs 3 crore) sponsorship deal.

No official of the United Cricket Board of South Africa was willing to comment on the deal.

According to reports from the South African Broadcasting Corporation, the deal on behalf of the players was struck by Tony Irish, CEO of the South African Cricket Players Association.

The South African cricket team won't be haunted by the ghost of Edgbaston during this year's World Cup, captain Shaun Pollock has promised.

"It's still in the minds of some people, but it happened four years ago and for us as players it is in the past.

"As a professional sportsman one cannot cling to the past, whether good or bad. That's why our focus is on the future and on our task of being the first team to win the World Cup on home ground," said Pollock.

Allan Donald raised the Edgbaston ghost when he was run-out against Australia in the semi-finals with the scores tied. The Aussies went through to the final, where they cruised to an easy victory against Pakistan to capture the crown, thanks to better a run average than South Africa.