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Australia keeps its grip on the Ashes

By Ted Corbett

PERTH Dec. 1. Steve Waugh wants revenge for the defeat his team suffered in India in March 2001 to mark the end of his retirement and he intends to continue as Australian captain until that chance comes around in 18 months time. Waugh announced this plan — as much for the benefit

of the Test selectors as the wider public — after Australia retained the Ashes when it defeating England by an innings and 48 runs at the WACA today. It was his firmest declaration of intent since speculation grew over his retirement when he was dropped from the one-day international

squad and the captaincy given to Ricky Ponting, his successor in waiting for the Test side.

Waugh said: "I am comfortable where I am at the moment and I have not thought much about retirement. I would be happy to continue as captain if I could go back to India. That is 18 months away but the prospect would entice me to continue.'' His words have caused a great deal of excitement in Australia where enthusiasm for him and his team are at an all-time high.

Waugh chose precisely the right moment for his announcement. His side had — in his own word — "crushed'' England, it had been acknowledged as a great side by Nasser Hussain, the captain of England and it had put together its 3-0 lead as quickly as anyone would wish.

It has taken Australia just 11 days to keep its grip on the Ashes that it has held since 1989 just as it did in England in 2001, compared with 13 days four years ago. Its success comes two weeks earlier than on any previous occasion.

The fans of Australia call Don Bradman's team which defeated England 4-0 in 1948 The Invincibles but they will need even more inspiration before they can find a name to describe the this immaculate Waugh team. It showed most of its qualities today, first by reducing England to 34 for four, then bowling with venom and persistence until it separated Hussain and the sturdy Robert Key and finally by shooting through the tail with the new ball. England still needed 238 to make Australia bat again when play began on this third day and Richard Dawson, the nightwatchman, was immediately removed, caught in the gully. In the next 18 minutes and 20 balls England was torn apart. Mark Butcher and Michael Vaughan tried for an impossible second and Vaughan was run out, Butcher was lbw to Glenn McGrath's next ball and Hussain should have been caught by Shane Warne off Jason Gillespie to the following delivery. Butcher flicked away the leg bail with his bat and was charged with an assault on cricket equipment by the match referee Wasim Raja. He was fined 20 per cent of his match fee and reprimanded.

It would have been a hat trick of a bizarre kind and for the next three hours it looked as if Warne had dropped a vital chance. Key and Hussain battled on for 35 overs but at 108 Key was lbw,

again to McGrath, who had bowled an untiring off stump line throughout.

``The pressure this team imposes never ceases,'' Hussain declared. Alec Stewart played his shots — "the only way to deal with this attack is to be positive,'' commented Hussain — and took his aggregate Test tally beyond Mark Waugh and Gary Sobers with successive fours off Warne. But, crucially, Hussain was caught off the thinnest of thin edges defending against a Warne leg break and the new ball swept away the rest.

Alex Tudor was felled when he took his eye off a swift bouncer from Brett Lee and was taken away for ten stitches and an X-ray although he was not as badly hurt as his dramatic stagger away from the pitch suggested but England was all out 223, leaving Hussain to underscore the greatness of a side that has robbed him of his one chance of leading a winning Ashes side. He also declared his intention to fight on at least until next summer but in the hysterical atmosphere which this sort of defeat brings in England he may not be allowed to remain in charge beyond the end of the World Cup.

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