O'Brien: "We have belief"

Niall O'Brien has written his first blog about the ICC World Cup - read his thoughts here:

Sydney is one of my favourite places in the world. I played many seasons here as a youngster and learnt a lot from the Australian mentality and the way they approach their cricket, so it is with great fondness that we have come here for our two week camp.

We are based at Coogee beach which is one of the best beach side suburbs in the city and all of the lads are loving life by the beach. We have settled in well and play our first game against a Randwick/Petersham Invitational XI on the 6th.

This is my third 50-over World Cup and our preparation has been top notch as we have travelled all over the globe this winter playing and practising against high quality opposition.

All of us are pumped and really looking forward to the competition which will see us play against the West Indies, South Africa, India and Pakistan as well as Zimbabwe and the UAE.

We feel that three wins might be enough to get us through to the quarters but four should definitely do it - so it means turning over one/two top sides which is something we have done before and believe we can do again.

The local people have really got behind us since our arrival which may have something to do with the huge Irish population in the area but also the Australian spirit and sport loving nature that they possess.

It has been a successful winter from a personnel point of view with some good performances with the bat so I'm hoping for another good campaign for Ireland as we try once again to upset the hierarchy on the biggest stage of all.

It was great to sit and meet and speak at length with our new Chief Executive Wasim Khan last week when I returned from Dubai and to put pen to paper on my contract extension.

I am really looking forward to the season ahead and I know that all of the Leicestershire lads are working very hard on their game both mentally, physically and technically as we enter a new age at Grace Road.

I hope everyone back home is in good form and I look forward to writing of some heroic Irish victories in the coming weeks.

Niall