Australia and South Africa might be staying in the same St Kitts hotel, but don’t expect the fierce rivals to share breakfast. The verbal barbs over choking have not been flying during meal times as the teams’ food rooms are 30 metres apart.

The squads arrived in St Kitts on the same flight from the opening ceremony, with Ricky Ponting placed next to South Africa’s coach Mickey Arthur, and they will stay in the hotel throughout the group phase. There is no way of escaping meetings in lifts and the lobby before their crucial game on March 24, but Graeme Smith is not bothered by the sleeping and eating arrangments.

"It hasn't been a problem running into them,” Smith said in The Australian. “Relationships are good and we are pretty mature about it. The hotel is pretty big."