Injury-hit Aussies plan a few innovations

By Andrew Ramsey

MELBOURNE, JAN. 10. The only similarity between Steve Waugh's 300th one-day international appearance on Thursday and his first 16 years ago is the question mark over the bowling attack Australia will take into the match.

With all-rounder Ian Harvey under an illness cloud, Australia could enter the triangular tournament's opening match against the West Indies at the MCG with only one fit, firing and recognised bowler-Glenn McGrath.

Shane Warne will play but is making his first international appearance in six months after suffering a badly fractured finger while Harvey's possible replacement Damien Fleming has missed most of the current season with finger and neck injuries.

On Wednesday, Harvey was diagnosed with a minor viral illness and is expected to play in the forecast sweltering heat, but Fleming has been placed on stand-by in case his condition worsens overnight.

Regardless of whether Harvey plays or not, Waugh will rely on left-arm paceman Nathan Bracken in his international debut and part-timers Damien Martyn and Andrew Symonds to carry the attack mid-innings.

It's not quite the novice line-up Australia took into the one- dayer against New Zealand at the MCG in January 1986 when budding all-rounder Waugh was one of four debutant bowlers. Bruce Reid, Dave Gilbert and Simon Davis were the others.

But with Jason Gillespie sidelined with hamstring tendinitis, Brett Lee days away from resuming after back problems and Damien Fleming, Michael Kasprowicz in the early stages of their comebacks, Australia's bowling stocks have been stretched like never before during Waugh's tenure.

``I would like to think it presents an opportunity for everybody to show what they've got,'' Waugh said on the eve of the 12-match series which also includes Zimbabwe. ``We've got three or four guys unavailable so it's a good opportunity for Bracks (Bracken) and I have no doubt the West Indies will target him in their pre- match meetings.''

While bowling depth appears to be Australia's immediate weakness, Waugh has identified some lazy and indisciplined batting as the reason why the world champion has won just two of its past eight one-day internationals.

Tuesday's informal practice match against Victoria went part of the way to ensure that his players were attuned to the abbreviated game, and a lengthy team meeting prior to Wednesday's practice sessions emphasised the top-order's responsibilities.

``We are much better players than we showed,'' Waugh said. ``Our shot selection had been poor, the running between wickets wasn't good and we weren't showing the game or ourselves enough respect in the way we were playing.''

As the only Australian-and along with Mohammad Azharuddin (334) and Wasim Akram (311), the only players in the game-to reach 300 one-day internationals, Waugh has seen first- hand almost every evolution in the limited-overs format.

Dramatic change

When he first started, 50 runs off the first 15 overs was considered a flying start. Nowadays it's more like 80 or 90. Back then, the new-ball bowlers aimed for containment rather than wickets. Now they realise taking wickets is the best way to stem the scoring. And fieldsmen have become even more athletic, agile and flexible in their roles.

Waugh believes the current obsession with all-rounders will soon pass and specialist batsmen and bowlers will become increasingly invited back into the one-day fold.

But despite being the veteran of two World Cup triumphs, the scorer of 6897 one-day international runs plus 192 wickets and 102 catches, Waugh does not believe he's seen it all. That may change after Thursday's day-night game which is expected to draw a crowd of around 70,000 to the MCG.

``We sat as a bowling group behind the sightscreen at the practice match (on Tuesday) and there were things we talked about there that haven't been tried before. We will try to put them in place,'' Waugh said. ``It will be pretty obvious when it happens.''

Waugh indicated it might be the use of Test-style slips cordons and close catchers in order to claim early wickets, a ploy which was remarkably effective during its recent Test whitewash of the West Indies.

Waugh, who claimed to have memories of ``a fair few'' of the 299 internationals he's played in, also revealed that only 20 to 30 (or around 10 per cent) of those were ``really, really good one- day games.''

He also conceded that the unpredictable nature of the one-day game often made form and winning streaks irrelevant, which will give some heart to the hapless West Indians and the Zimbabweans who have defeated Australia just once in 17 years.

``There's no guarantee we're going to win every game,'' Waugh said. ``One-day cricket brings the skill levels back to a more even keel, so there's definitely more scope for surprise results,'' he said.

The West Indies, which has added Ricardo Powell, Cameron Cuffy, Laurie Williams and Sylvester Joseph to its squad as replacements for Courtney Walsh, Courtney Browne, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Mervyn Dillon and Kerry Jeremy, prepared for the opening match of the series with a four-wicket win over an Australia A team in Adelaide.

Zimbabwe plays its first warm-up match against Australia A in Brisbane on Friday ahead of its opening game against the West Indies on Saturday.

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