Australians to go in for 'full-day' practice

By. G Viswanath

BRISBANE, JAN. 7. The Australian cricketers have made it a habit of having all the attention rivetted on them. Steve Waugh's team is all set to make a big splash on Saturday. A select bunch, to be precise a baker's dozen, which is the number of players the Australian selectors have got together for the four matches of the Carlton & United Tri-series, will have a full day's work out and practice session at the Allan Border Field at Breakfast Street. This will be another new dimension to the ever changing phase of their cricket and reveals a fresh perspective to the way they approach the game which for the purists still remains a simple game.

This indeed is a pioneering event in the annals of Australian cricket history. The Australians' determination to go ahead with the `slog-it-out-full-day' is a novel method of preparing themselves for the grand stage of the Australian summer, which the tri-series has always been since the days of the World Series Cricket. The championship has only changed to the extent of the sponsor getting the title because it has been spending so much money every summer.

The Australians themselves have not made such a song and dance about the innovative way they will be venturing forth before the first match against Pakistan on Sunday. On the eve of the big day, the Australian Cricket Board's Media Officer whispered about it at the Gabba. What is obvious is that the Australians, who have monopolised the championship for ages, do not want this year's one to slip by from their hands, especially in a season in which it has beaten all comers and are being compared with the `1948 Bradman's Invincibles'.

The Australians have come a long way since Border took over the mantle of captaincy from Kim Hughes. The positive results might have been as a result of the association between captain Border and Bobby Simpson, who spent ten good and long years as coach of the national team. There was a marked difference with the advent of Mark Taylor as captain, who stood at slip, masticated chewing gums, made strategic and brilliant moves and significantly let the individual's skills develop and bloom.

His successor, Steve Waugh has only taken Australian cricket a big leap forward. The resolve and decision for a full day's practice session must have been his brain wave. It was not long ago that the Australian selectors made him charge of the team for the one-day internationals. The way he led Australia to outsmart South Africa two seasons ago convinced that Steve Waugh was his own man.

He has not been the unconquered leader, his team suffering major hiccups in Sri Lanka last season. But since the World Cup, which he won for Australia with some brilliant individual contributions, Waugh has beaten all comers; the three nil wins against Pakistan and India in the home Test rubbers, being a high point.

While the Australians have once again shown their inclination to drift away from the beaten path and even campaign hard for international cricket to be made an indoor sport, the Asian teams - India and Pakistan - that will challenge it from January 9 to February 6, adhere to the old fashioned drill. The Indians' practice session at the outer Gabba on Friday evening, looked commonplace. The batsmen had their knocks and the bowlers laboured for a couple of hours.

The Indians and Pakistanis were up against cricketers who strictly play the `Australian Way'. Steve Waugh's team showed how to play and win Test match cricket. On Saturday his team would have shown another kind of committment to training and practising, for seven hours, which is the duration of a one-day international. There will be lessons to lap up for the Indians and Pakistanis.

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