Australia may play two spinners

By Malcolm Conn

MELBOURNE, DEC. 25. Steve Waugh's return after injury was confirmed on Sunday, but it made for the most unpalatable Christmas dinner an unlucky Damien Martyn has endured in many a long year after being squeezed out of the fourth Test, beginning in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Brian Lara too showed no sign of a blow he received to the face while practicing on Saturday, which required x-rays, and will also play in the Boxing Day blockbuster with renewed confidence after his blazing 182 in Adelaide last week.

Now that fine weather has been forecast the crowd is expected to be well in excess of 60,000, a scene which West Indian captain Jimmy Adams, a veteran of two previous Boxing Day Tests, believes will inspire the young players in his side.

``This is one of the biggest stadiums in the world. To have it near full is something special,'' Adams said. ``I've got mixed memories of Boxing Day. I've won one and lost one, but the atmosphere is quite extraordinary.''

Lara will face at least one bowler he has slaughtered over the past fortnight. Stuart MacGill, his Adelaide victim, or Andy Bichel, who Lara hit for six fours in an over playing for Australia A against the West Indies earlier this month, are vying for 12th man duties.

It is a quandary magnified by the MCG's new drop-in pitches, which have played low and slow during domestic matches this season but could be something else again given the extra work the Test strip has received.

It is six years since Australia last played two spinners in a Melbourne Test and even then off-spinner Tim May failed to take a wicket against the touring Englishmen while Shane Warne claimed a hat-trick on the way to nine wickets for the match.

This time however the leg-spinner, MacGill, is coming off possibly his worst Test even though he has one of Australia's most impressive bowling records.

And the expendable 36-year-old off-spinner, Colin Miller, has just taken his first 10-wicket haul in a Test to further enhance his extraordinary twilight.

Yet tradition says that one of them must go to make way for Andy Bichel and allow Australia to play three fast bowlers.

``I'm not scared of breaking away from tradition. It's nice to have tradition but you can make your own by doing things differently,'' Steve Waugh said reassuringly after passing a final fitness examination on Monday.

If Brett Lee was fit there would be no argument, but then Miller would never have played in Adelaide so the scenario has changed significantly.

And it will remain basically the same for the final Test in Sydney next week given that Lee was ruled out for the remainder of the series only hours after he arrived in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon. The hot spots in his lower spine are healing well but need more time.

Waugh went in to bat for every one of his team mates yesterday, as a good captain should. Along the way Waugh acknowledged that Martyn, an Adelaide hero after unbeaten knocks in both innings guided Australia to victory, was the unluckiest of all after being pushed out for the captain's return.

``It's a fine line,'' said Waugh. ``You want to show faith in everyone but that's not possible. If I play and Damien misses out that's a real tough call on him. That's Test cricket. You've got to make tough calls.'' While the versatile Miller can also back up behind Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie with his medium-pace seamers to allow two spinners, Waugh dismissed this as a coverall philosophy.

``He can do that but I don't know whether it's going to swing a selection vote his way,'' said Waugh. ``It's a bonus when he plays but I look at ``Funky'' now as a spin bowler firstly. He can bowl the other stuff and he's quite capable but if you line him up against Andrew Bichel there's no comparison. He's obviously a better quick bowler.

``It's a little bit of a compromise too. You want to play your best four bowlers and Andy Bichel's our third best quick. He'll play if we want to play three quicks.''

Just what to do on this rebuilt Melbourne pitch without the lethal Lee is something Waugh was still uncertain about. ``It's hard because it's a new wicket so you get different reports on how it's going to play,'' he said.

``We'll have to guess a little bit and go with our gut feeling. I'm not going to go too much on what I'm told. I've got to go on what I see and what I think and what I feel about the wicket. I've played enough Tests to know roughly what it's going to do. You get 10 different opinions from 10 different people and get more confused.''

With Australia leading 3-0, another unknown pitch in Sydney approaching next week and a tour of India beckoning inside two months, a leg-spinner as destructive as MacGill must be encouraged not discarded.

It would be a tragedy if MacGill were made 12th man and a travesty if Miller, as the only Victorian in the squad, was forced to miss out on his first Boxing Day Test after his man-of- the-match performance in Adelaide.

Certainly Waugh was enthusiastic when he spoke about MacGill on Sunday. ``Stuart's done nothing wrong in any Test he's played,'' said Waugh. ``He got hit by Brian Lara in the last match, which can happen to anyone.

``Lara went out and went after him. He played a few big shots and got away with it. He's done that plenty of times before. He's done it to Glenn McGrath. He tends to try and go after one bowler and make a bit of a mess of him.

``Stuart's got a great record. He's got a good strike rate and he's a wicket-taking bowler. With the exception of Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan), he probably turns the ball more than anyone in world cricket.

``It's great to have those sort of bowlers in your side because they can produce the unplayable ball on flat wickets against really good sides.''

With McGrath, Gillespie and Miller capable of building intense pressure, a wildcard like MacGill can often capitalise when batsmen relax.

After all, it is only 1-1 between Lara and MacGill so far in the series. MacGill bowled Lara for 17 during the second innings of the second Test in Perth.

lThe teams:

Australia (from): Steve Waugh (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Michael Slater, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting, Jason Gillespie, Andrew Bichel, Colin Miller, Glenn McGrath, Stuart Macgill.

West Indies: Jimmy Adams (captain), Sherwin Campbell, Darren Ganga, Wavell Hinds, Brian Lara, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Nixon McLean, Mervyn Dillon, Colin Stuart, Courtney Walsh, Mahendra Nagamootoo (12th man).

- AFP

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