Gilchrist determined to be his own man

By Malcolm Conn

ADELAIDE, DEC. 14. Australia's new and temporary captain Adam Gilchrist is determined to take the attitude of great leaders past and present, to be his own man when he leads his country out in the third Test against the West Indies, beginning in Adelaide on Friday.

At a formal Test match dinner on Tuesday night, Richie Benaud, so widely credited with helping to revive cricket 40 years ago, publicly advised Gilchrist to back himself in any situation.

``He told me to do it my way because if it doesn't work, the other guys certainly won't be putting their hand up and saying it was their idea,'' Gilchrist said with a smile after training at the Adelaide Oval today.

Steve Waugh, injured but in Adelaide briefly on Tuesday for a team photo of the 20 players who contributed to Australia's world record 12 successive wins, gave the gloveman similar straightforward guidance. ``Back yourself and go with your gut feeling on decisions,'' was Waugh's advice to Gilchrist.

``Obviously using the experience around you will help out but at the end of the day someone has to make the final decision and for this game I've got that role,'' said Gilchrist. ``I'll take in whatever I can but I'll be accountable for what decisions are made.''

If he follows Waugh's trend of successful calls, Gilchrist's first decision will come with the toss when he can be expected to exert his influence for the first time by breaking his missing mentor's mould and batting first.

Pace has had the say

Despite the perceptions of Adelaide as a traditional spinner's wicket, pace has dominated right through the golden Shane Warne era and Australia has won the Brisbane and Perth Tests this summer inside three days by bowling first.

Indeed, of all the great bowling performances in Adelaide over the past two decades, only one spinner has claimed 10 wickets in a match there. That was Michael Bevan of all people, bowling his left-arm wrist spin against the West Indies on its previous tour, to set up a win which clinched the series.

Certainly, home town hero Jason Gillespie, who will play his first Test at the venue after four years and many injuries on from his debut, has no qualms about being a pace bowler on the straw-coloured and seemingly, batsman-friendly surface.

''It's not as flat as everyone says it is, there's a bit of variable bounce at times and early in the game a bit of sideways movement,'' Gillespie said. ``It's also a very good ground for spit-ball bowling, you can get a lot of reverse swing and exert pressure by setting attacking fields.''

This is just what the West Indies wants to hear despite what it has seen baking under the sun. It will be further comforted by the perception of pace with an honour board in the dressing room which highlights the performance by two of its recent greats at the ground. Malcolm Marshall claimed match figures of 10-107 in 1984-85 and Curtly Ambrose 10-120 in 1992- 93.

However, if the West Indies wants to hide behind its fast bowlers here, as it was desperate to do in the first two Tests but lost the toss, then captain Jimmy Adams should consider another poignant piece of history.

On the eight occasions a captain has asked the opposition to bat first in Adelaide, six Tests have been lost, one drawn and only once was the tactic a success.

When Adams finally won a toss, against Australia A in the recent four-day match in Hobart, he went into automatic pilot and said ``we'll bowl'' despite looking at the best batting strip in the country. It defied logic and robbed the West Indian batsmen of a desperately-needed second innings as the high- scoring match meandered to a draw.

Fly-in replacement Marlon Samuels, 19, will cover for the injured Shivnarine Chanderpaul after scoring just nine in his only first class match for three months.

The man responsible for the Adelaide wicket, long- serving curator Les Burdett, offers no joy to anyone who wishes to ignore the tradition of batting first. ``The best batting conditions I believe will be from just after the new ball on day one and through day two,'' he said.

``Like all Test pitches, it will start to play a bit up and down as the cracks start to open up with the heat. It will turn as the players scuff up the surface.''

Indeed, accurate pace bowlers often do the most damage later in the match when occasional deliveries begin to keep disconcertingly low.

The teams:

Australia: Michael Slater, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist (c), Jason Gillespie, Stuart MacGill, Colin Miller, Glenn McGrath. Likely 12th man: Andy Bichel.

West Indies: Sherwin Campbell, Daren Ganga, Wavell Hinds, Brian Lara, Jimmy Adams (c), Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Nixon McLean, Mervyn Dillon, Marlon Black, Courtney Walsh.

Umpires: M/s. Srinivas Venkataraghavan (India) and Steve Davis (Aus). Third umpire: Daryl Harper (Aus). ICC Match Referee: Alan Smith (England).

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